Rude response to my polite request

This is unfortunate. I don't see evidence of rudeness, but if that
happened it shouldn't have.

I think the bottom line for me is that it was your responsibility to
monitor the expiration, much like if you had a coupon with an expiry
date you should keep track of that.

As far as email notification, well, I don't know about that. It makes
sense to me that they don't mail them. That does put a burden on
them, and it does cost money. The calendar says this is 2007, and
times have changed.

They evidently have a policy for people who insist on getting their
expired miles back, and it isn't to your liking and/or beneficial. I
don't know what to say about that either.

I had a ticket I didn't use one time that was good for a year. I was
casual about it, and it did what time does - expired. I blamed
myself. I suppose as a frequent flyer you feel the company should
treat you well. Air travel has become so competetive that nobody is
very special anymore. This is unfortunate.

I think if I were the customer service with the way things are for
airlines these days -if I had the power to do it- I would have let him
have the miles no big deal really.

They should have given him the miles, after all, he paid to travel
with them to accumulate them. Perhaps he did make a mistake by
forgetting to check his account, but that is human error. Furthermore,
he signed up for the email notification which he never received.
Appearantly the readers don't understand the concept of customer
service. The airline could have honored his miles out of goodwill to
maintain his loyalty which would have cost the company very little
since they were already paid for; instead they denied him and lost
thousands of dollars with future business.

We're waiting.

7,000 miles isn't much if you're a frequent flier. It doesn't sound
like you give them enough business (1) for them to bend the rules to
appease you or (2) to make it worth keeping track of your own miles.

What's it take to get a free flight these days? 25,000? 30,000?

Your polite request is nonetheless a request to bypass the rules. Your
miles expire after 36 months unless you fly on American again, so you
must not travel very much, and you must never check your account.

In that case, why should they change the rules for you? If you haven't
flown on American in three years and you only have seven thousand
miles in your account, you're really not that important to them, as
unfair as that may seem. Next time, try Greyhound. There's less
paperwork involved and you don't have to track anything.

No does not equal rude. Your miles expired, sorry. How often do you
fly that you just noticed they expired last year?

Sarcastically saying "really classy" does nothing to support your
cause nor does comparing them to another airline.

The point I think you guys are missing, is that American Airlines had
an opportunity to make a customer happy at virtually no cost to them.
Instead of giving a little good will and reinstating his miles, they
wanted him to buy them back at more than what they were worth, in
addition they tried to sell him a credit card to boot.

If you haven't noticed, the airline industry is extremely competitive,
all airlines are in rough shape. This person doesn't seem to be
looking to rip them off for a quick buck.

Your miles are your responsibility, not American's. If they said
they'd send you an email, they should have, but it's possible that it
bounced, that it got caught in a spam filter, or that you were
skimming fast and thought it was another offer for tickets. And in
any event, your miles are your responsibility, not Americans.

So they don't owe you anything.

You are, in other words, asking for a favor. And a favor that they've
gone to go to some trouble to *not* make an entitlement, so you're
asking for a favor not granted to everyone.

You've given no indication of what the American rep's rude *behavior*
was, and between that fact and your interjections into even a
description of what he or she said ("wrong wrong wrong", "a lie",
"classy") it comes off as if you were rude to him or her rather than
the other way around -- and you're definitely being rude in this
letter.

Telling you they're not going to do something that their agreement
says they don't have to do is not, in itself, rude.

I would think that, since you want them to do you a favor, it would be
in your best interest to be polite on the phone, in this letter, and
in every other dealing with them. After all, the main incentive they
have for doing you this favor is keeping you as a customer, so if you
present yourself as the sort of customer they'd prefer to lose to
Delta, they're going to be thrilled that Delta agreed to do the favor
rather than worried about your demand for an apology, an essay on why
they deserve you as a passenger, and money you are not owed.

After all, if they started sending you letters calling you a liar who
is wrong wrong wrong and completely lacking in class besides, and also
ordering you to apologize to them, send $73, and beg them to let you
fly on their airline again, you wouldn't be falling all over yourself
to comply either, would you?

"In 1980 I guarantee you they snail mailed people statements every
month"

Guess what, darlin'?

It isn't 1980 any longer and if they tell you it's too expensive to
send snail mail, how is that "a lie - they just want to cut costs"?

Last I checked, not doing something because it is too expensive is, in
fact, cutting costs.

Apologize? For what? The fact that you failed to notice that your
miles had expired?

Bottom line. This was your ball to drop, and you did.

Get over it.

"No" does not equal "rude." Yes, Delta did a very nice thing, which
they didn't HAVE to do. They're your frequent flier miles; keep track
of them. Maybe in 1980, they had a lot fewer people to mail. It's too
bad you let them expire, but just because Delta went out of their way
to do something nice doesnt mean American is rude for sticking to
their policies.