Question: I’ve been saving my Delta Air Lines frequent flier miles for many, many years to take my wife on a 20th anniversary trip this year. I received all of my statements by regular mail. A few months ago, I asked the airline for a PIN number so I could look at my account online, and when I logged in, I was shocked to see my balance at zero miles. I had — or at least I thought I had — 101,000 miles.
It turns out that even though I used to have points with no expiration date, Delta had made changes to its program and because of inactivity on my account my points were deleted late last year.
A representative also told me that since Delta had gone “green” I hadn’t received any account statements, which would have informed me of my expiration dates. We asked the airline to reinstate our miles, since we have stayed at Delta partner hotels in the last year, but it refused.
I feel like our dream anniversary has been shattered and I am devastated since I can’t afford to buy plane tickets. I would be very, very grateful if you would consider contacting Delta on my behalf. To quote an old movie, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope!” — Kenneth Miller, Albuquerque, NM
Answer: Delta should have told you about your expiring miles. It was wrong to deny your request. It was also wrong to underestimate the Force. (Sorry, I just had to throw in another “Star Wars” line. But who am I kidding?)
Like most other airline loyalty programs, Delta’s SkyMiles program allows the airline to change its terms any time for any reason. If that sounds overly broad, if not a little unfair, that’s because it probably is. You can review the terms online for yourself and decide.
You made some assumptions about your frequent flier program that were incorrect. You believed the terms under which you began collecting loyalty points wouldn’t change — that your miles would last forever — even though Delta’s terms gave the airline a license to rewrite the rules.
I can’t blame you for thinking Delta would keep its word. It’s like buying a knife set with a lifetime warranty, only to discover a few years later that the guarantee has been cut to two years. If you earned non-expiring miles, then common sense tells you the miles should never expire. But common sense doesn’t apply to this situation.
Here are a few steps you could have taken to improve your chances of keeping your miles. First, you phoned Delta, but I would have written instead. A quick e-mail to the airline is far more effective than a call, for a number of reasons that regular readers of this column already know.
In reviewing this case with Delta, you probably could have done a couple of things to keep your hard-earned miles, like giving the airline a current e-mail address and handing over your SkyMiles number to the hotels where you stayed. Had you done those two things, you probably would still have your 101,000 miles.
I contacted Delta on your behalf. I also forwarded receipts from your hotel stays to prove that technically, you had some activity on your account, even though you never received mileage credit for it. As a gesture of goodwill, and as an exception, Delta returned your miles.
(Photo: Pylon757/Flickr Creative Commons)
✓ Get the latest travel news, tips and commentary from Elliott’s E-Mail, the subversive newsletter from industry gadfly Christopher Elliott. You’ll travel like a pro. Sign up here. It’s free.
Sign up for my 
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Mr Miller will have another shock (or deception) by trying to book with his 101,000 miles unless he book 11 months in advance and traveling midweek. Availabilities for Skymiles Saver are quite limited and forget about Holidays and Summer. Anyway, I hope he still can find free seats this year when economy conditions still slugging. Gook luck.
Agree with Dang. Skymiles have depreciated by a lot over the last couple of years. A roundtrip ticket to europe used to cost 50k miles and was fairly easy to find, now you would be lucky to book a trip for 90k miles even if you start looking 8 months in advance. Domestic award tickets are not much better as it’s nearly impossible to find anything for the good old 25k miles roundtrip – 40k is pretty much the norm now for those awards….
One way to keep Delta miles current is to put them on your Safeway’s loyal customer card ( or one of their subsideries) and you get one mile for each dollar. More importantly you keep your miles current, I switch between my wifes Delta account and mine to keep them both current.
YAY!!!! Christopher does it again! May the force be with you always my friend!
Chris, all I can say is that you work miracles.
To be honest, I wish there was some governmental regulation of the “customer loyalty programs” offered by many various companies from Coca-Cola to Delta to Hyatt and so on. I think some common sense regulation would allow customers to feel a bit more secure in becoming part of these programs.
Just an observation about trying to email Delta. its a waste of time. I have email very specific, simple quetions asking for clarification about items in their Sky Mile program that would have required an individualize response. I never received anything but their form letter responses, and most of the time, they are not even related to the topic I asked a question about.
If the government gets into regulating reward programs, I believe a number of the companies would likely quit the programs rather than deal with all the potential headaches.
@Ted – Phoenix Justice
Well, what kind of regulation do you seek? That companies should make their loyalty programs “forever”, or the terms can’t be changed no matter what, or what exactly?
From what I gather from some people, government doesn’t necessarily want to “tell a business how to run a business”. It’s a tempting yet understandable idea, but it can adversely affect those who realistically won’t be able to do what was originally agreed upon.
Let’s say you run a web site hosting business (which I used to work in) to host a blog like this one. Part of your marketing come-ons is to offer “lifetime” hosting.
You state somewhere in your web site you offer that only for as long as the customer continues his hosting service with you, you can change that anytime, and you’ll notify them two months ahead before doing that. You lose money a year after you first offered that, you determine it’s not worth it, and you give your customers a two-month advance notice to transfer their “stuff” before shutting down everything.
But one customer insists you “host his web site forever” as originally agreed upon, despite your hosting agreement or contract stating it can be changed anytime. You tell him you really can’t but can at least refund his money, he insists, and you two go to court.
As a customer, I’m sure one would want the government to intervene in cases like that. As a business owner who’s especially losing money, I’m sure one won’t want that either.
As an FYI for some users: there’s a nifty site out there called the WayBack Machine or archive.org. While it’s not necessarily complete or accurate, the earliest I can find on Delta’s SkyMiles site is back in 2005:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050804015113/http://www.delta.com/skymiles/about_skymiles/membership_guide_program/skymiles_rules/index.jsp
Question for Delta SkyMiles users since I ain’t one: do you recall if Delta ever said at any time their miles don’t expire or so? Just checking.
At any rate, it’s kind of Delta Airlines to make an exception in this case. Kudos.
Whoops, forgot to add these from that link:
Of course, those terms have changed since then.
I’m happy that once again, someone who lost his miles due to non-activity got them back, but really, this is getting to be kind of old. All these people seem to be able to find Christopher when it happens to THEM… but he’s written about this problem – and helped others with it – over and over and over again for years now.
I don’t remember exactly when they folded the old “non-expiring” FFMiles program into Skymiles, but I know it’s been at least four or five years, because I used to monitor my parents’ mileage accounts for them, and my father had both the old (FF) and new (Skymiles) miles in his account. Along the way, they dropped the old program and converted the old miles to Skymiles, and there were notices for months in the paper statements then.
So I feel fairly certain this fellow DID get notified – he just didn’t read the notification. Lots of people look at the balance on their statement and toss it in a file (or the trash), if they haven’t had any activity… just like many people ignore those “terms and conditions” changes that come with credit cards periodically. And then they’re shocked – SHOCKED! – when something comes back to bite them, like this.
In fact, what, really, are the chances that it was EXACTLY between his last monthly statement and the time he called for his PIN number that his non-activity period reached the threshold? Especially since almost everyone I know who had a Skymiles account with little or no activity got a free “expiration extension” credit mile on his account last year. My guess is that this guy’s been chunking his statements unread for months, in which case, let’s face it, Delta was overly generous in restoring the miles.
Separately, a count-point on a few other posts: Dang, it’s true popular destinations often have no availability for the basic/saver rate, but if he wants to go somewhere off the beaten path, it’s not always so bad. And with 100,000 miles to work with, that’s two domestic coach tickets at the rule-buster rate, or two first-class tickets (roughly) at the saver rate, which are often easier to get than the coach saver tickets.
Jalmah: Safeway for miles is great – if you live in a city with Safeway. Like so many airline-specific mileage opportunities, those aren’t available to a huge swath of the country where a particular chain doesn’t operate. That’s my beef with the Rewards Network dining mileage program – in my metro area of nearly 700,000 people, there are only two restaurants which participate, one of which is Pizza Hut. Like Safeway, it’s a useless option for me and many others.
Ted – As for government regulation: you can be sure that if the government moves to regulate mileage programs, the airline lobbyists will be the ones writing the rules behind the scenes, and they’ll leave us with no more actual rights than we have now–except that they’ll then point to the rules and say “Well, the feds say we have to do it this way, sorry” instead of sometimes, like this case, granting an exception.
As a diamond level, I never have a problem booking a seat. I just booked two tickets to St. Marteen the day before travel. I’m sorry that Delta took his miles, but I’m glad to see they refunded them. The most obvious fact that people overlook, it’s a “Customer Loyality Program” The more you fly, the more perks you obtain.
I long ago gave up on airline loyalty programs. Unless you are a business traveler, there is no way you can accumulate any points of value from basic vacationing. I funnel all of my points-earning into hotel awards. For now, that works well for me…I stay free a couple times a year. I find no point in trying to accumulate airline miles.
WHEN WILL PEOPLE REALIZE THAT AIRLINES LIE AND REPAY LOYALTY WITH DISREGARD. MY STRAGEGY IS “NEVER TRUST AN AIRLINE, CRUISE LINE, BANK, TRAVEL AGENT, ETC., ETC., ETC. AND REMEMBER THIS ADAGE:
“NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!”
MORT – NYC
Chris congratulations on helping these folks get their Sky Miles back.
It has been my experience that all vendors (airlines, hotels and car rental companies) have added expiration dates and require some activity to retain the points/miles. This changed several years ago so it’s not really anything new. I lost my AAdvantage miles a couple of years ago but I avoid AA anyway.
In regards to the comment made by Dang about about the Shock/deception when trying to redeem those points/miles I have to say that my experience has been just the opposite. I used some of my Delta Sky Miles (sky saver) to travel first class from Florida to California in August 2009, and I booked it about 1 month in advance. I’ve also used my Hilton Honors points for several free stays and also only booked those a few weeks out.
I’m sure if I tried to use those points on a holiday weekend my results would not have been the same but holidays are always times when all vendors (travel, retail, etc.) make their money.
The bottom line here is people must take responsibility in keeping up with changes and regulations to keep their accounts viable. It’s not hard.
A good way to do this is an airlines credit card partner. In Delta’s case it is AMX. ANY purchase automatically goes into your Sky miles account.
David Z’s 2nd post is correct. The 3 years has changed but any activity keeps your account alive, and if you’re not a true f.f. you need to keep on top of this.
I’m a Delta f.f. and I have had no trouble getting vacation flights. BUT – I also set them up 10-11 months in advance. Short term and holidays are going to be harder but that’s the “nature of the beast”.
I agree with Kevin M. I had old “non -expiring” miles that were folded into the new Skymiles and Delta was very good with notification of this and subsequent changes.
This gentleman did not pay attention. He could have kept his miles alive with his hotel stays but didn’t. He was sloppy and innattentive but got lucky thanks to Chris.
Lesson learned
“I contacted Delta on your behalf. I also forwarded receipts from your hotel stays to prove that technically, you had some activity on your account, even though you never received mileage credit for it. As a gesture of goodwill, and as an exception, Delta returned your miles.”
Like they are “DOING HIM” a favor… I love as a good gesture. It’s like me stealing your wallet, then giving it back with money in tacked. AS A GOOD GESTURE. It was your damn wallet to begin with, as these were HIS EARNED MILES. Call me skeptical, but it seems these companies simply don’t care, so long as they can continually piss off their loyal customers. If you figure 101,000 miles. The average flight being maybe 1500 miles round trip, that’s near 70 flights taken. 70 x say an avg of 300 per flight = 21,000 dollars spent with this company. Last I checked, that’s a pretty LOYAL customer….
11 months in advance!!! Wow. Americans really get the raw end of the deal with airlines. You pay for checking baggage (and then they lose it or break your guitar), you pay for food on board the flight (and then the food tastes really bad), you can’t spend your loyalty points, and even the safety records of many US airlines are not optimal. That’s even before you’re dealing with TSA madness.
Airlines in Europe, Asia and Australia are much better. I’ve never paid for a meal or drink on board a flight and I’ve never paid to check in baggage. I’ve flown budget airline easyJet ex London a few times but it was a very short flight so I took carry-on bags and didn’t eat during the flight.
I’m a Qantas frequent flyer. I don’t “save” my points just as a matter of good practice, since things can change. I earn my points on international flights with Qantas or One World partners. Then I spend them when I go home to Australia, generally about once a year, to fly on flights between Sydney and Brisbane or Melbourne. I can usually find award flights a week or two in advance.
“Frequent” flyer miles. Over the 3 decades of miles, the word still doesn’t make sense into the 1 or 2 time a century fliers. For the road warrior, they make sense. To have saved 100,000 whole miles, I would expect the airlines to show little concern. I worry about dropping below a million miles in a 2 year period, and have customers that have so many miles that they pass me in line, they are so important. Those are the Frequent Fliers that get the perks. Give up on the miles and get cash rebates, they are easier to use if you don’t have 30 or 50 flight segments a year.
MORT HERMAN January 10, 2010 at 2:52 am
WHEN WILL PEOPLE REALIZE THAT AIRLINES LIE AND REPAY LOYALTY WITH DISREGARD. MY STRAGEGY IS “NEVER TRUST AN AIRLINE, CRUISE LINE, BANK, TRAVEL AGENT, ETC., ETC., ETC. AND REMEMBER THIS ADAGE:
“NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!”
MORT – NYC
I wonder if anyone should trust Mort given his attitude. I would not.
If you value your loyalty program (i.e. airline, hotel, rental car, etc) like ‘currency’ then it is your responsibility to keep up with them. Most if not all loyalty program clearly states that they can change the rules. I belong to several loyalty programs and all of them have notified me when changes have been made. In regards to Delta, they were very good in notifying their members about this change.
The bottom line is that Mr. Miller didn’t pay attention to his miles. When will people in this country start to take responsibilities for their actions or lack of actions?
If all of the 101,000 miles were the old ‘non-expiring’ miles, it meant that Mr. Miller probably hasn’t flow Delta for at least 12 years. I can’t recall when the current Sky Miles came out but I have a 1998 showing two totals…one for ‘non-expiring’ miles and one for the Sky Miles.
Mr. Miller could have owed up to his lack of responsibility and spent $ 53.75 and Delta could have reinstated his miles.
Mr. Miller or any FF member could do any of the following to keep their miles active with most airlines (you will need to check with your FF program)…here are some of the ways:
1. Use a few hundred miles and purchase a magazine subscription
2. Sign up their FF account at points.com (no costs)
3. Sign up for e-miles (no costs)…respond to surveys and earn miles for your frequent flyer program. The only cost is your time.
4. Sign up for e-Rewards (no costs)…respond to surveys and earn miles for your frequent flyer program. Again, the only cost is your time.
5. Sign up for the airline dining program (no costs)…assign your credit card(s) to your account and every time that you eat at a restaurant in the program, you earn miles. For a recent US Airways promotion, I spent $ 5 at a coffee shop and I earned miles for my account as well as extra miles for the promotion.
5. Use an airline affinity credit card.
6. Most airlines FF programs have their own shopping mall (i.e. US Airways Dividends Miles Shopping Mall) where you can purchase item like a $ 5.00 gift card from Sears to keep your account active. For example, there are over 100+ merchants on US Airways Dividends Miles Shopping Mall such as Barnes & Noble, Sears, Wal-Mart, Vera Wang, Disney, Williams-Sonoma, Walgreens, Office Max, Kodak Gallery, Snapfish and etc.
7. Purchase items from Sky Mall.
8. Purchase flowers from FTD.
9. Get a car insurance quote (no costs).
10. If you buy or sell stocks, mutual funds or etc., you can open up a Sharebuilder account or a TD Ameritrade account.
There are several ways to earn miles to keep your miles active without stepping a foot on the plane. For example, US Airways has over 100+ Dividend Miles partners (I stop counting at 100 and I was only a 1/3 through the list of partners).
Comments to the other posters:
@Sue – “I long ago gave up on airline loyalty programs. Unless you are a business traveler, there is no way you can accumulate any points of value from basic vacationing.” Depending upon the things that you buy and etc., you can really earn some mile. I know US Airways frequent flyers that earned 100,000 to 1,000,000 miles from the recent US Airways promotion (250% Holiday Bonus) without stepping a foot on the plane. For this promotion, I earned 75,000 miles and I spent under $ 500 dollars. We run everything (i.e. gas, day care expenses, groceries, telephone, cell phones, repairs, cable and etc.) that we can on our airline affinity credit card and we earn over 2,500 miles a month. Before my employer made it mandatory to use the company credit card, I use to earn over 10,000 miles a month.
@Justin – “… so long as they can continually piss off their loyal customers. If you figure 101,000 miles. The average flight being maybe 1500 miles round trip, that’s near 70 flights taken. 70 x say an avg of 300 per flight = 21,000 dollars spent with this company. Last I checked, that’s a pretty LOYAL customer….” Haven’t flown Delta in at least 12 years, I don’t think that is a loyal customer. I seriously doubt that Mr. Miller earned these 101,000 miles in one year…if he earned these miles over 5 years that is only $ 4,000 to $ 5,000 a year…I spend over $ 20,000 year for airline tickets.
@Caitlin – “Airlines in Europe, Asia and Australia are much better…” I agreed that the First Class and Business Class products and services for most international based airlines (i.e. Asia and Europe) are better than the US-based airlines with Asia based airlines (i.e. Singapore, Cathay Pacific, etc.) being the best in the world (which has been validated by various FF polls, surveys, third-party and etc.). The US based airlines are catching up but they have a long way to go. One advantage that the Asia-based airlines has is that they have less labor unions or no labor unions to deal with compare to the European and US-based airlines.
@Chris Elliott – “Delta should have told you about your expiring miles. It was wrong to deny your request.” Delta did…Mr. Miller didn’t read the communications from Delta, didn’t entered an e-mail address to his account when Delta stop mailing statements a few years (which was communicated) and etc.
@Arizona Road Warrior I have flown business class once or twice but I was primarily talking about economy tickets.
@Caitlin – I had two short-haul flights (2 1/2 hrs) on Cathay Pacific in Economy Class and it was better than United Economy Plus or even US Airways First Class.
I am retired, have never flown for business when I did work, yet am still platinum on Continental, thanks to having children and grandchildren I fly to see, as well as taking vacation trips. I read Chris’s columns and others faithfully, so I consider myself a more savvy traveler than most of my friends.
Because my friends aren’t frequent travelers, I don’t recommend to them that they keep up with all the latest travel blogs. (Sorry, Chris.) However, if one is ever confronted by the type of travel problem Chris deals with, I will try to give advice and then recommend Chris if all else fails. Perhaps Mr. Miller came to call upon Chris after being advised by a friend.
We very frequent fliers tend to look down our noses at the occasional leisure travelers who, “don’t take responsibility” for keeping up with the very latest in flier miles. Let’s all be kinder this year and cut those travelers some slack!
Delta sent an offer to give a “gift” of Skymiles to a relative or friend, and they would give the person a 50% bonus. In the fine print, it turns out it costs you $30 plus a penny a mile to give this gift! That is $330 for 30,000 miles or more than I paid for a trip that costs that many miles! This is egregiously, blatantly false and misleading. I wrote to Delta and also got a standard, unresponsive answer that had nothing to do with what I said. The saddest thing is that this sort of dishonesty is so common today, it is not even recognized as dishonest and immoral. How can I actually talk to a Delta corporate person about this or have an impact on what they do?