vandykes44

I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas or has had any luck getting a points to miles transaction reversed by any vendors. I'm looking for any and all ideas.


Several months ago I switched my earning preference from Club Carlson Gold Points to Delta Skymiles. It's definitely not very clearly identified, but their policy is to convert all Gold Points you have in your account, not just what you earn going forward, to miles at a 10:1 conversion, a terrible conversion! I'm sick about it as Club Carlson converted 250,000 of my Gold Points to 25,000 Skymiles. I really want to get my Gold Points back as I value them much more than the 25,000 Delta miles.

This is a letter I've written to Club Carlson. Any feedback on your thoughts about this letter or who I should send it to is appreciated. Any other actions I can take to get the transaction reversed?

I appreciate any and all help. Thanks


Dear Club Carlson,

Several months ago I signed up to participate in a promotion with Delta that gave me 1000 bonus miles for each eligible SkyMiles partner I used, including Club Carlson. I had a stay coming up at a Radisson Hotel in Phoenix, and so switched my Club Carlson earning preference from Gold Points to SkyMiles to earn the SkyMiles bonus mile for using that partner.

I absolutely did not realize, that it’s your policy that when you switch earning preferences, you will not only switch my earning preference going forward, but will transfer all CC Gold Points I had earned previously to my new miles earning partner! So without my realizing it, you transferred 250,000 Club Carlson points to my Delta SkyMiles account at a 10:1 ratio (a terrible conversion rate). Honestly, I had no idea you would do that as I’ve changed my earning preferences with other hotel chains (Marriott, Hilton and IHG) back and forth several times. I absolutely did not want my hard-earned valuable Club Carlson points transferred to my Delta Account. I’ve been accumulating Club Carlson points for many years and am planning to use them for an amazing trip to Europe when my husband and I retire in a few years.

I found out about this conversion when I checked my hotel and airlines accounts a few weeks ago. I was extremely upset as I didn't know why in the world my 250,000 Gold Points had been transferred to Skymiles. I went to your website where I read the small print that said you would convert my entire balance of Gold Points to Skymiles. I admit that I must not have read the paragraph carefully before, but in my option, because it’s not standard practice to convert ALL banked points or miles when you change earning preferences, that practice should be much more clearly identified. The paragraph highlights (bolds) the fact that you can’t covert Miles back to Gold Points once converted, which is standard practice. But it does not highlight the fact that your entire balance of Gold Points will covert to Miles. That was buried in the paragraph.

I immediately called you and talked to an agent who said she could not reverse the transaction. She told me that Delta would have to initiate the reversal. After several attempts to call Delta (2-3 hour hold times), I finally sent Delta an email via “Contact Us.” After more than a week, they wrote back to say that they couldn’t convert the miles back to Club Carlson points and that you would have to initiate the reversal.

As mentioned, I’m sick about this transaction. I don’t believe that the process was nearly as clear identified as it should have been, primarily because it’s not standard operating procedure for other hotel chains. I'm asking you to please help me by reversing the transaction to get my Club Carlson Points back. I value them much more than I do Delta points and, as I mentioned previously, am planning to use them at some of the wonderful properties you have in Europe in a few years to celebrate retirement.

What can you do to help me?
Kindest regards,

Brendan

Sorry, I can't help you, Vandykes44, but others can avoid this fate by ordering a one-time transfer of 2000 CC points to become 200 +1000 bonus DL Skymiles.

mrkymark

So yeah that sounds pretty shocking.

Interested in finding out then what the T & C's actually said and also what exactly does "a one-time transfer of 2000 CC points to become 200 +1000 bonus DL Skymiles" do? Does it just prime the CC account so that it won't transfer the whole lot the next time?

Brendan

No, Mrkymark, it is just is an order of a one-time-only transfer of CC points to Skymiles--which is enough to earn the present DL Partner Bonus. In contrast to changing the earning preference for future stays, which also immediately empties ALL Carlson points in the account into the FF account of your chosen airline.

vandykes44

Just to let you know that I sent the letter to Club Carlson via snail mail a few weeks ago asking if they can do anything to help me. They replied via email that they can do nothing. They told me that I did not read their process carefully and that the mistake was all on me. Not even an offer of a few Club Carlson points to cushion the loss.

To that I say good-buy Club Carlson. I travel frequently for work and will chose another hotel chain that may provide a bit more empathy to a good customer.

kenban

Did you try to contact Delta? At least with other companies typically you start the process at the company who received the points.

Brendan

Carlson's policy on this matter sux big-time !

spankytoes

Why would they offer points because you screwed up?

It's laid out in the points/miles option and not buried in legalese:

Important Information: When you select Miles as your earning preference your entire balance of Gold Points and all future Gold Points earned will automatically convert to Miles with the airline you have selected in 10,000 point increments. Miles can not be converted back to Gold Points. All miles with this auto conversion option will be redeemed at an 10:1 ratio.

Not sure what's confusing about that. It's bolded and the only paragraph there. They did exactly what you authorized them to do. A whiny letter isn't going to reverse course.

jasonvr

There are a couple of threads on this, but this is the most recent, so I'm reviving. I just totally got hit by this last night. I had some AA miles expiring and was hoping to credit my next CI stay to AA to keep the miles alive, so changed my Earning Preference. No, I didn't fully read the paragraph above that, so it's my fault, but who came up with the stupid policy that changing an EARNINGS preference should automatically convert all existing point to the airline!! And on top of it, I realized as I was going to bed the stay wouldn't actually end in time to save the AA miles, so I went to change the preference back and that's when I realized my mistake!

I immediately chatted with them and eventually they called me saying it would be easier. They weren't able to do anything but referred it to the research department and gave me a tracking ID. I don't expect anything to come of that.

Big :facepalm: for me, but still a really stupid policy. 100,000 pts gone. I didn't even think about doing the far simpler 2000 pt transfer instead.....

Brendan

I so agree that it's a stupid policy. But it's there in boldface . I wonder what Radisson Rewards gains from it. I would expect that they would rather give us free rooms than buy points from the airlines with real $$ !

eponymous_coward

Cashing out your RR points at a very, very profitable ratio (10:1- so 100,000 RR points, something that could buy $400 of hotel rooms, turns into 10k airline miles, not even a one way ticket in saver at 12.5k) as opposed to hotel rooms.

There are some occasions where with transfer bonuses a one time cashout of RR->airline miles makes some sense, but you can trigger that without changing your earning...