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Thai Air Frequent Flyer Points Ripoff?


walletss

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When I got back from a recent trip, flying from Melbourne to Thailand and Vietnam, I realised that I had forgotten to quote my Frequent Flyer Member number. After searching through my files to find my number I called Thai Air up and asked for my statement to be updated to reflect the points I had earned on the last trip.

 

They asked me to send them the boarding passes. Guess what? I couldn't find them but fortunately I had a copy of the ticket showing all the flights and dates. When I offered to post them a copy they informed that this would not be acceptable and that in order to get the points I would have to produce the original boarding passes. The reason given was that people sometimes book flights then cancel and try and claim the reward points. According to them boarding passes are the only real proof that I made the journey.

I still had the luggage tags on the ticket cover and offered this as proof that I actually traveled on those flights.

They still said no.

That was the end of the first conversation.

Later in the day I went through my receipts and lo and behold I found one boarding pass which was the initial Melbourne to Bangkok leg. I rang them back and the lady on the phone told me that she would still only give the points for that leg and not the others.

When I protested claiming that the initial boarding pass proved that I was on that flight, and coupled with the ticket copy and luggage tags was proof that I completed the journey, she said that I could have transferred the other legs to somebody else or cancelled them altogether.

?How would we know?" is what she said.

It really irritates me how Thai Air is handling this.

They are trying to fool me into thinking that they have no way of checking if I made all four legs of the flight.

It seems to me that they just want to screw me out of what I am entitled to.

Don't they computers in their offices to check?

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wallets,

 

this lady is talking crap. how can anybody "transfer " a ticket ? it needs to be credited and reissued , bullshit. And if you "cancel" a ticket you give it back to somewhere for credit and then you do not have it any more. According to their rules they must accept the last copy in your ticket as proof , it is in their computer where you have been flying.

 

BuBi

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If you buy yout ticket and mention your ROP number it is in their system and you will automatically be credited once you check in. In Rangoon or when the computer brakes down elsewhere they cannot handle this because boarding passes are then written by hand and if you find out months later and have thrown your boarding pass away they accept the ticket. Whatever the reason was , they always accept the ticket.

 

BuBi

 

BuBi

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BelgianBoy wrote:

"Why the rip-off ? Read their rules, its very clear that you claim at checkin, or with boarding passes.

Easy - peasy, no exceptions."

 

Completely agree with BB.

 

One of the first things I do when I board is put my boarding pass in my wallet and then keep it for several months even when the miles have been credited. Also I hold onto the airline ticket (or what is left of it) for several months.

 

Obviously, Thai do not want to piss around going back through old records and I do not blame them.

 

Cheers

Fatbastard33

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I wouldn't call it a rip-off, more like an archaic system.

Several airlines have that policy of no BP no post flight credit. The problem usually is that the FF programs are a separate division or a subsidiary of the carrier, with their own systems and databases. So for them to verify that you took the flight they have to do RESEARCH in the form of submitting a request to another division to verify the info, checking data tapes or whatever methods they store information. After a certain number of months that data goes offline and they then have to submit requests to obtain the info which can be prohibitively expensive in the form of man hours. You cannot assume that a carrier has the same systems and databases installed in every division for their reps to access. Some division have access to certain data and some don't.

 

So basically they encourage customers to save their boarding passes to make their jobs easier.

 

Usually a couple of nicely written letters, emails or several dozen callswill help you to get your mileage credited. It will also help you too if you currently have some sort of elite status with the carrier, they tend to be more helpful with their better customers.

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I had a similar problem with EVA, with different results. I wasn't credited with the Taipai to Newark leg of a flight the previous year. I didn't have my original BP. When I called EVA, they said they would check and get back to me. In two days they did, crediting me with the missing miles; "Thank you for flying EVA, Sir."

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