Grog

Rather than trying to find out why they're not flying with you? Just delete a potential (indeed verified former) customer without inquiry? OK then ^

Whether you were legally entitled to purge (read: cancel any future entitlement) or not would depend on the contract ten years ago. Purge away, though...and stand by for the potential fallout.

dickinson

I lost a ton of lifetime miles on US Airways as well because US greatly cut back their Florida routes and I moved almost all of my flying to AA. My analysis was that I should have more closely tracked changes and rules in the US Airways program to avoid this issue. I wish I could adopt the OP's attitude that one can avoid all personal responsibility by blaming the airline.

DonCarpenter

We really are a nation of people who want something for nothing.

oenophilist

My tone was the result of people on this thread making assumptions about my loyalty and blindly defending the airline. I started off with a legitimate complaint, which some people are recognizing. Others took a patronizing tone.

On the issue of loyalty:
1. Loyalty doesn't simply mean "what have you done for me lately". Circumstances cause people to change their flying habits. Much as I criticize Continental, they took care of their Infinite Elites even if they hadn't flown in two decades.
2. US Airways and United had a massive joint marketing activity where they practically encouraged you to post your miles with the other airline. I continued to fly US Airways, I simply consolidated miles with United like I was encouraged to do, and like virtually all frequent flyers do. I did not expect those miles credited to United to be counted toward US Airways lifetime miles status.

Thus, claims that I do not deserve to have my lifetime miles recognized because I did not fly US Airways are false.


On the issue of expiring miles:
1. It is well established that redeemable miles expire. No one is questioning that. And if you want to keep your redeemable miles from expiring, you have some account activity. I allowed my redeemable miles to expire willingly (after using up most of them).
2. I am unaware of another carrier in the industry that allows lifetime miles to expire. If there is, please point it out.

Is this a big personal loss to me? No, it isn't. In some ways it is more emotional, as I recall the days when I would fly "US Scare" (as it was known then) when its reputation was in the toilet. It is a cold reminder that the airline doesn't care about past customers. Lifetime miles are not tangible in the way that redeemable miles are. They represent your history with the airline in a unique way. By wiping them out, US Airways (now AA) is basically erasing history, as if it never happened.

The impact to me is:
1. It removes an incentive that I would have to fly AA in the future, as without the combined miles I am too far from the million mile threshold to move my business to AA.
2. It creates a severely negative customer sentiment that goes beyond a single flight. Thus it provides a disincentive to fly AA in the future.
3. It provides a disincentive for me to purchase tickets on AA for others, specifically family members, which I have done very often in the past.

LovePrunes

By the way, the wording of the AAdvantage program you call "Lifetime Miles" is actually referred to on the AA.com web site as "Program-to-date miles," not "Lifetime Miles."

AA.com, which is the surviving program after the US program ended, has these terms:

AAdvantage members must have mileage earning or redeeming activity once every 18 months in order to retain their miles. If your account has no qualifying activity in any 18-month period, all miles in the account will expire.

You didn't have any qualifying activity (FOR TEN YEARS), so they closed and zeroed out your account and history. It DOESN'T say all your miles will expire but we'll keep your "program to date miles" active.

And no, FT (and this thread) isn't a place we're defending airlines, it's a place we're trying to help each other maximize what we get from the airlines' programs and services. If you'd been paying better attention you wouldn't find yourself in the situation you are. Seriously though, your arguing is getting shrill and no doubt I'm not the only one whose patience is running out among those trying to help you understand you simply didn't do things you needed to do in order to prevent this from happening. If you want to call an explanation of the rules to you "defending the airline" or being a "corporate apologist" go ahead, but perhaps this thread has run its course.

weero

None of us has seen "da rulez" for what constitutes "lifetime miles", quite likely not even the employees who turned the OP down.

I'd say that the term undoubtedly and irrevocably indicates that those status miles are accrued until the OP's or the airline's death whichever comes first.

But I guess that depending on individual and legislation the interpretation will vary.
The 'issue' does exist, the rule does not.
OP was a US elite, not an AA one. And US didn't die, it was absorbed into AA.

reeg2

I've had this feeling all along, and I'm still not sure it's right. OP doesn't want any redeemable miles back, he appears to just want to be able to log-in to his account and see his lifetime miles flown as X,xxx,xxx and that's it, right?

If that's not it, I have no idea what OP wants. All his miles back, even the ones that expired that he agrees he let expire?

oenophilist

Again with the patronizing tone. This is precisely the attitude that caused me to get "shrill" as you say. Yes, we are trying to help each other maximize what we get out of the airlines programs and services. But your attitude is one of "corporate apologist" because you are willing to defer to the airline's position even when their position a) alienates a customer; b) is inconsistent; and c) is not in line with the rest of the industry. If you are running out of patience, feel free to leave the thread.

oenophilist

Yes, that's it. That is all. I apologize if I did not make that clear enough in my original post.

oenophilist

Actually I was both. I was trying to combine my US and AA accounts and have the lifetime miles reflect the combination of the two. I had last logged into my US Airways account in March of 2015. When I tried to combine the accounts, they told me they archived my US Airways account because it was dormant and that my lifetime miles were unable to be retrieved. Thus now my lifetime miles are only that of my AA account.

weero

That is odd. Some functionalities might have been turned off too early during the homogenisation of the two programs .

LovePrunes

You don't really want any discussion or anyone disagreeing with you here, just bullying your way through the forum. Good luck and let us know how you make out with the airline. Come back when you can't stay so long!

oenophilist

Ironic that you are calling me the bully.

AAExecPlatFlier

Sorry. But that is how It works :-(. But definitely make your case to AA. But, as noted, history says that they won't budge. And given that that the language of all FF programs says they can do what they want at anytime, I doubt any lawsuit would get very far. Then again, maybe it is time for another industry wide landmark case.

oenophilist

I doubt any lawsuit will get very far either, for several reasons.

First, the United Million Miler lawsuit failed, re-emphasizing that (as you say) the airlines can do what they want. This was one of the reasons why I was somewhat against that lawsuit, as I thought it would fail, and in doing so I thought it would weaken any future lawsuits.

Second, it is much more difficult to quantify the value of lifetime miles. There must be a real tangible loss. My loss was only that I am further away from qualifying for million miler status. If it had happened to someone where losing the miles would actually push them over the mark, then it would have teeth. Which means I wouldn't make a good plaintiff.