navatwal

I have had some of the worst customer service from Alaska Airlines Mileageplan regarding my elite status.

My Top tier Elite MVPG75k status was pulled a few months after holding it after it came to light that certain International flights were not eligible for credit after being credited.

All Done unexpectedly without any questions, took the miles, the credit and elite status. No courtesy email, I had to chase them.

I have since replied back to the same Customer Care message with an explanation of what happened and not even had an acknowledgement.

They have totally thrown out my travel plans and elite status requirements for this year...

Very shoddy customer service from an airline that wants to compete with the big three airlines in the US.

Very disappointed and shocked by their behaviour in all of this.

milypan

You might want to provide some context here. Why were they ineligible? How did they get credited to begin with if ineligible?

Often1

Details please.

Exactly what happened with the BA situation and exactly what was involved.

Is this a fraud or a customer service issue. If the former, don't expect to have this treated the way a flight delay is treated.

navatwal

Ineligible booking class. Looking for customer relations contact details

Anybody have an email?

Often1

That still doesn't help much, especially if you want to figure out the best approach beyond outrage. As you can see, if AS is not responding, it has effectively written you off, so it's important to figure out why that would happen. And figuring that out means details.

What exactly happened. E.g., did you make a claim for miles on tickets which were not eligible? Did you do it more than once?

As others note, the exact details are going to get you the best advice.

CDKing

webform is the main option. I believe Mileage plan has a phone line for program related questions but i'm not 100% sure if that is who you need.

eponymous_coward

If the flights you were trying to credit aren't actually eligible for credit, why would you expect 75K status gratis?

I've had AS MP correct flights and status credit that have been posted months ago months later (flights double posting, and so on). I didn't plan on having them count, though, figuring this was an error and they'd get around to fixing the obvious error (it actually happened during a call to AS MP when I had them review my account for a different error- the agent said nothing about the double credited flights but all the errors were fixed shortly after my call). Was this a case of you misunderstanding the rules? Perhaps they credited your BA AUP as F and then realized the underlying booking class was really C or D?

If the explanation is "well, I know they're not actually eligible but this has ruined my plans for the year" that's not much of an explanation any more than "well, the bank made an error on a deposit in my favor, and wants the money back, but I should keep the money since I already spent it, otherwise it's horrible customer service". Is there an actual reason why your flights SHOULD be eligible for what they originally credited as other than "no fair, no take backs"?

But if you aren't actually 75K because those trips shouldn't have accrued credit...

Single_Flyer

I would also appreciate more details. Maybe it was a BA ticket for one of their partners (such as Iberia) that is not also an AS partner?

If it were an error on the part of AS, then I would expect AS to leave your status in place.

I, for one, sometimes do a mileage run at the end of the year based on what has posted to my account. If I think it is in the clear for the status I seek, then I wouldn't do an extra run.

Revoking it months later IF it were their error seems unfair to me.

eponymous_coward

Try making that argument when a bank makes a deposit error in your favor, you go ahead and spend the money, and they find the discrepancy later in an audit. Let me know how it goes.

T&Cs for MP say: "Alaska Airlines reserves the right to audit Mileage Plan accounts at any time and without notice to the member to ensure compliance with these Mileage Plan Conditions of Membership and applicable conditions of carriage and/or tariffs."

Single_Flyer

I would say a bank giving you cash and an airline bestowing status are two different circumstances.

Alaska probably has the right to do this (revoke status) just like they have the right to close anyone's Mileage Plan account and take back all of their "earned" miles at any time. Remember folks: Miles/points have zero value until they have been redeemed!

Despite having the right to do so, doing so without good cause may not be in the best interest of Alaska's business (ie PR).

This is all hypothetical since we don't have details about the original poster's situation.

zs58

I guess the context we need here is whether or not Alaska had indicated, prior to booking, to the flyer that the fares he or she booked for those international flights in question would accrue EQMs. In that case, which seems unlikely, then the OP has a legit gripe.

However it seems more likely that the OP was the beneficiary of a "bank error" type thing, in which case AS was totally right to take away the EQMs and status. Perhaps they could have handled comms a bit better afterwards, but it might not have made any difference if OP was already steamed at the removal.

OP, please enlighten us...

eponymous_coward

I wouldn't agree; they're both tangible things that you might use over time thinking "well, I GUESS this is OK since nobody has said anything about it for months..."

You might not even notice extra money in a bank account if you didn't keep close track of things.

I guess I don't really think "no backsies even if you made a mistake" to be "without good cause".

Since you can't book international partner flights using the AS booking engine, how would that bolded part work? A written or verbal assurance from someone in MP?

If it's "someone in FT submitted BPs and got credit but I didn't"... well, the plain language on the AS website for partners where it says "Flights must fall within the eligible flight number range below, and your flight must be marketed and operated by (partner name)" has always felt like a trap door waiting to be opened with someone standing on it to me- where yeah, AS giveth credit for FTers flying Partner A operated/Partner B marketed because they're sloppy in evaluating mailed in boarding passes, but they could taketh away if they actually paid attention sometime.

Often1

People can "say" anything they want, but the fact is that miles are not the passenger's property.

People can also "say" that it's unfair to revoke credits from older flights. It is not. When you make a claim, you are certifying that you are eligible. In this case, BA pays for those AS miles. When BA won't pay, why would AS credit for a flight which generates $0 revenue.

If this happens once, it's an error. If it happens twice, it is suspicious. If it happens more than that, AS likely categorizes it as fraud and deals with it accordingly. No polite emails, no "we regret" stuff.

So, is this a lost cause for OP? Is it something where the proper commitment not to violate the t&c again might do the trick? Or is it outrage (which won't get much)?

Framing this properly means knowing what happened. And we don't.

PV_Premier

OP, how did you originally qualify for 75K status this year...was it already achieved from January 1 to present date based on the flights that were erroneously credited to your MP account?

dayone

But still similar.