Alcibiades

Excellent strategy. Gotta be an IDine, car rental, grocery shopping, or hotel stay somewhere to use.

[This message has been edited by Alcibiades (edited 09-30-2003).]

inquisitive8s

Any strategies for getting them back? Account was inactive for more than three years.
Does begging work?

Canarsie

Welcome to FlyerTalk, inquisitive8s.

On the outset, I would say it is highly unlikely, especially after three years, but I will not say that it is totally impossible.

Give a call to the SkyMiles Service Center (1-800-323-2323) and explain your situation. It might help if you informed the agent that you intend to start flying Delta again. It may help even more if you give a good reason as to why you have had no SkyMiles activity in three years.

If the agent you speak to denies restoring your SkyMiles, try calling several more times until you reach an agent who may be sympathetic to your situation.

Here is a Hilton HHonors FlyerTalk thread where someone was in the exact situation with you, as an example. In that thread, you will note that in one post, I had a similar situation with the Starwood Preferred Guest program. A few telephone calls later, my points were fully restored.

Give it a try. What do you have to lose?

Canarsie

One other thing, inquisitive8s:

I am sure other Delta FlyerTalkers will give you additional, pertinent advice, so you may want to wait a day or two until you make your first move.

However, regardless of the outcome, please let us know if you successfully had your Delta SkyMiles reinstated.

mnollinger

Hey all. I just became aware today that, due to her father's stupidity, my four year-old daughter's 42,000 skymiles expired on January 20th. I don't have any status, but my mom's a retired Delta employee, I'm a lifetime Crown Room member, and my wife and I between us have about 500,000 unused miles. Think there's any chance that a pleading letter to customer service--along with some kind of fresh mileage activity in my daughter's account--might get the miles reinstated?

Thanks,

Dumb dad.

jeffreyt

I recently read that DL was taking a more hard-lined approach to this and saying "No" since they give three years to have any type of activity that will keep the miles active. I feel sorry for your daughter. I couldn't find a similar discussion here in the forum where DL let the miles remain. Maybe someone with actual experience of re-instating miles can say what they did to make that happen. Good luck

marlin

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but...I tried to do the very same thing for my brother. I went all out begging for them to reinstate approximately 20,000. Nothing worked, nothing.

Canarsie

It is very difficult to get Delta Air Lines to make an exception to their policies, especially these days. However, if I were in your situation, I would try my best to get those SkyMiles reinstated.

Write a letter and mail it. Send an e-mail. Call the SkyMiles Service Center. Here are the ways to contact Delta Air Lines.

Don’t be discouraged. At least try and put an effort into re-instating your daughter’s SkyMiles. Aside from spending a little time and effort, your situation will be no worse than it is now, and there is a possibility — although slim — that it could improve.

Good luck, mnollinger, and a slightly belated welcome to FlyerTalk.

NoStressHere

This may not be a bad policy. If you have not flown or done ANYTHING with your accoutn for three years, then you most probably NOT a Delta customer.

In the other hand, if you had 15-20,000 miles in the account, you would POSSIBLY be tempted to buy a ticket with DL to add to those miles.

But, in the long run, DL is probably smart to close those accounts.

jeffreyt

Here's Randy's response to a similar customer on UA.

vasantn

Where?

------------------
Vasant

yashan

I wonder if jeffreyt meant this response:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...askrandy_x.htm

jeffreyt

That's it!!! Psychic's really do exist.

Seriously, sorry about the fact that you guys had to guess for a while. Thanks yashan for making the link.

LAX

I was just wondering if anyone has experience in talking Delta into reinstating recently expired Skymiles. I had a few thousand Skymiles in my account before it expired. I had been having trouble logging into Skymiles due to PIN problem. Any advice much apprecited. Thanks in advance.

LAX

NHFL9

If accounts expire on 12/31, how could they be recently expired? If you mean that they are expiring this year, there are some topics out there already about how to get last minute activity to keep the acount alive.