most honest program?
 

Does anyone have any opinion on which program is the most honest one? By this, I mean programs that will seldom, if ever, try to change their T&C and pretend they don't know what you're talking about when you mention missing bonuses; programs that doesn't require prompting, but automatically gives you all the points you're entitled to.

I will start by saying I have mixed experience with United. I was given my flight mileage almost immediately after the plane landed--in fact, I was pretty shocked by the prompt credit! But I also never received my miles for the double-college-fees bonus, nobody seems to know what's going to happen, just ask me to wait.

I think I'll like to know which program is really honest and customer friendly, so I never have to worry about keeping track...

Rain :D

In this case you need to follow up with the issuer of your United Visa, not with United. Mileage Plus has no idea how much you spent with a college... that info has to come from the credit card company. And they're notoriously bad about posting bonuses without jumping through hoops.

In my experience most programs are more or less run on the up and up (well, maybe excluding LatinPass/GlobalPass). But their level of competence, and their ability to deal with errors, varies greatly.

While some members are frequently frustrated by targeted promos and changes in award categories at Starwood, the fact that Starwood Lurker spends so much time here sorting out problems for members and clarifying misperceptions says a great deal and goes a long way in my book. The couple days' heads up we got on category changes saved me some points at the Westin MEL for later in the year...

As far as a 'what you see is what you get' program, it's hard to argue with Southwest. But then they don't really have any awards that I want.

so far so good on Northwest
 

I am not as experienced as most of you with different programs but I am happy with my experience with Northwest since I've joined. Lots of little mileage bonuses along the way, and when I did get my 50,000 miles, not much trouble redeeming for standard award for 2. The free upgrades seem to keep coming pretty regularly even though I'm only a lowly Silver Elite. My home airport is MSY so perhaps I am not competing with so many people for those upgrades as folks do flying from hubs.

So I would recommend it highly and, in fact, I have signed up both my husband and a good friend on Northwest. The friend is already Silver Elite also, and while my husband's business travel is usually by car, so he didn't get status this time, he is getting pretty close to a standard award ticket, so he's pleased also.

If I thought the program wasn't as promised, I wouldn't want to get other people involved in it. But I'm very happy and think others will like it too.

The simplest, most trouble-free program is Southwest Rapid Rewards. There's not even a close second in terms of having uncomplicated rules and efficient posting of credits.

That said, Southwest is not for everyone. Either you find their destinations useful or you don't. Also, there are no great destinations for using rewards (overseas, etc).

Of the international airlines, I have generally found American and United to post credits quickly and efficiently.

Southwest is definitely the easiest to understand. If you do a lot of traveling I'd suggest CO or NW for the free upgrades.

I dont know of any program that doesnt reserve the right to vary their T&Cs at any time.

As for stuff not crediting - I think most problems arise through partners (be they other airlines, credit cards, hotels, etc).

Personally I wouldnt call it dishonest just because something doesnt post as you'd expect.

Comments/suggestions
 

Actually despite my bumps along the road with United
I would stay right where you are and consider working effectively together with United to solve your problem.
United has never shown me to be dishonest.
Sloppy and poorly communicating yes.Slow to get resolution perhaps at times.
But it is one of our nations best carriers and World Class programs of the Legacy Carriers.
As far as Southwest is concerned I wouldn't touch them even with two free tickets in my hands.
My sanity and comfort are worth more then that. They are a limited service carrier with expiring miles/credits.
I have personal friends that fly them and they are perhaps more patient and forgiving then I by having some of their days ruined.Yes that happens elsewhere too on a given day granted..
While they have some very nice people working at Southwest and good guest friendly policies it is basically a flying bus most of the time.

With no reserved seats and some of the worst boarding procedures ever witnessed outside of Third World Countries.
Every body push shove heave onboard.Low cost tickets yes.
But easily matched or beaten in many cases by most other carriers with far greater rewards and exceptional partnership opportunities on a global basis.
You can build and bank with a future in mind at United and Star Alliance(as long as they or any carrier today for that matter remains in business)
I will now probably be stoned ,flamed, tarred and feathered by the Southwest Loyalists :)

I would be more then wiling to get involved with my contacts at United and Bank One/Now soon to be Chase to see how I can help get you a resolution.
I make no promises but I usually come through 98 % off the time for those Flyertalkers over the years I have assisted.

By the way I am currently flying AA and considering a return to United.
I think they are both VERY good to do business with.
As is Delta,NW and Continental. I will still take United First
AA Second or tied
And perhaps Delta and NW Third.If your on the West Coast Alaska IMO is a class act.
Very well run but slowwwwwwww to answer phones.
Feel free to direct any questions and your personal details/case to me.
The unofficial non authorized part time Ombudsman of FT here :)
Good Luck Cheers

Dishonesty award for 2004:

5th Place: Amtrak, for cancelling its partnership with UA with no advance notice.

4th Place: American, for adding a $500 RT "co-pay" for using miles for upgrade awards. This is a major program change which substantiallly devalues the miles and puts biz/first travel out of reach for many. To its credit, AA did provide a good 2 months notice before implementation.

3rd Place: United, which no longer reserves awards seats on certain *A partners (i.e. Lufthansa) >90 days before travel. Used to be 330 days, the change will make it difficult if not impossible to obtain seats during peak travel periods to Europe and Asia. No advance notice whatsoever.

2nd Place: Starwood, for a massive devaluation under the guise of "adjusting" categories for certain properties. No advance notice, and a change that will put many European properties out of reach for many.

1st Place: Continental (repeat recipient) for pretending to offer Nonepass Saver awards in any meaningful way. CO's program remains the most dishonest of all. :td:

Honesty in Miles Awards for 2004:

3rd Place: Delta/ICHotels, for honoring a 25K bonus mile offer that was no doubt oversubscribed thanks to FT!

2nd Place: Hyatt, for providing the popular FFNs with virtually no fine print. Sadly, the rules will change in a month or so, but Hyatt deserves credit for providing a good 6 months notice before changing.

1st Place: Southwest. Provided plenty of notice when it decided to cut the online booking bonus from 2 credits to 1. Still a tremendous deal, and no BS capacity controls. What you see is what you get. ^

Honesty :confused:

I guess you can call them all honest, at least until they do "improvements" to their programs :rolleyes:

I guess Southwest, at least for being consistent

OnePass is pretty pathetic, although to be honest it is fairly tough to get any "saver" or base-level awards on any airline lately. Getting base awards to popular destinations on UA requires either 8 month advance purchase or phenomenal luck.

Most honest is WN by far - it's a no-bull program. They are, of course, limited in scope and they have blackout dates, but the don't bury this information in fine print and there are no garbage fees. WN is able to present a straightforward product with no disinformation or doublespeak and make a profit. Love 'em or hate 'em: admit it - they are the most honest.

I do not consider any of the legacy airlines to be honest. They attempt to make money with deception, one-way flexibility (their flexibility), disinformation, fine print, garbage fees, frequently-changing parameters, and consumer unfriendly service. No surprise that they are all losing money, whereas WN makes a profit by taking the opposite approach.

I don't view any of the hotel programs as dishonest. Every year, they recategorize some properties. We know the properties have it in their interest to campaign for a higher level in the program. The Starwood I recently stayed at (Sheraton COS) is going from Cat 1 to Cat 2. I wish it had stayed Cat 1, but I can see why they deserve Cat 2. And when the hotels have undergone devaluations (like HH and MR in recent years - I haven't been involved with SPG that long), they gave members about 1 1/2 years to get awards out at the lower levels. We had 6-9 months' notice of the changes, and then a year after that to actually complete the award stay. I've gotten my awards in all of the programs when I've wanted them, and the change/cancel rules are reasonable. I consider the programs fair and forthright to the members. Whenever I've had a problem with my points or benefits, the program has fixed it quickly.

In general, I sense that the hotels respect me. They respect my time, they respect my wish to do business fairly, and they respect my long-term business relationship with them. I don't get that sense from the airlines at all.

Great List I love it !!
But don't you know that all of the above were enhancements to better serve you and your travel needs :D

To be fair, this wasn't really UA, was it? I was under the impression that this was an LH decision; if LH doesn't make the seats available until 90 days out, it's not really UA's fault that they can't book them.

I've actually been fairly happy with UA. IMHO they've been one of the more stable programs over the past couple of years (as opposed to, say, Delta)..

Dan

My experience is that Delta is pretty honest in posting miles. Even if they missed it, you emailed them, and they will post it promptly. They will not pretend they've never ran the promo.

The dishonest award for me goes to AA & CO.
AA : always (and I mean 100% of the time) will not post any shopping points until I emailed them at least twice. They never do it automatically, and they'll never post even after they promised to.

CO : Even worse. I'm still fighting for a couple hundred miles from last Feb. I bought from same retailer twice in a month, but CO will NOT post the 2nd one. I guess it's not in their blood to check the order #. And they don't care.

And forget about the award. The award calendar shows availability, but when you click on it, it'll show completely different sets of awards.

CO wins hands down for most dishonest....or perhaps we should say "most squirrelly". A few examples:
1. Absolutely pathetic standard award availability..."they don't call it NonePass for nothing"
2. The upgrade award lottery
3. The continued contentions of behind the scenes rigging of the elite upgrade process
4. The lame responses of the OnePass reps who appeared on the FlyerTalk

Not true. United's *A partners deserve the blame here.

I completely agree with pinniped here. I just signed up with WN this last year because they were the only ones offering direct flights between a city pair, and so far I'm very very satisfied with them. I do realize that this program is not for everyone; but for those of us who want/need to fly where WN flies, this program in outstanding in terms of operational efficiency.

Just a note that the co-pay mentioned above is only on international upgrades, not on domestic upgrades.

AA posted shopping points for me with no prodding - it does take 30 to 60 days.

I have found that most programs will credit flying fairly quickly, a day or two. I have also found that partners tend to be the ones that give any FFP issues on crediting of miles. Some times patience is warranted, but if I do not see a credit within four weeks I am going to call the partner then the FFP.

I have been happy with both US and AA for getting awards when I wanted them. Both have reps that will try to work out what you want when you want it. Not necessarily the most direct route, but they will get you there.

I am still suspicous with CO. You can get awards if you get the right rep on the phone, but many times they cannot get anything close to what you want, even with their many partners.

I am also one who refuses to fly WN at all due to two horror stories both with very poor endings. Maybe I am too high maintenance.

It's much smaller, but I'll say that DH (Independence Air) has a very straightforward one as well. One point per dollar spent on a ticket (there's a 2 points/$ promo right now), and 1500 points gets you a r/t in any available seat. It's basically the same as Southwest, but credits dollars instead of one-way trips.

Except for the aborted attempt to issue 0 EQM for cheap tickets, the US program has been pretty good to me. I only think once did I have to bug them about a promo not posting, and that was actually something I did wrong signing up for it. All of my flight miles and bonuses generally posted within two days, though I know others have had problems with them. I redeemed 11 award tickets for self and friends last year and didn't have problems with any of those (I did use the "rulebuster" option on a few because of the Sat night stay rule).

WN is the most honest in my books .. not that I fly them :)
CO Nonepass is the worst most deceptive program ever

I have used AA, UA, NW, CO, DL and US over the past year or two. NW by far for the most awards. Generally only one on the others, except maybe two on DL. I think they all tend to follow their rules, the only problem is knowing all the finer details of their rules. You can not read them anywhere, you call one agent and get one answer and call another one and get another. So I won't rate them on honesty, but I will rate them on Customer Friendliness and ease of earning/reedeming.

I think DL and NW take the cake on ease of earning. I have used 60,000 miles of award tickets (1 coach redeemed on NW and 1 F reedemed on DL) and have 25,000 left and never had flew a DL paid fare, nor did I ever have any points credited to them from other flights. ALL DL points came from AM EX, Dining for miles, car and/or hotel rental etc, but the lions share from the DL Am EX and Dash to the Gate type things. NW also runs many many promos which generally post as described. A few times I have had to call and they get it straightened out quickly.

I just started flying US last year, and they seem to either post and/or fix them very quickly. With 3 flights I have enough miles for a free ticket. I got a bump voucher also (which comes out of award availability) and it was very easy to use.

AA booked online for a friends trip, no problems.

UA, I flew it, my parents booked it, no problems I know of.

I love that NW does not charge any fees for booking up to almost departure (I think you can book up to 4 or maybe 6 hours before departure) on Award Tickets. HATE that DL and CO charge you up to a $75.00 adminstrative fee if you book 14 days or less. THAT could come very close to being dishonest, since it takes no more work to book an e-ticket for a flight 5 days or 1 day from now than it does to book one 30 days or more from now.

CO is always quick to say something like, oh, we have no standard availability how about EasyPass (or whatever they call it) for twice as many miles? That galls me!

I respectfully nominate... HP.

<ducks>

Seriously though, all my flight credit has posted within 36-48 hours, never a problem, all bonuses due to flying posted appropriately within 3 days. Elite upgrades (as a lowly silver, then a gold) were plenty, and forthcoming.

It may be a bit no frills, but IMHO I believe it beats WN.

Just sayin'.

I don't need (or care) much for pampering. My honest programs are:

Airline:

WN - Punctual and the feeling that I'm not nickeled and dimed for everything, especially when the unexpected forces me to change plans at the last minute. Easy redemption.


Hotel:

PC - Given their numerous locations, generous points and liberal redemption, I have no complaints. Everywhere I go, there always seem to be one, two or even more to choose from...not much or no choice sometimes in case of other chains.

Hyatt - Easy to understand and follow program. Generous bonus points. FFN's. Only downside: there's not that many of them.

Don't forget Alaska Air, tons of partners, tons of earning options and everything with them is very straightforward.

Airlines FF - WN but had one bad cattle experience with a problematic flight to LAS and not being informed properly.

Hotel FGP - Hyatt excellent program and very generous with FFN and good communication of major rule change with 6 months advance notice.

Vote for them in the Freddies !