Online vs Paper Flyers/Statements
 

Since online statements is a trend, I wonder what other FT folks think about it vs paper statements/flyers.

I preper to have both ways. The reason, with the paper statements and flyers, you get some freebies like rental car, airlines coupons etc. Maybe some folk don't care but I do; sometime these coupons can be valuable.

But with online statement, you can access and check your latest postings. The paper statements are reasonable as long as I receive them on timely manner. AA does a fair job at this. With UA, as someone said earlier, "I'm just grateful to receive it". http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Beside some freebies, online paperless statements/flyer are fine as long as you get detailed real time info like AA & UA. NW only gives you short summary and CO's online statement need more up to date detailed info.
What you think?

P.S. If offered FF miles to switch from paper to online like LH, I will. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif


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Dan

I prefer online (detailed) statements.

I agree, I use both online and paper. The coupons are useful, so I like the paper.

I prefer online if they update on a real time basis. AC is still sometimes getting paper statements (2-2.5 weeks) to me ahead of online ones (2.5-3 weeks).

As for coupons, you can download coupons from the internet--several sites offer coupons. No need for paper and mail. If they could reduce mailing costs and give me more perqs it wouldn't bother me a bit. But if I lost my cable modem service, I might be a bit ticked . . .

Either way is fine for me- just please be accurate, detailed and ideally timely. Do you all print out/save copies of your online statements? I never have and so I like the paper backup as well.

I like both. Delta are very accurate and timely with both. I agree about coupons/bonus offers with the mailed ones but the instant accessibility on the web is nice.
ancient, inaccurate statments (Hilton anyone?) are more annoying than useful.

In the case of discrepancies or problems, I think that the paper ones carry a lot more weight and are therefore still useful. They can also be conveniently filed as a 'historical record'. As a tiny point, I love to get letters (especially ones that don't cost me money), so a few statements a month add to my pleasure and sense of wellbeing.

I am sure the main trend is toward online info and I can handle that and therefore live with it comfortably when it happens. It may be a problem for those who do not yet know the joys of the internet - do you think airlines will go online only with these things and when?

I doubt that there will ever be an online only (in my lifetime). Many places that do offer an option offer paper (ie mailed) only, e-mailed only or both.

Airlines could substantially reduce mailing costs if they could contact us regularly via e-mail. Although some items (like statements) may be offered several ways, we are already seeing some perqs only offered via e-mail (AC only offers its websaver fares via e-mail, they are not even posted on the web site like CP does).

I love the online statement that Alaska produces. They list all activity chronologically for a year or so back. I can print them and review them for accruacy at my leisure. They usually miss one or two items a month, however, and are slow to post.

NWA's on line statement are pretty useless as they only list a total so it is very difficult to catch errors. (Maybe that is their plan.) http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I am just becoming familiar with United and they seem to be quite detailed and post very quickly. I do have a problem sometimes with UAL getting online booking bonuses.

While I seem to do ok tracking my actual flights andcredit card posts, I often forget the miscellaneous mileage that I earn. Anybody have any fool proof strategies?

Punki: let me show you in SEA how I (try to) keep track with my Excel-sheetlike bookkeeping on my Palm III.

columns (A, B, ... are different programs)
date, code, text, promo-code, basic-miles A, class-miles A, promo-miles A, status miles A, total miles A, commentary A (includes follow up remarks), basic-miles B, class-miles B, promo-miles B, status miles B, total miles B, commentary B (includes follow up remarks), etc with C ...

planned activities
credit pending
reclaimed
credited
I delete credited activitis after I receive either a paper-statement of after having done a print-out of the online-statement.


[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 08-12-1999).]

There is no fool proof strategy. I maintain an e-file where I will add entries for miles/points I am supposed to receive. For example at the end of a trip I will write entries for air, car, hotel, dining points etc. along with a breakup of bonuses I am supposed to receive. For example for air it will be base miles, elite bonus, online booking bonus etc. For Hilton it will be base points, air/car bonus, double dip miles, any promotion etc. I will add entries for other items as they happen, for example if signup for MCI, or if I enter a United online survey I will add an entry for that. When I see that something has been credited I will delete the entry for that.

Great idea! Thanks. When I have previously tried to keep a more accurate record I found I got aggravated/frustrated over the incredible numbers of missing miles/points and feeble responses and lack thereof and I'd just focused on those with a high yield like to earn/retain Elite airline/hotel status.

I don't mind on-line for a quick check but I think paper carries more weight and is a permanent record in case of a computer goo-up, like potentially Y2K. I write each trip and its bonuses on the paper from the previous month and when the new statement comes, if something hasn't posted, I sent out my Xeroxes. Though I hate it when I have to do that. The new Hertz deal is driving me nuts, sending copies to Hertz instead of the airline. I am having a lot of trouble with those postings. I feel like a frequent flyer manager. I do it for my husband's accounts since he is busy traveling for business. We had a situation with Marriott a couple of years ago where the desk clerk somehow wiped out 3 months of my husband's points. I was REALLY happy to have paper to share with a supervisor at Marriott.

I, like Punki, like AK's comprehensive and fairly timely online statement. I can peruse it and catch ommissions and mistakes quickly. Of course, you get your complimentary upgrade coupons, etc., with your mailed statement although you can see how many you've earned online. But, in the case of AK, I received my May statement in August!!

Uniteds online satetment is not bad but they are slow to post sometimes and somethings never show up even though the miles are in the total. Fo example TCI cable has TCI rewards. I turned in certificates to United for 1500 miles. After 2 months I did not see the entry so I called MP. They said the miles were added as an adjustment thus would not show up in the online statement (don't know about paper because last one I got was through March). I added up the entries in the online statement then compared to the anual total and sure enough, the miles were there. Very confusing way to do it.

Rudi,

You never cease to amaze me. Is learning your system going to be the equivalent of an additional college degree? http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I like DL on-line access, makes it very easy to check for missing points. Hilton, on the other hand, sucks!
DL hard copies are mailed on average about 1.5 mos after the flight, so they're pretty useless. I have DL FF statements going back to 1984.... Think I should trash them when we move to a new office in 2 weeks? :-)
P.S. I once cajoled a DL (internal MIS) person to print my entire personal file, with flying history going back to 1983, adn all kinds of comments/remarks. Fascinating! I'll keep that.

MileJunkie - Have you used the Hilton site recently? I think that their online statements are much improved.

First, if anyone wants to see how it should be done, just check out DL's online mileage summary. Your mileage shows up online the minute it shows up in your account, and each flight and all bonuses are shown seperately, just like on your paper statement. I think DL already has a good enough system in place that if they wanted to offer online only they could (the only change they might want to add is a bit more of an archive, it only goes back about six months right now). However, I certainly would not give up my paper statements without some incentive ... can you say mileage bonus? Say 50 or 100 points per statement that they don't have to mail to me ... that sounds about fair.

Second, I'd just like to say I think DL also does an excellent job of mailing statements. Both my girlfriend I receive our statements like clockwork about the last week of the month showing activity through the end of the previous month. Sure it could be a little faster I suppose, but I think less than four weeks is pretty good! I would venture to say that DL paper statements are much less useless than those of most of the other majors who take *much* longer to get you a statement.

congratulations to DL - but even that is too late for me, and shows only what is credited, missing wat is planned, done but not credited yet, claimed, etc. I want to see the miles (and compare different options) at a very early planning stage:
- to combine (wave) different rtw-tickets one into the other (a "way" of 'back to back')
- to change the program (LH / UA) on different segments of the same ticket/trip
- to achieve the status I want (and not a mile more wasted as status mile in that program when the goal is achieved for the year running)
- to have enough miles for those awards I want sometimes 300 days in advance (300 days in advance when the miles are used as a free intern first-class for my father)

Agree with beckles that DL is emerging as a leader on the web.

Though I too try to maximize status of Elite qualifying base miles to earn/retain higher levels in multiple FF programs, I'm not sure why one would consider miles above the minimal threshold "wasted". After all don't we all get the additional bonuses/benefits etc for that level achieved too? Just a thought, and maybe I'm missing something here.

I agree that Delta is really good. Recently when I mailed them with paperwork for Austrian airlines flights, they credited it in about 6 weeks which is not bad. But it is a bit of hair splitting if Delta posts flight miles instantaneously, while if United posts the flights in 1-2 days. I can readily live with a 1 or 2 day lag. What needs to be improved is - credit for partners, credit for online surveys and bonuses (United is slow on these), and online award booking.

For me - paper statements are almost obsolete. With United, the paper statements sometimes contain more detail about the bonuses. If the online version had these, I would not even bother with the paper statements.

I am very happy with Delta's on-line statements. They are timely, usually correct, at least for the flights. I also like diff breakdowns - segments YTD, miles this months, etc. Also shows my old FF mileage.
However, the statement which just arrived lists the flights I took in June, which frankly I have already forgotten about, especially the bonuses/promotions/etc. available at a time. That's my only beef w/Delta, albeit a small one. Don't know much about other airlines' sites, I am a DL only.
Hilton's new site is improved. However, their paper statements seem to arrive randomly, 2-3 mos after the quarter end. I am using the on-line info now.

I only clock up a reasonable amount of miles with Delta, but I agree that their on-line statement walks all over the paper-based version. I am UK based and it often takes an age to receive any snail-mail from Delta, although it's nice to get the Newsletter in print. Delta seem to have bucked their ides up on the amount of time it takes to credit miles to your on-line statement too. I flew MAN-ATL last November and it was three weeks after I returned before the mile were credited. Last January I flew MAN-CLT and I checked my statement about four hours after landing back in the UK and there miles were already there! BTW, hope this post doens;t appear twice. It's only about my third post and the first time I submitted it it disappeared. Sorry If you are seeing double!

Mark - if you click on that pencil on top of your second/double message - you open the edit function and you can click then in the little delete-box in the top left corner - and the double posting disappears.

Thanks Rudi! I couldn't see either post for ages then they both appeared along with yours.

MarkB: I think the record in "double" postings - may be two months back - goes to Randy himself. He did hit the post button about 8 times then, if I remember correctly ... http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Rudi: Wow! I guess that means I can make a few hundred mistakes! http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

BTW, nice collection of mug shots you have on your website!

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Some men see things the way they are and say "Why?", I dream things that never were and say "Why not?" - Robert F. Kennedy

[This message has been edited by MarkB (edited 08-14-1999).]

Welcome to the board, MarkB. I thought I was about the only DL flyer in this country http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Thanx for the welcome, James. I guess that means DL have all of two UK flyers! http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Actually, I am only a DL guy because I have friends in Atlanta and Asheville, NC. But I can't really complain about the service I have received.

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Some men see things the way they are and say "Why?", I dream things that never were and say "Why not?" - Robert F. Kennedy