I have this new pet peeve that is just really under my skin this week. I cannot imagine a group more aware of the rules and subtleties of travel than we flyertalkers are. Yet, lately I am seeing more and more customer service people who are offering completely dismissive explanations that turn out to be completely wrong to resolve my problems. My personal belief has always been that I am fine with someone just admitting when they don’t know the answer, but I am getting so many people who are just making up an answer, hoping I will go away.

Here are three examples from just this week:

1. I fly Delta at least once a week. I always buy the ticket from the Delta website and I get a 1,000 mile bonus for the roundtrip ticket. Pretty straightforward. The bonus always posts within 48 hours. This week it posted, but it was only for 500 miles. I called Delta SMS and was told by the agent that it takes up to two weeks for the bonus to post and that it should fix itself. I know that she was just making it up. I even said, look at the last 30 flights and notice that they posted within 48 hours for 1,000 miles. Clearly, this error could have easily been fixed. My theory is that I took a bump on one segment and was booked into F so I am assuming that the system didn’t recognize my taking the last segment. Again, very simple fix. But I was told that I have to call her back if it doesn’t fix itself within two weeks. It won’t.
2. I just checked into the Hampton Inn in Rocky Hill, CT. When I did, I asked them to add National Car Rental as my Car Partner for the 250 point HHonors bonus. The lady at the front desk made a big deal of the fact that I need to add it to my profile if I want to get the bonus. I explained to her that: A) you can’t because the bonus is an individual bonus that you are only supposed to get if you rent a car and B) I am both very tech savvy and fairly aware of my frequent traveler program quirks. She said that I need to call HHonors and that it makes it inconvenient for the front desk to have to add that bonus each time.
3. Had 3 HHonors stays post on the same day from a weekend of travel in 3 different cities. On two of them the 250 point online booking bonus posted; in one it was missing. I have had this problem in the past when the property had to modify anything about the room. So, I called the Diamond Desk and was told that the online booking bonus would take up to 2 weeks to post. She said that the bonuses don’t post with the stay. Again, I said to look at the two that posted with it and explained what had happened before. Same deal. I’ll have to call back in two weeks even though I know the problem will not magically fix itself.

Is this just happening to me? Just because I am a paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t out to get me, right?