AP Posting Debacle
 

Thought I would post the following response from AP to a missing flight credit request...

I guess the crux of the message is, if your flights haven't posted after 6 weeks...wait another six weeks. But, don't despair as ACs IT team is "working" on it! :rolleyes:

Nice... and I suppose then the qualification period for next year will also be extended into March '08? ;)

So they sent you a message explaining the problem and advising it will be resolved when they can do the fix. What more do you want at the moment. You will get your AE miles and they will be credited within the year travel occured so go towards your status. If this is still not resolved by December, and you are a few hundred miles short of qualifying for elite status, then you can get upset or worried, but in that case just call AE, explain the situation and you will not be penalized.

This is not just AC's IT guys it is a STAR system breakdown that must be resolved among the more than dozen airlines that are part of STAR.

Can you let us in on how many miles this missing credit represented?

BTW, when did debacle become the official word to describe dealings with AP?

I was just thinking the same thing. Debacle: when "problem" just isn't good enough.

But back to topic, at least they're communicating. ;)

hahaha...

Personally, I would vote for "fiasco".

I had occasion to call AE yesterday chasing a missing credit for a JM flight KIN-YYZ on 30-June. I followed the rules (made sure I had an AC ticket, AC flight number, etc.). Because JM flights cannot be credited automatically, I mailed in my ticket & boarding pass on 12-July. My call to AE was approx 6 wks after my letter looking.

The helpful AE rep explained that the "new *A credit validation process" has the credit department a bit behind in their processing. She went on to say the are currently working on May flights! I was asked for a bit more patience.
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13F

My, what a tough crowd!

Actually, I neglected to mention that I previously contacted AP and was informed that they had manually added the flight to my account. After 6 weeks and still no sign of the post, I simply resonded to this e-mail telling them that there was still no post. Thus, it was only at my prompting that they send me a message.

The number of miles is completely irrelevant. Why is it my responsibility to check on whether my flights have posted? +6 weeks (cleary much longer until this problem is fixed) is a long time for a frequent flier who relys on upgrades but doesn't make the threshhold because of it. Or what if had hoped to use those miles for a last minute flight?

When I purchase an eligible ticket with AC or any other *A member, I have payed for the rights to those points and any benefits which come with them and expect for those points to be provided in a timely fashion. Given the technology available to date, I am inclined to think that AP could do better than 6 weeks although clearly they would differ with that opinion.

FYI, my flight was a simple YUL-YYZ RT. YUL-YYZ posted the next day. I'd say only about 1/3 of my flights on AC metal this year have posted.

I don't think this is the point. Status miles go towards next year's status, yes, so no big deal. However, they are also redeemable miles and they earn upgrade certificates when you cross a threshold. We already can wait 4-6 weeks for new certs in the normal sweeping process, and AC have been pretty strict in saying that you can't use certs you earned until you have the paper in hand. They are now adding another 6 weeks and more for their "validation"; give me a break. For a program that is oriented towards "loyalty", this does not seem very customer friendly. Soon they won't have to zero out I class, none of us will have certs to use. :rolleyes:

Go back to the old system until they get the new one to work, obviously.

At least if common sense and a customer-oriented attitude would prevail. But perhaps that's too much to expect from an organization best know for its arrogance? (Reread their answer if you are not convinced.)

I'd expect (or want, since expecting anything from AC/AP's IT is a bit optimistic) that they'd say, "Since your request is one on which our validation process failed, we are posting the points you requested. Please be aware that if the validation process later identifies that the points were not earned, we will remove them from your account."

Of course I'd make the last part a bit smoother, but essentially I'd say, "you say we owe you x points, we can't figure it out, we'll take your word for it for now".

=aw

You're awfully generous in your evaluation of their capabilities :D --if they can't perform one task (ie, reliably post mileage), how can they be expected to perform several (post mileage, attempt to validate, deduct if necessary)?

It took a whole week for my last trip to post.

In the good old days, they got it down to one day....

To be honest, I didn't really expect them to do more than take the customer's word for it in these exceptional cases. The threat to retract the points would be more of an attempt to keep things honest.

Seriously, to say "we can't do our jobs, you have to wait another 6 weeks" is just ridiculous, even for the airline industry.

=aw

It's not the initial time the points take to post, it's when one segment on a trip isn't posted (for reasons that are not really clear) and then they have to do a "validation" that can take six weeks!

It makes no sense whatsover. Points that post automatically are assumed to be OK, but if for some reason the system doesn't post a segment, even though it is on the same itinerary, then it becomes suspect and has to go through a procedure that doesn't work .... Oh my!