Thanks to both dlaue and ftnoob. And congrats to ftnoob for his promotion to co-moderator of this forum.

I have always had good luck with Dollar and I primarily rent in LAS. The base and bonus points always seem to post for me at the same time. Sorry to hear that others have had trouble with this. Hope that doesn't happen to me.

I got an e-mail back from Avis regarding this most recent rental. The agent said I didn't enter some "coupon code" and thus they won't give the 5x bonus. I did see the thing about it was only a 5x bonus if I rented for 5 days, but in this case, I did rent for 5 days.

I called Southwest and they said they would look into this. Last time this happened, with Budget, Southwest stood behind their web site and eventually I got whatever bonus I was promised at that time. I'm pretty confident that Southwest will come through again for me. The CSR that I talked to at Southwest contacted their liaison for Avis while I was on the phone and said she would continue to research. Took my phone number and I am sure I will get a call back.

I both faxed and e-mailed back to Avis. There was no "coupon code." It certainly should be adequate that if you click on an icon on Southwest's web site, and you see it auto-populate the AWD field with a value (in this case K024743), that should be enough for them to give the up to 5x bonus.

But no, they'd rather only give the 0.5 bonus and see how many people don't follow up on this. How this promotes customer loyalty escapes me!

I agree, Southwest really needs to talk to the partners about this for several reasons:

1. Its extra revenue for Southwest. Avis has only paid Southwest for 0.5 credits for this rental. They should have paid for and given 2.5 credits. Whatever Southwest charges for a credit, they have temporarily lost 2x that amount. If I don't continue to follow up, they have lost that revenue forever. Say they are selling RR credits for $10 each. That's $20 times all the people that don't follow up. Selling RR credits is certainly a lot less work and a lot more profitable than flying airplanes.

2. Its extra work for Southwest. When Avis doesn't come through as promised, sooner or later, Southwest gets a call from me. That CSR then has to chase down the details and get things straightened out. More CSR's, more operational costs. Make things run smoothly and you don't need as many CSR man hours.

3. Its bad customer service. Frustration for Southwest customers leads to a bad view of the whole program. Customers finally say "screw it, just give me the 0.5 without drama." Again, lost revenue. Why should any customer follow the promotions if they are all this extra work to actually get the bonus credits? Pretty soon, people start to get the attitude that "all promotions are not worth the trouble."