Over the years we fly several different airlines and if you are like us you have mileage programs for the family on each one. That makes tracking them hard enough, but rules appear to be changing as the airlines are squeezed by huge losses in an effort to reduce free flying. AA, for example, changed from a 36 month to 18 month expiration without account activity. It appears they didn’t bother to send a letter about this, though so far they restored miles to my account though I’m waiting to hear back on our three other accounts which collectively have more than one ticket worth of miles. I’m also having trouble with my US Air Account which appears to have expired miles as well, though in that case I was notified by them by email that was basically lost in the shuffle.

Let’s see if what response comes in from this:

Dear AA –

I am in a state of confusion about AAdvantage Dividend Miles for the family accounts. We don’t often fly AA because we live in a rural area not well served by AA, so our flights are every few years from big cities.

I called and they credited back miles I lost on my account, but accounts for my son, daughter, and wife appear to have lost the miles completely. We’d read on the last statement we have they “might expire in 36 months”, which would not have expired them yet. But when I called a few days ago I was told they expired a few months back after a change in the rules. I don’t think we were even notified of the change by mail or email as those accounts had no email addresses with them.

What am I asking for here? Simply that the miles be restored on the following accounts for another month or so so we can figure out what to do under the new rules, since we were under the impression they’d be fine until July 2008 based on the letters we have from AA:

(Account details omitted)
PS – l’ll be blogging this adventure at a travel blog I run, and would like permission to repost your replies, or if you prefer you can have a PR person

UPDATE: AA restored the miles and sent me this nice note. Thanks AA!:

Dear Mr. Hunkins:

Please accept my apology for the difficulty you encountered with the expiration of
your miles. We’re glad you took the time to write since it gives us the opportunity
to respond to your concern.

I have reviewed your account, as well as the accounts for your wife ***** ,
your son **** your daughter ***. As of today,
February 18, 2008, their accounts do show that their mileage has been restored (as
well as your account also has the mileage restored). Their mileage, as well as yours,
are in their accounts now, and you can view their accounts via AA.com at
http://www.aa.com/AAdvantage®.

Mr. Hunkins, we look forward to welcoming your family aboard soon. We very much
appreciate your family’s participation in our AAdvantage program.
Sincerely,

(name omitted)
Customer Relations
American Airlines