Barclay's M & M Reporting Bug, BAD
 

I've found what look like a couple of really ugly bugs in how Barclay's Bank reports monthly miles to M&M. Unfortunately the results can be pretty devastating so I'd like to see if anyone else has seen this in their account.

According the Banks T&C's "All unused miles, which have been awarded to your Miles & More account and those you will earn in the future remain valid for an unlimited period of time and will no longer expire provided you make a purchase for which miles are awarded at least once a month and have held a Miles & More Mastercard for at least three months."

My understanding of the legal definition of a month is a calendar month. It's possible I'm incorrect on this but that seems to be the consensus. Unfortunately Barclay's isn't reporting miles accrued from purchases this way but rather during a billing cycle. This means it is possible to meet the conditions of the T&Cs but still have Barclay's report out that you had zero miles.

Furthermore, the T&Cs say (and Barclay's has confirmed) you only need to make one miles earning charge each month. This would mean if you charged $50 but had a refund from somebody of $51 you would still meet the test to have your expiration waived. It isn't clear to me that is happening.

If this were any other airline other than Lufthansa neither of these would be a problem but as most of you know if you miss even one month your miles will start to expire and there is absolutely no way to go back.

M & M is apparently aware of the problem and willing to deal with them on a case by case basis but I think it really ought to get fixed. Besides because of the rolling way miles expire one could end up having to call Lufthansa over and over again for years just to deal with one mistaken report by Barclay's.

My question is if anyone else has seen this problem? The only way to tell unfortunately is to examine each one of your Barclay monthly statements looking for any that reported out zero miles. Then one needs to call M & M and see if they are indicating your miles are scheduled to expire. Unfortunately the latter is easier said than done because that information doesn't seem to show to M & M until (I believe) the quarter before the miles are going to go bye bye and that is 3 years+ after any month in which this might have occurred.

I've called Barclay's but they don't seem to really even understand what I'm talking about so now I'm going to contact Lufthansa since they probably have a bigger stake in getting this fixed.

Any feedback from others would be most welcome.