B.C. woman almost loses more than 21,000 Air Miles after account inactivity

A B.C. woman is warning consumers to stay on top of their Air Miles after almost losing over 21,000 points because her account went dormant.

“I knew that it had been inactive, but I was under the impression that Air Miles didn’t expire,” said Glynis Andersson.

Back in July, the Grand Forks resident says she discovered she had lost all her Air Miles, valued at over $2,100.

Andersson says she was shocked because she never received a formal warning letter in the mail. Emails were sent, but Andersson says they were going into the wrong email folder.

“I use Gmail and any warnings about the account went into the promotions folder of my Gmail account,” she said.

She also said she spent considerable time dealing with family misfortune and didn’t have the opportunity to collect or use her Air Miles. After explaining her situation to Air Miles, Andersson says she was offered $100 worth of points back.

“I found that to be quite insulting,” she said. “I had explained my situation in great detail and mentioned I did not receive a letter in the mail and I did not even receive an email addressed to me personally that would have gone into my inbox as opposed to the promotions folder.”

In a statement to Consumer Matters, Air Miles said:

“After a period of 24 consecutive months of account inactivity, which means the collector does not get or use Miles, an Air Miles account becomes dormant and the miles are removed from the account. A collector is notified in advance of the account entering dormancy and are encouraged to use their card to keep their account active.  Air Miles contacted this collector in advance via email to notify her of the upcoming account dormancy due to inactivity. When we subsequently heard from the collector, as she noted to you, we reminded her of this policy and the notification that was sent.”

Andersson reached out again to Air Miles and says after negotiating  with a representative she was offered 10,000 points back.

However, Consumer Matters decided to reach out again on behalf of Andersson asking if Air Miles would reinstate all of Andersson’s  miles.

Consumer Matters received the following statement:

“After speaking with the collector multiple times and learning of her extenuating circumstances, Air Miles has provided the collector with 21,069 miles as a gesture of goodwill.”

“I’m very grateful Global had worked so hard to get the points back,” said Andersson.

“It meant an awful lot to us because we have family members in Edmonton, some of them are not doing that well and as soon as we got the Air Miles back I immediately booked flights to visit family at Christmas time.”

Patrick Sojka of RewardsCanada.ca says when it comes to reward programs, it’s important to look at the expiry and inactivity rules. “Any loyalty program, points or miles can be worth it as long as you research and educate yourself on a program and make sure you are earning them and using them,” said Sojka.