After reading posts as we've gone along in the LatinPass saga, something strikes me. If I were transferring from say UA to Hilton, I would allow a month before I even expected the points or felt it appropriate to check up on it with a phone call. But Latin Pass gets follow up calls fast, furious and constant. Now, I know that some of this stems from mistrust and prior problems with transfers. However, how much is self fulfilling in terms of poor service if their lines are tied up always checking up on things that, according to the 'rules' of not just LP but of virtually all FF programs, takes a month or so to get done. If I add up all the followups mentioned in LP threads and consider it against the staff it seems a lot of 'pressure' could be taken off the system by just giving these people a little time to do their jobs.
Now, before the flamethrowers come out, I am not saying LP is doing a good job, in many many respects, they are not. However, both from a selfish point of view (I want the agents free to process actual requests, not follow up all the time) and from a fairness point of view (the front line staff did not bring on the million mile promo but they have to deal with it...and...it was a great promo and in the end very rewarding) I think it is a good idea to give these folks some room to work. When I have a request I give them what I want, a range to work with, and ask when to check back. Then I call a few days after the date they gave me. I don't call on Mondays. They are uniformly nice to me, appreciative of my low-key approach, and I have gotten every single request back as a yes and when promised.

Sure, it would be great if they had real time rez, real time online account info, accepted credit cards, etc. But they didn't do any of those things when the promo started and never promised them as part of the package. I don't argue they haven't held up their in some respects, that they have taken out their frustration with their miscalculation on their customers (which is a poor thing to do since the idea of the promo was happy customers). Still, a million miles should buy them some slack, not constant indignation and complaint.

As an aside, I spent 9 months getting a one-world bonus credited on BA. Very straightforward, they had original paperwork for 6 months...sound familiar... and that 'the worlds favourite airline' with a modern computer system and plenty of staff.

I would be all in favor of a collective and reasonable approach to LP from 500K and 1000K flyers. They key is reasonable and balanced. I would focus on streamlining redemption and getting committments on consistency. Within those improvements I don't see 250K year as a overly onerous thing. And remember, if you fly them, put revenue in like a frequenty flyer typically does, you get to unlock 5X the miles... again, not unreasonable. Despite all the frustrations (and boy I was frustrated I got locked out of marriott because my bonus posted so late) I think this can be made to work fairly and respectfully of all parties.

this post was originally a reply in another thread, but really attempts to generate a new discussion, so I gave it a thread. I apologize for the cross post.