They're a bold bunch all right. My family tagged along with me last year as I traveled to attend a professional conference. My wife and children had accumulated enough frequent flyer miles on the unnamed airline to fly free. After we returned from the trip I checked the mileage balance in my 10-year-old son's frequent flyer account as, by my calculations, he should be left with only a few thousand miles in his account. I was correct. . .to a point. After the trip he had about 6,000 miles in his account. Unfortunately, shortly after that a deduction transaction labeled "adjustment" for 50,000 miles was made to his account by the unnamed airline giving him a balance of NEGATIVE 44,000 MILES IN HIS FREQUENT FLYER ACCOUNT. I called the airline and explained the situation, and was transferred at least five times to other departments (some twice) and explained the situation each time. After about two hours on the phone, I finally got to the end of the line to a supervisor of some type who explained to me that it is possible to have such a large negative mileage balance. She claimed the 50,000 mile deduction was legitimate but had now way of validating or explaining it and, quite frankly, had no intention of investigating it. It sounded like an inside job to me. I then informed her that I attended graduate business school with the current CEO of the airline she worked for and that I intended to contact him personally first thing in the morning using her name(the truth is, the airline CEO and I did go through the same MBA program, but he was a few years behind me and I don't know him, but she didn't know that. I did however, intend to contact him). Amazingly, her response to me was "Go ahead!"
. Maybe she thought I was bluffing but it was a hell of a gamble on her part! Prior to picking up the phone to call the CEO the next morning (I suspect he would have responded to my attempt to contact him as our alumni tend to accommodate one another), I checked my son's mileage balance and the "adjustment" was reversed and his mileage was indeed correct so I let it slide. If this is how they treat the best and most loyal customer base, I can't imagine how they treat the rest. I don't think I have set foot on one of their planes since and I fly more than most Americans.
When we handed huge checks to the airlines after 9/11, we should have put a message on the back of the check stating that by endorsing the check the payee agrees to fly on schedule, be respectful to their passengers (who are their customers), maintain their equipment and deliver quality service. I don't think that's an unreasonable request. I wonder how many of them would have cashed the check?