A friend recently flew from Boston to London on British Airways. He got a very good fare after tinkering around online. To his surprise, however, when he checked his frequent flier mileage statement, he only earned 817 miles in each direction.
We all know that the world is getting smaller, but since when is London only 800 miles from Boston. Thinking an error was made, he contacted the airline. The result? He got what he was entitled to under their rules:
*MOUSE PRINT:
[ Details on the BA website. ]
One-quarter of one mile for every full mile flown? Whoever heard of any airline giving you less than one frequent flier mile for each actual mile flown?
The lesson — don’t assume that all airline programs work as you expect.
On the one hand, yes, it’s a screw job. On the other hand, it shouldn’t be a surprise and it’s not mouse print. The notice is right there, up front on the main page in the same font size as the rest of the page. Seems to me this is one of those situations where it’s a matter of deciding if the program is worth ot or not based on the published rules, but it’s not a matter id dishonesty, unless this is a new restriction placed on existing members with no other advance notice.
As a frequent flyer I shudder to think this may be the beginning of a trend. The airlines are stretched to save every penny. As a former travel agent we had to read the fare basis codes which in some cases could be several pages long so we could properly advise our clients. How many customers actually read those for themselves? Probably the same number who read EULAs (end user license agreements) or possibly the same number of congresspeople who read bills before signing. It just isn’t done!
These frequent flyer programs are so convoluted and difficult for ANYONE to understand exactly what you are saving or “earning” toward future flights. And then on top of that the programs change the rules in the middle of the game. Why not have a program that simply state you earn X dollars toward future airfare on our airlines for every X dollars you spend with us?
Seems simple enough to me!
This isn’t anything new with BA. Several years ago we flew them from Chicago ORD to Heathrow and when I “applied” to their Air Miles Program I wasn’t approved because of the class of ticket that we were flying and that we didn’t have enough miles.
What’s the complaint? He was told upfront that on a discounted economy fare he would get 25% of the miles flown. All he had to do was read the program. The restrictions were plain and did not need a lawyer to intrepret them. Frequent flyer miles are part of an airlines promotional program and is subject to revision and/or revocation at any time. The airlines are under no obligation to keep the program going. Competition is the only thing that keeps the program alive.
It’s fairly common knowledge that the number of frequent flier miles accrued is relative to the “fare class” you purchase… This is not really a surprise to anyone who has looked at any airlines Frequent Flier website / policies.
On the left hand side (not in small print) is a big link that says collecting BA Miles on flights. You put in where you are flying, the class of service, and member tier status and it will tell you how many miles you earn before you even book a flight.
“Whoever heard of any airline giving you less than one frequent flier mile for each actual mile flown?”
Actually, Lufthansa/Star Alliance have been doing this for years, as I discovered when Swiss was bought out, joined Star, and the minimum frequent flyer miles accrued on a European trip went from 500 (not matter the actual distance) to 125.
I guess they want people to fly even more frequently. Their tip o’ the hat to Copenhagen 🙂