But airlines are now starting to scale back their promises. “These companies are first and foremost businesses and at some point need to...
But airlines are now starting to scale back their promises. “These companies are first and foremost businesses and at some point need to look at the economics of these liabilities there,” he said, referring to those miles and vouchers. But, he added, they had to do it fairly, with clearly communicated policies and without clawing back benefits already granted.
You did a great job communicating with the airline, and I’m sure you would have eventually extended your pass without my help. So let me tell others about your strategy.
First, you assemble an airtight enclosure. British Airways said one thing: on their website – and made another one. In the past, I’ve been tempted to throw many nasty screeds at customer service, only to realize that I missed an email or didn’t read the fine print. It would have been unreasonable for you to demand that they reinstate the exact same flight to Hong Kong, for example. Miles and vouchers do not guarantee a specific route, and the world has changed over the past couple of years. With my apologies to Thomas Wolfe, you can’t go back.
You’ve made your point over email, which saves everything and eliminates annoying wait times — not to mention you get the names and titles of the people you’re dealing with quite often. (I don’t know if writing directly to the GM’s email did you any good, but it didn’t hurt.) At the time we spoke, an employee named Daniel had admitted “your leave -pass should have been extended automatically until September 2023.” And when Daniel gave you a specific customer service number and you reported that they had declined your request, he seemed determined to personally intervene on your behalf, which I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before.
OK, time to let Erik pack his bags and have a chat: Have other travelers missed out by not playing the credit card game in search of first class tickets?
Probably not. First off, if you’re not one to pay off your credit cards in full every month, this game isn’t for you. Second, if you don’t put at least $1,000 a month on your cards, you probably won’t even cash out the basic introductory offers, which require you to spend a certain amount in the first few months you have your card. . Third, many have exorbitant annual fees that you need to factor into your calculations.
Finally, you must be extraordinarily organized with your finances and flexible in your travel dates and destinations. If all goes well, the $250 annual fee I paid for the Delta-branded Amex card will earn me 90,000 miles to use later this year, along with the companion voucher, but for that to happen, I have to spend $1000 a month which includes carefully transferring all my monthly payments to the new card (passwords, passwords) and returning them so I can cancel before the second annual fee comes in in force. I only felt it was worth it after hours on delta.com proving to myself – given my particular travel habits – that I can get far more from miles and other benefits than I spend in annual fees.
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