Randy,

I don't know if you've looked at the LatinPass/GlobalPass forum recently: there's chaos there! A lot of us, including myself, have followed their ever-changing rules. As you may know, recently, without any notice except a posting on their "news" page, GlobalPass informed everyone that the Global Awards program would be discontinued as of June 30th 2005. You could still claim awards on TACA and LACSA up until June 30th. I and many other people followed the rules and made GlobalPass award reservations with TACA and submitted our award requests to GlobalPass for ticketing in a timely manner. Now, as of July 1st, we've all received emails telling us essentially that we won't be getting the award tickets. You can see the text of the GlobalPass email to all of us:

Dear GlobalPass Customer:

Due to the high volume of GlobalAwards requested during the month of June 2005, we regret to inform you we are unable to complete your recent award reservation request(s).

The award reservations were accepted by TACA Airlines Reservations Department, however, TACA Airlines has not provided and assigned the necessary ticket numbers to complete the awards.

Please accept our sincere apologies for not being able to satisfy your request.

Sincerely,

GlobalPass Customer Care Center

P.S. Your miles can continue to be used with other services and products as long as you maintain activity with GlobalPass.


I never knew that "high volume" was a reason for a company not to follow their OWN rules?

I wonder if:

1) Can you use your contact with Guy Booth to find out what the true story about the failure of GlobalPass to book these final award tickets? Will they bite the bullet and process all our last requests for award tickets like they shoud (we've done our part, it's time for them to fulfill their responsibility).

2) Will GlobalPass keep trying to obtain the ticket numbers from TACA so we can get our awards?

3) Does the fault rest with TACA? Or was it GlobalPass that "blinked" because of the cost? How does the relationship work between TACA and GlobalPass when it comes to the redemption of awards?

4) I know that I and others still want the reservations we booked ticketed. I don't want to participate in the Miles as Money program because the value isn't really there compared to using the GlobalAwards. If you'll note that the GlobalPass reason for non-ticketing is TACA's failure to get back to GlobalPass with ticket numbers--do you have any contacts at TACA to find out the real story?

5) If it turns out that the interested parties at TACA and/or GlobalPass can't find their way to process the awards requested before June 30th what would you suggest is the most effective course of action for us to take? Is it the Federal Trade Commission, DOT, Justice Dept, etc that would deal with an issue like this?

The wording for Award Rules off of the GlobalPass website (last portion left out as non-pertinent) so you can see we've easily met their criteria by making proper bookings with TACA and requesting awards from GlobalPass:

Award Rules

Applicable through June 30th, 2005

Reservations

GlobalPass Customers may request award reservations on any GlobalPass participating airline Service Provider through the GlobalPass website (www.globalpass.com) or directly through the airline's reservations department. When calling the airline directly, Customers must advise the reservation's agent that you will be using a GlobalPass award ticket in order for the reservation to be confirmed under the correct award class of service. Failure to do this may result in the cancellation of the reservation.

Note: Flight awards on the GlobalPass participating airline Service Providers may be subject to special limitations on seating availability. Seats for award travel may not be available on all flights. All accommodations are subject to availability at the time reservations are made. Airport Departure taxes are the responsibility of the GlobalPass Customer.

Award Ticket Request

Once the reservation has been confirmed for the entire itinerary under the correct award class of service, GlobalPass Customers may submit an award ticket request to GlobalPass through our website or by calling the GlobalPass Customer Care Center.

This is a big issue to those of us who jumped every roadblock and hurdle GlobalPass threw down only to find at the end that OUR following the rules just didn't matter. It just doesn't seem right that we could follow the rules and GlobalPass could just say at the end "too bad, no soup for you"...I would rather they had just shut the program down without giving me a deadline where I wasted a lot of hours planning trips, giving them away to relatives who I now have to contact, etc, etc.

Shame on whoever the fault lies: GlobalPass and/or TACA. I hope they change their mind and decide to do the right thing and honor their committments--even if it might be a bit expensive for them. I spent my money to meet the terms of their promotion, now they should have to hold up their end of the bargain.

Thanks for your thoughts on this.