Aeroplan Miles Gone…
Posted on | January 14, 2009 | 4 Comments
I logged into my Aeroplan a few days ago to check how many miles I had in my account and to my horror I had none (Used to have about 37 000). After doing a bit of reseach it turns out that with out my knowledge Aeroplan changed the rules and the miles expired and Aeroplan took them away. I see it as just plan stealing and completely unethical.
I phoned up the customer service for Aeroplan and the resprentative, Nel (he wouldn’t give me a last name), basically told me that I should have read my email. I never received an email from them regarding miles expiring. Blaming he customer just doesn’t seem like a good way to maintain a good customer relationship. He also lectured my on it being a loyalty program, my only response was that I have been loyal and never flown anything other than Air Canada. No apparent effort was made to contact me by another means.
Many other stories of people who lost their Aeroplan miles can be read here. Many people say they are now boycotting Air Canada as a result.
It would seem to me that the best customer relations result would be to re-instate people’s miles once with a message like “please be more careful for the future”.
The complete lack of compassion for the customers has me left very unhappy and now that I am not living in Canada I have a wide variety of other airlines to choose from.
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4 Responses to “Aeroplan Miles Gone…”
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January 15th, 2009 @ 7:52 pm
That's common among all major airlines. Better fly more and get an extra flight before expiration!
January 15th, 2009 @ 8:08 pm
It is, but I think it behooves them to notify people properly when they change the rules. (Also note that Aeroplan is now a different cmpany than Air Canada)
January 15th, 2009 @ 10:10 pm
True. Did you check your spam filter? My Lufthansa mails are always moved to the spam filter…
February 9th, 2009 @ 9:35 am
I'm actually really surprised that your Aeroplan points expired, because I was under the impression that when this loyalty program changed its terms, they ensured that any points collected prior to January 1, 2007, would not expire before December 31, 2013. Your account, however, may have expired if you did not collect or redeem points for a 12 month period, but as far as I know, you can have your points re-instated for $30. You should probably look into this.
Air Canada is a rubbish airline, with or without Aeroplan points. I travel a lot, but whenever I go overseas, I fly with British Airways. With BA, the flight attendants are actually pleasant and treat you as a passenger whose custom ensures that they still have a job, the planes used on long-haul flights are better equipped and their in-flight meal service is much better than what Air Canada offers. I collect Aeroplan points on my CIBC Visa card, but I fly with carriers other than Air Canada. I'll fly with them (or perhaps a partner like Lufthansa) once I have enough points to redeem a complimentary flight.