Claiming earned miles on UC upgrade rewards

Hi collective,

I'm having some strife getting VS to credit me with missing miles from my trip to NYC 2 weeks ago.

Because I upgraded from PE to UC with miles, it comes through to FC as a "G" class, and they don't credit the entitled W miles and TPs, because they can't tell whether it was a 100% UC award, or a PE to UC upgrade.

Aside from the fact that the above situation is pretty lame
- almost every other airline I've flown with can cope with crediting the paid miles/status for upgrade rewards - the automatic feature to claim missing miles won't work, as it denies all knowledge of any flying activity for my account on those days.

I'm also on my second phone call to the FC desk (with one week between each call).

On both calls, I've been promised that the miles would be credited "within 24 hours". This obviously isn't the case, and it's just getting lost along the way.

So, I'm looking for any hints or tips to try and push this along a bit. Has anyone come across this being such a problem before? Should I be escalating it at all?

I'm quite eager to get these miles credited, as they are needed to earn Au status...

Cheers,
Mike

[RichardMannion]

Hi Mike,

Sorry to hear that. It sounds like you have got through to an individual that isn't too sure what they are doing.

It would be quite clear on your account that you had used miles to purchase your W to G mileage upgrade - and all they need to do is pull up you original PNR to see the original purchase class and ticket information. On your e-ticket or paper ticket, find hte 6 digit locator code and then call back up and speak to an agent, if you are unfortunate and they don't understand either, then ask to speak to a supervisor.

As long as you purchased a revenue PE fare, and its not a MilesplusMoney fare that you managed to upgrade at the airport, you should have no issues.

Its an unfortuante system flaw, that when you use miles at the airport to upgrade a class, it will move you to a U or G ticket which of course are in-elligble but I have never had any issues in claiming the due miles/TP's on the original entitlement class.

Please let me know if you have any further issues.

Thanks,
Richard

quote:Originally posted by RichardMannion
Sorry to hear that. It sounds like you have got through to an individual that isn't too sure what they are doing.

Hi Richard,

Both times, I spoke to people who seemed quite competent, they looked up the PNR, agreed that I was owed mileage and TP credit, and correctly explained that it was because the system can't tell between an award G and an upgrade G.

However, they said they didn't personally have the power to credit the miles, and had to email some other part of VS, and it would be actioned within 24 hours. I'm wondering if this is where there is a breakdown in communication?

I'll leave it another couple of days, and then maybe I'll try getting it sorted in writing.

Cheers,
Mike

Mike

Last week I also upgraded with miles to UC at the airport, rang Flying Club to get the miles and tier points. The person I dealt with said that she had to get her supervisor approval and the miles would be in my account in 10 minutes and check on line in that time frame. The miles were credited to my account in under 10 minutes. So it can be done quickly.

Hope this helps getting your miles

[RichardMannion]

Ahh now that makes more sense - the front line agents lost their ability a short while ago to go in and manually add miles in for that kind of thing.

Due to the way I was moved between two flights to MCO earlier this month, I was moved from S to Y and therefore earned only Y mileage and Tier Points - so they had to then manually add the mileage and TP's but this had to be approved by a more senior person. It took a day or two, but has happened.

I'd chase them again then, and possibly ask them speak to customer relations on your behalf if its causing problems for you.

Thanks,
Richard

OK, my miles/points showed up in my account today, after a supervisor agreed to investigate it.

Apparently, FC amendments are now only made by the FC admin department, who work 9-5, Mon-Fri, and since the call centre staff now can't make amendments, they are rather backlogged.

Cheers,
Mike

When it happed to us at easter I had upgraded Y tickets to UC on booking. The tickets were issued as G class,I spoke to premier on my return and the miles were credited to the account while I was on the phone.

Hi,

When I used miles to upgrade from PE to UC the flight did not post but a quick phone call to VS FC ( after a week) and the miles/tier points posted within an hour.

I have just returned from Phoeix on BA ( Miles for upgrade from WT+ to Club) and the flights have shown up as Ineligible flights.

I phoned the Exce club and they said to allow 10-14 days for the correct miles/points to post ( and moving up to Silver). On the BA forum on flyer talk it is apparently quite common for the WT + to Club MFU to show up initally as Ineligible and contacting the BA EC is the only way to go.

PS My impression of BA CW vs VS Upper class has not changed with my flights ( VS is considerably better on the direct routes)

Regards

TBS

Yeah, talking to the supervisor who sorted my missing miles out, things have changed a bit, and most of the call centre staff cannot apply modifications to someone's FC account now.

The amendment now has to be requested from the FC admin department, which is why it took a while to get it actioned. It looks like they have to send an internal email message within VS to do this.

Mike

As a follow up to this.

A collegue of mine who regularly does a PE to UC UG tells me that although a phone call quickly results in the added miles they have now begun not to automatically credit his Au 25% bonus automatically and this often takes more time on the phone to sort out.

Phil (Buffy)

[Decker]

As a follow up to the followup! The crediting of miles to a Flying Co account also doesn't happen automatically. So I had to ask for the miles for my S fare, ask for the 25% Au bonus and ask Flying Co to credit the miles flown!