Frequent Flyer points wiped out ...
 

Rather disappointed to discover that a certain prominent Australian carrier has reduced the FF points for both Herself and Iself from 14,000 points each to zero. Reason? No account activity for 18 months. We had no idea. Apparently even a swipe of their card at a Woolworths counter would have reset the time flag, but I was advised during a phone query that there was an 18 month limit and, no, despite the fact that we plan a significant return trip to EU from AU this year - probably in business class - we have to start again. It was suggested that I might have been able to claim that a purchase at a partner company had failed to register, but that didn't happen, and despite the disappointment, I 'aint going to lie to them.

We didn't fly OS last year for health reasons. Given that this is a scheme to encourage customer loyalty, it's a rather puzzling ruling - it can't be that hard to change for a loyal but naive customer and revert to the previous total which they obviously had on file. Still it does give us the option now of choosing any carrier we want without the fragile enticement of remaining 'loyal' and accumulating more points - for what use they would be.

Just a cautionary tale if you didn't know that this could happen ... But then perhaps I was the only one who didn't.:rolleyes:

Sadly true. Schemes vary as to how long an account can lie dormant before the points vanish. Can be up to three years but they all do it.

Another trick that QANTAS pulled was to devalue already earned points by about 66%. When I recently tried to book QF I found that my estimated A$2500 worth of points was worth just over A$800. :sad:

Any time you see a points scheme telling you of 'New opportunities / Changes / Improvements / New / Sparkly / etc' - you can expect your exisiting points to be degraded! Usually by the simple method of jacking up the number of points needed for a flight. Also, there is the hidden aspect that you never know how many 'reward' seats are available on a given sector. If they only allow 4 seats for redemption on a 250 aircraft - once booked then it is 'full'.

The only reason we have loyalty cards with KLM is that in the situation that there is, in adversity, a possibility for advantage... we will be there to take it! I don't expect anything else from these false 'contracts'.

Thanks to all for your input. It looks like this situation is more common than might be thought:

https://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...4e54f62d1cfc29

However in some instances all may not be lost if you grovel sufficiently and have a good story :

https://www.pointhacks.com.au/reader...qantas-points/

However I don't think I'll bother. We do (ahem) have similar cards with an alternate airline, and I guess they and their card partners will be the beneficiaries of my naive lack of attention to fine print details from here on in. It's going take a while though. Yesterday I filled the car with fuel and swiped the other company's card. Wow! I got 34 points!

(I won't start packing just yet :))

FOR,
yes, they all do it. At least Virgin Atlantic sent me an e-mail a month before the critical date.
I was a "gold" with SQ. All my points disappeared after 3 years - which seems to me to be a better time scale than yours.

Intrigued as to what everyone considers to be the time between flights required to earn the right to be considered a Frequent Flyer/Loyal Customer? One long haul every year might just about qualify but it seems bizarre to me that airlines are willing to allow a flight every 2-3 years to qualify for discounts and points.

Well in a related area I have accumulated over 350,000 Marriot points* and they do keep reminding me that I have to either use or add to the points within 2 years or they will start to evaporate.

So It's a pretty normal condition AFAICS.

PDR

* To indicate their value - they can be converted to over 100,000 virgin atlantic flying club points

It used to be that collecting points was difficult and redeeming them was easy.
That has been completely reversed - as having the points gives the impression that they can be redeemed when you need them.
Then you find that the dates you want to travel are already 'full' or some other restriction. So you use some, or you say 'Use them for the next trip'.
Then they expire.

The problem I have found for the last few years is that, normally, it is only possible to set up a trip about 7-9 months in advance. This is after checking with your partner and their holiday times at their work, the people you are going to visit, when is 'high season' or a particular event you want to see. BUT, there is one category of people who KNOW what they will be doing in a year's time: Grandparents! As soon as the 364 day horizon comes up, they are ready to pounce on the seats to Australia or South Africa and, by the time I want to book??? Zero.