Even if frequent flier miles don’t go as far as they used to, we still love them. And we really love bonus mileage promotions. When most carriers started giving bonus miles for new routes or flying a certain number of times in a month, the bonus was automatic.
This meant that sometimes a traveler could open his or her statement and see unexpected extra miles. That’s always a happy surprise.
Then the airlines realized, if the point was to change passenger behavior, then there was no reason to automatically give the miles to travelers who were doing what they were going to do without any incentive. So the mileage programs started requiring registration to receive bonus miles.
Reasonable enough, but a spate of promotions by American, United, and now British Airways this spring, might be enticing new travel, but they are definitely upsetting regular fliers.
The British Airways promotion, which is similar to American’s and United’s, offers bonus miles to London. A lot of them. As many as 50,000 for a roundtrip business class trip. The catch? It’s for newly booked travel only. But British Airways just emailed the offer to all members of their Executive Club frequent flier program. Which means anyone who has already booked a trip is out of luck.
The Spring Promo information actually isn’t that clear. A line of small print says “Book and travel between March 16 and June 30, 2009.” But the email sent by British Airways says “Offer applies to new bookings only.”
A British Airways Executive Club agent told me off the record to just register and put the mileage number in anyway, and it “might work.” But she confirmed that it is supposed to be only for new reservations.
So once again, an incentive intended to be a positive just ending up upsetting people, some of them British Airways’ best customers. One client of mine is particularly frustrated since she booked her travel for May in advance to avoid potential fare increases, and her coworkers who procrastinated now get a bonus and she doesn’t.
At this point the only way to get the bonus with a previously booked ticket is to cancel the reservation, pay whatever penalty, and start over.
On the other hand, calling or writing British Airways Executive Club can’t hurt. And the same applies for any airline. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes, especially when it’s frequent fliers who are unhappy, policies do get changed. Just remember, it’s not the person on the phone or who reads the letter who came up with the promotion, so be nice.
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