Where are my miles?
America West (AWA) merged with US Air to form US Airways in 2005. In early 2006, the new combined airline finally started accepting Star Alliance member’s frequent flyer programs. Previously, even though the airlines had officially merged, you could earn Star Alliance miles only on US Air flights, but not on AWA flights, which still operated on their own, separate flight numbers.
In the spring of 2006, the new airline heavily advertised that you were now able to earn miles for other Star Alliance airlines on all of US Airway’s flights… Wrong! I have taken six trips since then and am still waiting for my miles to be credited to my Lufthansa (LH) account.
So I started investigating. LH tells me that they cannot credit AWA flights. But hey, wait a minute, AWA doesn’t even exist any more, it’s all US Airways now, right? Wrong again. Even though they now market and advertise as one airline, they internally still differentiate between (legacy) US Air flights and (legacy) AWA flights. Their computer systems also do not communicate with each other. And that’s where my miles are. Stuck in AWA’s old computer system that doesn’t recognize that AWA is now US Airways and therefore a member of Star Alliance. Unfortunately, all of my flights were legacy AWA flights.
What strikes me is that the airline’s phone operators and customer service reps are just as frustrated as I am. On numerous occasions, I actually had to listen to THEIR complaints about their own airline’s inability to merge the computer systems and how they do not communicate with each other. The result is that my miles are stuck in their system. I sent a formal complaint to the airline but have yet to hear back from them. I know through my travel agent that many other people have the same problem and that other Star Alliance airlines have sent complaint letters to US Airways/AWA. I’d be curious to hear from other people who have the same problem.
Oh, and since no inappropriate language is allowed on this blog (and I hope it stays that way), I cannot tell you my thoughts when I see Doug Parker, CEO of US Airways, on TV flat out lying about how travelers will profit from their recently announced takeover of Delta.
Andreas Kraemer
California
