My promised rant about US Airways

I know I promised you a rant about America West airline, but AW has actually been taken over by US Air.  Thus, this is a rant about US Air, with America West as the primary defendent.

When I lived in New Mexico, my parents briefly lived in southern California.  I was able to visit them often, and always flew via America West.  I accumulated 32000 frequent flier miles.  At one point I redeemed 20000 miles for vouchers to buy a ticket to visit my parents, but then I ended up moving to Las Vegas and they drove to visit me instead.  Then they moved back to Canada.  This was in March, 1999.

Fast-forward to today.  America West is owned by US Air, and I still have my “Flight Fund” frequent flier account, as well as my unused mileage certificates.  I contacted US Air a few days ago about my mileage account and was told it was “dormant” because I hadn’t used it in over three years.  If I wanted to reactivate the miles that were in it, I’d have to pay 1 cent per mile, plus $50 ($170 for 12000 miles), although the point is moot, because I was also told that any miles which went unused for three years had been taken away completely.  I was also told that my 20000 in mileage certificates were useless, and that they expired after one year.

Of course US Air has the right to make any rules and regulations they wants regarding their mileage programs, but that doesn’t mean the rules are fair.  I earned my 32000 miles by giving America West my money, and I chose to fly them (and sometimes even paid a higher fare than on Southwest) so I could earn a free airline ticket.  There’s no reason my account needs to be “dormant” (it can’t cost very much for their computer to store my file), and there’s no reason my mileage certificates shouldn’t still be valid.  I’d be completely willing to pay a redeposit fee if that was necessary.  Can you imagine if banks treated your money this way?  If you didn’t add any money in three years, they’d just take what was in your account.  If you withdrew money and didn’t spend it, it would become worthless after one year.

I’m mostly angry because I was excited that I’m finally able to visit Canada, and that I had a free ticket.  Not only don’t I have a free ticket, I don’t even have the 12000 lousy miles I thought I had left so I could start building up my account again.  It’s ridiculous that US Air can’t spare one empty seat on any of their flights for someone who could again be a frequent customer.  As it is, I’m going to try to avoid flying them completely, if I can—I’m not letting them take anything else from me.

I imagine this also means the 20000 miles I had in my American Airlines account are dead, too… I guess I’ll check that out next.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/04 at 11:07 PM

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

  1. It’s darn near impossible to fight these bigwigs.. but boycotting their services will eventually hit them where it hurts.  I am a little surprised they are being so harsh.  It was my understanding that many of these airlines were suffering financially.  One would think they would be a little more accommodating with their frequent fliers.

    Posted by Coll  on  01/05  at  09:21 AM

  2. While yes, that does suck, the more important point here is: IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY! Have a wonderful day!

    Posted by Helly  on  01/05  at  09:53 AM

  3. Yes, where is your “it is my birthday” post? HUH?

    Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!

    Posted by Kari  on  01/05  at  05:31 PM

  4. Bonne Anniversaire!  Hope you had a really good one.

    Posted by Nancy  on  01/05  at  07:12 PM
    5. Page 1 of 1 pages

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

What is the sum of 7 and 5?

Next entry: B is for birthday; B is for balls

Previous entry: I'm going to vet tech school!

<< Back to main