I have been a member of Flying Blue since early 2002. I have regularly flown on Air France and partner airlines since that time and always give my membership number while booking flights. I also got my credits which I could check on the website. I continue to posses the old Membership Card given by Air France and the new card after the creation of Flying Blue.

After I traveled Toronto-Mumbai-Toronto by Air France in July-August 2007, I tried to check my credit on the website but could not get an entry. I called the Customer Service in Kitchener, ON in December 2007. The Agent too could not bring up my account and told me that my number was dropped form the System. Much discussion over several calls and letters, sending of copies of everything including the two cards, ensued but with no result. It was then suggested to me that I should start a new account, which I did a few months ago, thinking that this was the beginning of the resolution of my problem. (For this account I have so far received 5 cards and 2 PINs. One of the PINs, to my great happiness, actually functions...but this does not add any glory to Air France's running of its software!)

I have only succeeded in getting on this new card the credit for the Mumbai-Toronto leg. The Toronto-Mumbai leg is denied on the ground that it falls outside 6 moths. There is total silence about all the earlier mileage from 2002, which by my reckoning amounts to about 110,000. No amount of writing letters to the Customer Service leads to any actionable reply.

I have not done anything wrong for which I should lose my credits! All the mistakes were committed by Air France. What is one supposed to do here?

I took my case to the Canadian Transportation Agency for an informal arbitration. They have replied saying they have no jurisdiction as Flying Blue is not owned or operated by Air France...but this is not the place to examine this averment. I shall write a separate post to follow this up.