Jake McKee has flown over 415,000 miles on American. Platinum status. Uber-loyal. Has flown them when other options were cheaper, in the belief that at some point in the future when he needed flexibility, they’d be able to provide it.
Nope, they hosed him. Here’s how (letter reprinted from http://www.communityguy.com ):
“My name is Jake McKee. I’m a highly loyal AA member (#80E04C2) since 11/18/98. I’ve acquired 415,000 miles. My AA number is one of the few numbers other than my wife’s birthday and my social security number that I actually know by heart. I typically spend anywhere from $10K-$30K USD/year with AA. I travel all over North America, and have used AA to fly to Europe a number of times this year.
I’ve encourage many to fly AA, and skipped cheaper tickets. With my status, I believed that if I had problems AA would treat me right.
After a call to American to redeem miles for a ticket, I’ve decided that my loyalty has been clearly misplaced. The cause is outlined below:
I booked an award ticket, and was told by the rep that I could pay the fees up to the day of the flight without fees. I called in to settle the fees and was told there was an extra $50 charge becausee I was under 21 days. After talking to a supervisor (who knew my status), I was told the fee was required, regardless of what the orginal sales agent told me. The supervisor said that knowing my status, I should know the policies. I said “so basically you’re punishing me for having flown a lot with you”, she said “If you’d like to think about it that way”.
She made $50 off of me, she effectively lost tens of thousands of dollars. United Airlines has assured me that my status would transfer.
This letter is an offer to save my business. I will be blogging this experience at communityguy.com
Jake McKee”
He’s also running a contest over there. Place your bets on when/if AA will get back to him…
Well, there’s resolution. Not an amazing resolution, but a resolution. More info here:
http://www.communityguy.com/index.cfm?commentID=363
Maybe I’m slow, but I don’t understand what the problem is. You booked with less than 21 days notice. They have a policy that that costs $50. Why should the fact that you fly a lot with them excuse you from paying $50 for booking less than 21 days out?
LeperKing: Because one of AA’s CSR’s allegedly told him that, essentially, the policy didn’t exist, or at least didn’t apply to him. Assuming AA records all CSR calls “for quality assurance purposes,” someone in AA should be able to pull the recording and verify the screw-up of the CSR.
I think AA is going to be another Dell case: while Jake McKee is no Jeff Jarvis, if Jake’s experience is typical, it’ll only be a matter of time before someone who can draw the public attention like Jeff Jarvis speaks up.
AA, the clock is now ticking. Do you cut the red, or white, wire?