In an earlier post, I inquired re: companies which don't let their employees keep their miles. That's only half the story.

This incident occurred about a year ago.

My friend flew on (a certain Atlanta, GA based) airline for the interview. The company made the flight arrangements. A day or two before travel, he called to request an upgrade. After giving the agent his FF number, and after some hold time, he was told he couldn't upgrade because the ticket was an award ticket.

He thought nothing of being informed he was on an award ticket because this company doesn't let employees keep their miles. He thought the company purchased an award ticket using some of those miles the employees are not allowed to keep. The company does not allow employees to make travel arrangements and had made all of his arrangements.

When his statement arived about a month and a half after traveling, he found that 25,000 miles had been deducted. At the time, he was changing jobs and moving so this wasn't on a list of priorities at that moment (I can't understand people who think FF miles are not the most important things in life although I guess if they choose to be freaks, I shouldn't judge).

Finally, he starts to deal with the situation. He calls the airline and after explaining , the agent said something like "I know what happened. Give me some time to look into it."

A month or so goes by and the miles aren't back. He calls again and a second agent tells him that there's no record of his previous call and there's nothing he could do. Of course, he doesn't know the first agent's name.

He calls me because I'm both a miles junkie and a lawyer. I compose an e-mail and forward it to him so he can cut and paste and send to the airline with his e-mail address. It explained the facts and also offered a theory as to what might have occurred: When he called for an upgrade, the agent realized that the FF number used for the ticket did not coincide with his number. She charged his account and re-deposited the miles back into whomever's account they were taken from. Looking back, I should have sent a letter but I'm not charging my friend a fee so I didn't want to use the firm letterhead or "represent" him in any way.

I would think it would be pretty difficult to try to reverse the situation some five or six months later. So guess what the response was.

Nothing.

Of course, neither of us saved the e-mail in any fashion. Doh!

He's pretty much given up. I haven't.

So how do I get them to admit they screwed up and reinstate his miles?

Also know:

(1) Lots of bad blood developed after he rejected the company's offer so it's not likely they'll help me get his miles back;

(2) Of course, he never received that notification that comes when one books award travel.

But who did?

(3) Wouldn't someone have to have paid the taxes even on the award? Should I tell them to look into this? Given the level of cooperation and communication in the past, it seems unlikely anyone will do anything.

(4) Is it too late?

(5) Is it time for a small claims court action? I can't believe that an airline wouldn't see the shortsightedness (and lack of cost effectiveness) of defending the claim so I doubt it would even go to trial

Any thoughts?