Platinum Plus Miles - Beware!

[Host Dan]

Hello,

I magine my surprise last night going through my platinum plus miles Mastercard statements for the past year. Each month my miles were getting fewer and fewer (since May 2008 I have gone from 45000 to 37000). I called the credit card company and was directed to a paltinum plus customer service rep. Seems that the miles expire monthly after 5 years (meaning the miles I accumilated in April of 2004 were now being deducted) I was not aware of this, although the rep "assured" me it was in the (microscopic) terms and conditions when I received the card in 2003. Dumb me, I should have written this fun fact down back in 2003 on a non-existant 2008 calendar! :rolleyes:

Luckily I still had the 37,000 miles and have cashed them in for a digital camera and a digital audio player. What burns me is the sneaky way these companies operate.

I will be canceling this (annual fee) card.

 

Host Dan

[frugaltravel]

Hello,

I magine my surprise last night going through my platinum plus miles Mastercard statements for the past year. Each month my miles were getting fewer and fewer (since May 2008 I have gone from 45000 to 37000). I called the credit card company and was directed to a paltinum plus customer service rep. Seems that the miles expire monthly after 5 years (meaning the miles I accumilated in April of 2004 were now being deducted) I was not aware of this, although the rep "assured" me it was in the (microscopic) terms and conditions when I received the card in 2003. Dumb me, I should have written this fun fact down back in 2003 on a non-existant 2008 calendar! :rolleyes:

Luckily I still had the 37,000 miles and have cashed them in for a digital camera and a digital audio player. What burns me is the sneaky way these companies operate.

I will be canceling this (annual fee) card.

 

Host Dan

 

It's been a year that your points have been decreasing and you just noticed it? I think some of the blame belongs not just on the credit card company.

[Globaliser]

I don't see that Host Dan was blaming the credit card company at all.

 

And depending on what else you have to keep track of in life, it's very easy to fail to notice expiring points in an account that you don't normally use or look at.

[Host Dan]

It's been a year that your points have been decreasing and you just noticed it? I think some of the blame belongs not just on the credit card company.

Yes, I did miss it, as they were decreasing in hundreds of dollars, not thousands. (thousands total when I finally figured out whats was going on). This is a card that I don't use often, and only get a bill (statement) when I use it. I hope this NEVER happens to you!

 

Host Dan

[6rugrats]

It would be nice if they emailed you when you were close to the time the points were going to expire, as many airline programs do. Do they have some sort of program where they can be reinstated? Many airlines have this also.

[Host Dan]

It would be nice if they emailed you when you were close to the time the points were going to expire, as many airline programs do. Do they have some sort of program where they can be reinstated? Many airlines have this also.

I specifically asked if they had notified me in some way, and the (honest) rep said that they didn't do this. I also asked if the miles could be re-instated, and again the answer was "no".

 

Host Dan

 

Now its getting my Delta miles on track- they expire at the end of the month! :D (but thats a different nightmare)

[Stellaglide]

Little off topic but there was a story in the local paper about 2 weeks ago where a Delta premier member lost all of his 700,000 FF miles becasue he had no activity on his account for 2 years.

 

Apparently the guy had been retired for about 2 years from a postion that required a lot of travel and he claimed that he was not notified of the policy change whereby if the account was inactive he would lose the miles.

 

He contacted the paper and they wrote a long article complete with quotes from a Delta rep who stated Delta's policy and the fact that the change was published yada, yada, yada. They basically said sorry it's our policy but just yesterday there was another article in the paper and Delta has reinstated his 700,000 miles.

 

Guess a little negative publicity in the media is not good for cutomer relations.

 

As far as credit card points, wife use to travel a lot for work and had a Hilton Honors card and American Express that both provided Delta points. She had decent FF status but nothing anywhere near premier. It seemd like almost every time we tried to use points for a flight there was not a seat available on the plane for points.

 

It seemed like there was always some catch where we couldn't use the points or we could but we had to pay extra to use them, and not to buy miles. To me it all just seemed like a scam. I'm sure if we/she had higher status with SkyMiles it would have been different and I totally understand rewarding those that patronize the airline more with better perks. But if we have the points and there are seats available I don't understand why we can't get the seat(s).

 

How does the ariline lose in that situation? Yes we don't pay for our seats when they could get a paying customer but we use our points so they are not available for us to use on another flight. Just seems like a use them now or use them later situation and in the end it all comes out in the wash.

 

Since it became difficult to use the FF points we cancelled the Delta cards and opened a Platinum MC account with USAA where we get points that can be used for different things, tickets included without worrying about if FF seats are available or not and there is no expiration on the points as long as the account is open.

 

Not sure if we are better off from a financial standpoint as far as how points are awarded and the value of the USAA points versus the Delta card points but at least this way we can pick and choose our flights without the airline saying sorry, no FF seats availabe for that flight. And since we paying for the flights and not using SkyMiles points we get credit for the flights whereas if we used the FF miles we wouldn't get the points.

 

Still are acquiring SkyMiles points but at least we have the option of using the USAA points or the SkyMiles points.

[Taxguy77]

Every time we flew AA, I didn't have enough points; I lost points (expired), finally got to use a few. Those were points for flying, no problem.

Credit cards: ONLY have cards that pay a % back for using them.:D. Take it off the bill, get a check, whatever.

Works for us!:cool:

[Jade13]

Hello,

I magine my surprise last night going through my platinum plus miles Mastercard statements for the past year. Each month my miles were getting fewer and fewer (since May 2008 I have gone from 45000 to 37000). I called the credit card company and was directed to a paltinum plus customer service rep. Seems that the miles expire monthly after 5 years (meaning the miles I accumilated in April of 2004 were now being deducted) I was not aware of this, although the rep "assured" me it was in the (microscopic) terms and conditions when I received the card in 2003. Dumb me, I should have written this fun fact down back in 2003 on a non-existant 2008 calendar! :rolleyes:

Luckily I still had the 37,000 miles and have cashed them in for a digital camera and a digital audio player. What burns me is the sneaky way these companies operate.

I will be canceling this (annual fee) card.

 

Host Dan

 

Which bank?

[Jade13]

 

Now its getting my Delta miles on track- they expire at the end of the month! :D (but thats a different nightmare)

I had the same problem and transfer my 3,000 Delta miles to Northwest.

[Onetrufan]

My Delta miles were due to expire soon, so I went onto SkyMiles Shopping and ordered something through there I was going to order anyway -- that counted as activity on my account and extended the expiration date for my miles. One good choice is GiftCertificates.com -- you can order gift certificates for stores, restaurants, movie theatres, etc. and just use it when you go shopping or out to eat or perhaps to give as a gift.

[Globaliser]

Buying flowers is often a good way of getting a few miles into an FF scheme. I've done this a couple of times to keep Delta accounts alive.

[skf]

All this is why we do not use an FF card. When you want to use the miles it is a hassle.

Now we use an Amazon card & the money we save on books & CDs is spent on airline tickets, without begging for seats.

Steve

[Globaliser]

All this is why we do not use an FF card. When you want to use the miles it is a hassle.

It depends on what you want to use the miles for. There are some awards which are stonkingly good value.

[Host Dan]

Which bank?

FIA Card services. (Was affiliated with SunTrust Bank)

 

Host Dan

 

PS To keep Delta miles, simply transfer to your NW Worldperks Acct.

[skf]

Sir Globaliser...

To a large extent it is a matter of preference. Since we have always flown Coach there is no advantage in using FF miles; we use the benefits on other stuff.

We flew to Paris in 2005 via AF using Delta miles. We had wanted to go to Madrid from BOS, but because we were using FF miles they would not allow it. The Delta flight back was fom MAD to ATL to MHT, which added over 1,000 miles & several hours to the expedition.

Steve

[FlyerTalker]

We flew to Paris in 2005 via AF using Delta miles. We had wanted to go to Madrid from BOS, but because we were using FF miles they would not allow it. The Delta flight back was fom MAD to ATL to MHT, which added over 1,000 miles & several hours to the expedition.

Not that they "wouldn't allow it". Just that there was no inventory availability for the specific flights that you wanted. Having to take slightly out-of-the-way routings is just part of the FF game.

[skf]

Well, that is exactly right, they had no seats for FF mile users, but I suspect cash customers would have had a choice of itinerary.

Steve

[Globaliser]

To a large extent it is a matter of preference.

It is certainly that.

 

One of the awards which I most cherish in my primary FF scheme is to upgrade from premium economy to business on a route like London to Johannesburg. It's 12,500 miles each way to do that. But flying on the underlying revenue premium economy ticket that you pay for will earn me something like 8,500 miles back, unaffected by the upgrade, so the net mileage cost for that upgrade is only about 4,000 miles each way.

 

So I'm certainly prepared to do FF credit cards to get access to that sort of award, particularly when the business class concerned is a flat-and-horizontal bed.

[greatam]

Couple of ways to keep miles alive that are VERY helpful to the recipients.

 

Operation Hero Miles provides flights for families of soldiers injured in war zones. Often, these young men and women are miles away from home in a hospital or convalescent center. Almost all USA airlines participate. Minimum donation has recently been raised to 500 miles, but a very worthy cause.http://www.fisherhouse.org/programs/heroMiles.shtml

 

 

You can also donate $25.00 to the USO and RECEIVE 125 AA miles. So you get a tax deduction AND get activity to keep your account alive.

 

https://www.uso.org/donate/custom.aspx?id=608&

 

Many, many charities tie in with the airlines for donations. A look at your favorite FF program should reveal lots of opportunities to "do good" (and keep those accounts alive).

 

And if nothing else, most airline FF programs allow redemption of a small amount of miles for magazines or news papers.