DH and I have not obtained any of the credit cards offered by airlines, but we feel your pain! We have become so disillusioned at airlines in general, due to all the c--- one reads and hears about them. There is no passenger coutesy anymore; if one chooses to fly, one does it on the airlines' terms, no ifs, ands, or buts. If we ever fly again, it will be due to an emergency. We'd love to see Amtrak get its act together! It would surely help the fuel situation that airlines are experiencing and in the long term might even make them more responsive to consumers' needs/wants.

Here's another person who would hop on a train in a heartbeat if they had passenger service ANYWHERE near me. I remember when you were made to feel like a valued customer on airlines. HA! They've succumbed to the mindset anyone should be able to afford to jump on one and use it like the local bus, and their services are not as nice as our local bus company. IOW cheapen it up until it's a torture chamber for international flights.

When the gas crunch impacts them even more, they'll go back to offering better service instead of those hideous money-making gimmicks. .............maybe............

Karen, I understand the anger. It's more about universal give-a-***** than ten thousand airmiles. That attitude is almost pervasive. There is a particular credit card, and I won't endorse them online, but is wonderful about airmiles. I've cashed mine in with regularity and it just gets easier and easier and it's painless. No blackout dates, short notice, whatever. It's paid for several domestic flights, and an international one, and cost me five dollars per flight for the booking fee.

Karen, I'm such a featherhead, I never did figure out the outs and ins of FFM. I had a bunch of them due to many trips abroad and domestic.
I tried to use some of them for trips but there was always a catch. I tried to donate them to Make a Wish, it never happened. I tried to give them to soldiers so they could get home when they needed to, never happened.

Neil's vanished into thin air. Suddenly the airline had no record of his ever flying anywhere. Shoot, I could have sworn he was right there in the seats next to me all along.
He must have a twin.

They didn't give me credit for several domestic flights
and I had all receipts and ticket stubs.
I fired off a blistering letter and they never answered it.

I have to say that in all the trips we took and they were many. We never had any lost luggage but that's about all the good I can say about it.

I've never taken a credit card from any company that promised me stuff. I only have one card, Visa, through my bank, I requested it and negotiated the terms.

Sorry I can't offer you any good news or hope that you'll get your miles. Maybe when they scrape the bottom they'll
go back to being a good thing again but until then, you can probably kiss those extra miles goodbye.

Well Jan, you just helped me decide whether to send a letter of complaint to the corporate headquarters at United and American. It appears there's no reason to waste my breath.

I just hope that TONS of people around the world read this thread. I firmly believe in the power of the internet. These airlines are in NO position to behave so arrogantly.

If I dared to treat my clients like I've been treated this summer, I would have no clients. And deservedly so.

Jan, I have also decided to cancel my mileage-connected credit cards. I'm going to research the nearest credit union. I'll inquire about a credit card, and about taking out a loan so I can pay off the American & United balances.

And btw I have given up all hope of getting a single one of those 10,000 miles.

Karen

Its really simple -

Just don't

Fly or Float.

Drive flex fuel, bundle your trips, use the train or stay home.

Never shop at walmart....its a direct deposit to China.

Double and triple caulk your house, wrap every window, use every south window to collect passive solar heat.

You can stop contributing to our own demise with just these things.

They do these things to us because they think we will never sacrifice their services.

"They do these things to us because they think we will never sacrifice their services"

That's a very profound truth.

The cruel truth is that in today's economy, FF miles are going to become pretty much worthless, so why bother? Teh airlines are now cutting flight left & right & with them the number of seat available to be booked with FF miles. I retired 8 years ago with 900,000 miles in my account with American. I'm now down to my last 25,000 miles. I have a Citibank AAdvantage card that gives me a mile for each dollar I spend & they are very accurate in putting the miles into my account. However, these days I hae little to no confidence in my ability to use them on any flight at all.

Since I don't travel much, I've never bothered with the things myself. But I sometimes read this column on CNN.com. Maybe this guy could help? There's an email addy at the bottom of each column.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Travel Troubleshooter

Andie, I had a couple of reactions to what you said. The anger behind my comments isn't directed to you so please don't take it personally! It's just that you sparked the following thoughts...

The current fuel crisis has airlines scurrying to cut costs wherever they can. I understand that. BUT..imo they're cutting off their nose to spite their face. Customers did not create this crisis. We should not be penalized for it.

To reneg on the 5,000 miles they promised me (American) then turn around and imply that I lied about my eligibility; or to offer miles on the website via promotions (United)...but be unaware that I am owed miles until I bring it to their attention...these concepts are so foreign to me.

It's obvious that I'm not the only customer who has been treated hideously by the airlines (hi Jan! lol). Do they think we will forget? Or that we'll turn the other cheek and beg for more? On what planet is a company allowed to treat its customers like this, and actually stay in business?

These airlines have made me feel like I'm invisible, like I don't matter. And to imply that I lied to them? Do NOT even get me started on how I feel about that! The worse they make me feel, the more determined I am to take my business elsewhere.

I went to my bank yesterday. I inquired about opening a charge account that's JUST a charge account. No miles or cash back or anything. The bank rep said she's lost count of how many customers have come in with the same request.

OK, so no more frequent flyer miles for me. Fine. I'll counter that with no more flights booked on American or United.

Karen

Karen, I understand how you feel & do share your frustration. However, the airlines just don't care. They don't even care about their business travelers anymore - the ones who produce 70+% of their revenues. They're screwing them over just like they are the leisure travelers. I'm thinking they figure the way things are going most people won't have a choice if they want to fly anyway with mergers & other airlines going out of business. If I want to go someplace via air I've got to drive to Dallas & then I have basically two choices - American or Southwest. We used to have a really nice feeder service to DFW or Intercontinental in Houston from Tyler, but now, with all the cutbacks both American & Continental are down to about two flights/day a piece. This is certainly not convenient & makes any kind of journey from here an all-day event - or worse.

Flying is now just punishment. I wish someone would bring back the railroads!

Southwest works for me where I need to go...prices are great and if you cancel you have up to a year to use the credit...no frills but I think now everyone is no frills...I just booked Buffalo to Tampa roundtrip for $158 so I don't think you can beat that and nonstop each way.

Every US airline except SouthWest is on the brink of collapse - South West has been incredibly smart about its fuel buying policies, hedging against future increases etc.
But the others don't have the liquidity to do that. So they're scrimping on everything: wonder where the blankets went? They save on laundry costs, plus every ounce of weight saved reduces their fuel consumption. They're designing lighter carts so that they can save fuel.

And, as a person who was an avid FF mile collector and user, to ease the pain of the cost of going to the UK every year to see the family, I can tell you now - there are no more free tickets available, unless you book them about 12 months in advance. We used to use our miles to get upgrades on an economy ticket to business class: 1. no more available seats anyway, and 2. there's now a charge of $350 each way to get that upgrade, in addition to the miles: make that two round trip journeys, and we might as well buy a third economy seat and get more space that way, at that price (which we won't be doing: I have better uses for my money!)

The airlines are in so much pain that staff morale is rock bottom. If someone from an airline is pleasant to you, they must be saintly. We can complain all we like - and it DOES stink that this is where we've ended up - but it's only going to get worse.

Himself's nephew is a pilot, and has been laid off, and is struggling to make ends meet, with a baby on the way too.

Sara, who still has to fly transatlantic, much as she'd rather stay home. (Oh, and we're cancelling our miles-earning credit card too, since it's now useless to us).