I’ve been having an ongoing bad experience with U.S. Airways over their Dividend Miles. I was about to book a RT flight itinerary from Minneapolis to Phoenix and just when I was about to click on the "Book this Flight" button I thought I would log into my Dividend Miles account to see my point total for a possible upgrade. When I logged in, immediately a pop up message advised that my miles had expired but I could redeem them by booking a flight and flying the 1st left of the itinerary by 2/27/2010. Great! Except the 1st leg of my itinerary would be flown on 3/11/2010, or 12 days after the deadline. However, the pop up message (below) states the "Date of Forfeiture" is 05/30/2011. I asked if I could email the screen shot I took of that and she stated that customer service has absolutely no access to any email. Really??
So, I called US Airways dividend customer service and spoke with Ivory for approximately 15-20 minutes explaining my situation. After I realized Ivory wasn't "listening" to me just content with stating over and over again that it isn't their policy to reinstate mileage after 18 months of inactivity I requested to speak to a supervisor. I was put on hold for a few minutes then introduced to Ricky who identified himself as a customer service specialist. When I asked if there is a supervisor as Ivory stated she was going to introduce me to he stated he was a level up at the "escalation" desk. Okaayy then.
I had to explain the situation once again. It became apparent my information was outdated as my personal info still existed with my Mesa, AZ address, phone number and outdated email address so Ricky updated that for me. Then when I requested a grace period to reinstate my miles since it was only 12 days AFTER the imposed deadline of 2/27/2010 he stated he was"sorry" and that it was "against US Airways policy to make any special accommodations and that he would not be able to do anything for me. I advised that I took a screen shot of it specifically stating that the "Date of Forfeiture" was "05/30/2011" but he didn't seem to believe me. He claims he tried to contact tech support but they showed the same info he saw. At that point I stated that if US Airways would make an exception and grant 12 days of grace period I would book with another airline and US Airways would not get any more business from me. Ricky could only say "that is your right to make that choice". I told him yes it was and I wonder what the executive offices would say, especially given the competitive climate and financial situation of the airlines, if just because a few piddly miles that isn't costing the airline a dime would they rather lose a revenue paying customer as opposed to reinstating 6800 miles which in and of itself can't be redeemed for anything.
Well, US Airways, you have just lost a revenue paying customer. You were my dedicated airline for all of my flights between MSP/PHX and now I will be looking to Sun Country, NWA/Delta, United and Southwest. What a shame for a few measly miles!!
