I much rather be spending my time looking for hot deals to earn and redeem airlines miles than writing this article. However, there comes a time when there is so much frustration in dealing with these rouge airline companies, that I can understand why most consumers turn a blind eye, and do not bother dealing with reward programs in general. When the system goes wrong, and I have done practically everything I can do on my end, it gets frustrating, and I have no where to turn but to write a disgruntled article to help spread the word.
The whole issue started back in September and October of 2011, during the US Airways Grand Slam promotion. Here are some quick facts of the case.
On 9/15/11, I placed an order to redeem 400 US Airways Dividend airlines miles for a Sunset magazine subscription through their magazine subscription provider. I presume at this point the magazine vendor, even though they bill themselves as associated with US Airways, is actually a third party vendor, and has nothing to do with US Airways. This sounds like we have another dreaded third party vendor similar to Cartera and others.
Subsequently, 400 miles were deducted from my account on the same day. I later went on to earn bonus miles in the Grand Slam promotion, since redeeming miles for a subscription was one method of earning a hit.
On 10/11/11, we placed an order for Lucky magazine using 500 miles from my wife’s US Airways account. As you can start to see, screen shots throughout the process can prove invaluable in trying to prove your case at a later date.
Again, the miles were instantly deducted from my wife’s account on the same day. You will see a little later in this article why this becomes important.
So now that all the orders were placed, I sat and waited for our magazines to arrive. However, by the time 2012 came along, it was an irregular amount of time for the magazines to have not shown up. According to MilePoint, one could check the status of their magazine subscription using this link. I was always slightly skeptical though because the site had no resemblance to the US Airways magazine ordering system. Sure enough, neither of our orders could ever be located in the system. So using the Contact Us page, I sent them a message about our issue.
No response. So I messaged them again. No response. Finally, on 1/31/12, I called the US Airways Magazine customer service line (1-800-586-9632) to try and talk with someone directly. Again, they could not locate any of our information. They in turn directed me back to US Airways, so I called 1-800-428-4322. After talking with an agent, they had me file a complaint at the following link within the US Airways partner program to try and rectify the situation. The agent requested that I group both my wife and my account issues together in one form, as well as place a phone number telling them to call me directly to resolve the issue.
After submitting the form, now is where the “fun” begins.
On 2/6/12, I received two separate emails stating there were no orders placed for magazines using the US Airways system.
Dear ________,
Thank you for contacting our Magazines for Miles Customer Service Center. This is in response to your message.
We apologize for any inconvenience, but we were unable to locate an order for this title(s) with the information you provided.
Is it possible that the order was placed using another last name and/or zip code? If so, please provide us further information to help us locate your order.
Thank you for your participation in the Magazines for Miles Program.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
On 2/7/12, I responded back with the screenshots from above (only with pertinent account information shown) for both transactions showing we did place orders for the stated magazines. The screenshot also verified our Dividend account numbers, as well as the address where each magazine was to be sent.
On 2/15/12, I received the following message from a completely different person.
Dear _______________,
Thank you for contacting our Magazines for Miles Customer Service Center. This is in response to your message.
We have received your recent inquiry regarding your Delta Airline miles and have submitted to your airline to reinstate the expired miles. We ask that you allow 7 to 10 business days for us to receive a response from the airline. As soon as a response is received, we will be back in contact with you.
We appreciate your patience and understanding and look forward to serving you.
Thank you for your participation in the Magazines for Miles Program.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
(Emphasis mine) Ok so that was a good start to getting the issue resolved, except…this issue had nothing to do with Delta miles, but rather US Airways Dividend Miles. Did anyone even bother to review any history or the attachments to my account? So I respond back with:
Thanks, but for clarification, this issue had to do with our US Airways miles, not our Delta accounts. Please confirm the miles will get credited to the appropriate US Airways accounts AND not effect the bonus miles we received from the Grand Slam promotion.
Thanks,
Justin
Keep in mind up until this point, all emails have been through csa@magazineoutlet.com, who I assume US Airways contacted and said to be in touch with me. So it now seems we are at least on the right path towards rectifying the situation.
Then on 2/17/12, I receive an email directly from US Airways with the following response:
Dear Mr. and Ms. _______,
Thank you for contacting US Airways.
We have contacted our Magazines for Miles partner liaison and they have
processed both of your magazine orders. Please allow 4-8 weeks for
delivery.
Please contact the Magazine for Miles customer service number directly
at 877-813-3200, if you require further assistance.
Thank you for being a member of our Dividend Miles program. We look
forward to assisting you with any future needs.
Sincerely,
US Airways Dividend Miles
Ok, so now maybe we will actually receive the magazines, which I am still fine with as an alternative to getting back the miles…
..until the next email arrived 2/23/12. Keep in mind this email was in response to my original response back on 2/7/12, thereby, the person responding has yet again seen nothing of the previous discussions.
Dear ___________,
Thank you for contacting our Magazines for Miles Customer Service Center. This is in response to your message.
We have received notification from your airline that no miles were deducted from your account for the magazines you ordered. We apologize for any inconvenience that you have experienced.
Thank you for your participation in the Magazines for Miles Program.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
What? Now we have completely back stepped and have no record of even the miles being deducted from our accounts. Surely, they must be trying to still look in our Delta accounts. So I send off another email with screen shots of not only our orders, but also matching US Airways Dividend Miles screenshots showing the miles being deducted on the same exact dates.
So here we are, months after the initial order, and we are out miles with no magazines. I can see where the average consumer just gives up and says screw it for a couple hundred miles. However, companies need to held accountable for their actions. If US Airways and other airlines want to plaster their brand all over these third party vendors, they need to be held accountable.
Fast forward to the past couple of weeks, and now both magazines have started to show up, and I received a refund for both magazine orders with the miles being credited back to our accounts. I just wanted one or the other, but because apparently there was no coordination between all the parties involved, we get the best of both worlds.
Be persistent people and make companies accountable!
