lasooner

I've accumulated about 160,000 Aviator miles and I'd like to insure them in case TWA has major financial problems. does anybody know the cost or how to do it? Any phone numbers I can call for info?

onefreeman

What a very very good question for your first post! I've never heard of insuring ff miles against financial catastrophe. I'm sure Lloyd's of London would do it but for how much?

The only thing close to insurance I can think of is to transfer your miles into HHonors -- you pay a penalty but the financial picture isn't so bleak!

Be interesting to see what others have to say on this one...

Again -- great question and welcome aboard!

BlondeBomber

The best insurance is to use them.

Even if you could get insurance, I doubt that it is worth insuring what even at maximum ticket prices would be worth less than $10000. At .02/mile, 160000 miles is worth only $3200.

Anne at WebFlyer

One option to protect your miles is AwardGuard, a service offered by Frequent Flyer Services. For every year a member enrolls or renews, their membership receives a $15,000 liability. This means that any AwardGuard claims made during the membership year can be applied towards the $15,000. Should an airline go out of business, the customer should make their claim within 30 days. For further information call 800/487-8893.

onefreeman

I should have known if there's an angle in the ff biz, Randy and gang have it covered!

Thanks Anne for the info!

But can it be retroactive? I have a few thousand BN and EA miles sitting around... hehehehe http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

lasooner

Did I come to the right place for information or what? Thanks for all your responses and great info.

buck

Two comments from the peanut gallery:

1) 160,000 miles used before April 31st is worth 8 roundtrip domestic coach tickets. 160,000 used May 1st or after is worth 6 roundtrip domestic coach tickets (for trips over 750 miles) or 10 roundtrip domestic coach tickets (for trips 750 miles and under). It may be in your best interest to use all or part of the awards prior to the April 31st date if you’re trying to get more tickets for the longer award travel.

2) Let’s assume TWA will go bankrupt again, which in my humble opinion, they will not. Whoever takes over TWA or a TWA under bankruptcy protection would want to cover their customers’ assets (frequent flier miles). After all, with a 100% upset core flier base, no airline would have any chance of survival.

Counsellor

Maybe, but look at Braniff and Eastern (or did those miles survive)?

By the way, buck, if you're saying April 31st because you're thinking about the "expiring" ability to use the Equity Miles award charts, that has been extended to 30 Dec 99, and you can redeem the certificates for a year after you receive them, and then the tickets are good for up to a year after they are issued, so you still have some time. See below from a thread I posted to in December:
---------------------------------------------
I checked out the TWA Aviators site and it still reads (read?) 30 Apr 99 as the deadline for requesting awards, so I e-mailed them asking which was correct. They responded, "You are correct in that Equity awards may now be requested as late as 12-30-99. This also pushes the time limit for surrendering the certificate for a ticket up to 12-30-2000 etc."

So, as I read it, we now have until 12-30-99 to request an award, 12-30-2000 to turn it into a ticket, and, since tickets are good for one year, the travel may be done as late as 12-30-2001.


[This message has been edited by Counsellor (edited 02-26-99).]

Racquetball

Will someone help out here if this "clarification" is incorrect. Isn't it true that there are three varieties of TWA miles?

1. "Equity" miles are miles that were earned several years ago which have a special redemption chart of their own (e.g. one of the awards is for two round-trip coach tickets from the USA to Europe for a total of 60,000 miles). It is this "Equity" award chart which has had its life extended such that one can ask for an award certificate through the end of 1999 (and then could wait to exchange the certificate for tickets until the end of 2000 with the tickets being good for travel until the end of 2001).

2. The second variety of mileage was earned between the end of the "Equity" period and the start of "Aviators". This is the potentially misleading kind of award mileage as I don't think these have been extended. A good award here is the one for a USA domestic round-trip ticket for 20,000 miles. Please correct me, but I think these have to be cashed in for a certificate by April 30, 1999 (and then ticketed no later than a year later for flying no later than a year after that).

3. Mileage earned since the start of "Aviators"; these have their own redemption chart.

I don't think either mileage varieties #1 or #2 expire but they change into mere "Aviators" miles as far as their value is concerned once they pass the date TWA has set for the expiration of their preferred redemption status.

I hope this is helpful. I've got some miles of the first two varieties and intend to wait until the last minute to request certificates for them at their best value. If there's more to this, please post the details. Thanks.

Counsellor

TravelDave -

Basically that's my understanding. Specifically:

1. "Equity" miles, earned before June 30, 1989, have their own awards chart, which includes such neat things as two TWA Ambassador Class (business class) tickets to Europe for 85,000 miles, or two first class to Europe for 90,000 miles. (By the way, does TWA even still have First Class to Europe?) Those can be used until 12/30/99 to obtain a certificate which can be exchanged/redeemed for the ticket for another year, and the ticket would be valid for up to yet another year from date of issue. Thereafter the miles still exist, but as I understand it are redeemable only the same way as "regular" Aviator miles.

2. The miles between July 1, 1989 and whenever in 1998 Aviators kicked in: Don't know whether "special" redemption ends in April or not. I'll try to find out.

Counsellor

OK, I found out.

See the thread/conversation I just started with the subject line "Redeeming 'Old' TWA Miles" for details, but the bottom line is that for "non-Equity" miles earned between 1 July 1989 and 30 April 1998, you have until 30 April 1999 to use them for "non-Equity" awards, after which they won't expire, but they will be like Aviator miles.

buck

Counsellor: In response to your comment regarding Braniff and Eastern, I think the difference with TWA is that neither of the two previous airlines "owned" the 7th busiest U.S. airport with over 70% of the travellers through that airport. Sure, the two airlines "owned" some routes, but they did not dominate an airport at the point of their demise (like TWA dominates STL).

Any carrier desirous of the STL market will look for ways to integrate the previous TWA customer base as simply and cost effective as possible. Fare sales? No, I believe absorbing FF mile accounts will be the most cost effective and get the most results.

Just my opinion.

Counsellor

Upon further consideration, I would tend to agree. Actually, what might make it even more important to keep TWA customers may be the international traffic. In the international arena, the concern for consumer satisfaction seems a bit more pronounced.

jamiel

Counsellor, international (Europe/Middle East) is a dwindling portion of TW's business--they have been reducing capacity (to 757s/767s from 747s-767s) and cities (FRA, ATH) while not growing there. They have been expanding within this hemisphere. The last few flights I have had (domestic) have been GREAT--I think they're turning the corner.