[TchrMikeFTLFL]

Just like a pirate off the African coast holding a ship at sea hostage for ransome, American Airlines A Advantage Program hiolds your expired miles for 6 months for a fee. The "hostage" fee is another example of why American can't gewt it together and has a stock price today of .51 cents per share. When I went to purchase a ticket a few days ago and learned that my 8,000 miles expired only days before and could not be reinstated unless I paid a "hostage fee", I angrily slammed the phone down and called Delta. Delta miles do not expire. I've been a member of Americans A Advantage Program since 1991. These miles expired on the 6th of the month. Why not the 1st, the 15th or the 29th? What an odd day to expire. Although I fly on other airlines I always gave American first preference. Not anymore. I sat down in disgust and wrote Thomas Horton, CEO of AMR and American, but judging by the complaints here its apparent American doesn't have any customer service so I won't hold my breath for an answer or response. I doubt I'll receive a reply but I will steer all my teacher friends who take vacations and cruises away from American. I'll never pay a hostage fee for points, ever. If American wants to survive it needs for one, to fire the idiot who came up with that fee and reorganize their Frequent Flyer program so its makes some sense and makes us "want" to fly with them.

[AADFW]

Sadly they don't care about you or your friends. Here are two reasons why:

- Elite fliers make up 6% percent of passengers but can account for as much as half of all airline seat-mile revenue. Most of the rest are "commodity customers" who are on board because the airline had the lowest base fare. Guess which category of customers the airlines feel are more expendable? Your value to AA as an occasional flier is insignificant.

- The fee you've described falls into a category known as "ancillary revenue" to the airline accountants. In 2009, domestic airlines raised $7.8 billion in ancillary revenues alone. As you take your less than 16,000 mile per year travel revenue to another carrier, you will find that similar fees exist with the other guys too. Sure, they may not be in the form of this exact frequent flier fee, but if not they will be equally annoying. Unfortunately ancillary fees are not going away anytime soon, as they are a big reason why many airlines have begun to turn a profit.

Happy flying!

[stonecold_1981]

While I'm no big fan of FF programs (let alone AA), your analogy is ludicrous. How is it a hostage fee, when they make it clear in their R&R that miles have a certain validity period?

Also, ALL FF program miles (including Delta, United, etc.) have an expiration date. This is ONLY waived if you have a sponsored credit card (e.g. Chase Explorer for United) OR if you are an elite customer.

Originally Posted by TchrMikeFTLFL

Just like a pirate off the African coast holding a ship at sea hostage for ransome, American Airlines A Advantage Program hiolds your expired miles for 6 months for a fee. The "hostage" fee is another example of why American can't gewt it together and has a stock price today of .51 cents per share. When I went to purchase a ticket a few days ago and learned that my 8,000 miles expired only days before and could not be reinstated unless I paid a "hostage fee", I angrily slammed the phone down and called Delta. Delta miles do not expire. I've been a member of Americans A Advantage Program since 1991. These miles expired on the 6th of the month. Why not the 1st, the 15th or the 29th? What an odd day to expire. Although I fly on other airlines I always gave American first preference. Not anymore. I sat down in disgust and wrote Thomas Horton, CEO of AMR and American, but judging by the complaints here its apparent American doesn't have any customer service so I won't hold my breath for an answer or response. I doubt I'll receive a reply but I will steer all my teacher friends who take vacations and cruises away from American. I'll never pay a hostage fee for points, ever. If American wants to survive it needs for one, to fire the idiot who came up with that fee and reorganize their Frequent Flyer program so its makes some sense and makes us "want" to fly with them.