"As the holiday travel season approaches, we cannot let airlines and credit card companies continue to fly off with hard-earned frequent flier miles," Schumer said in an announcement scheduled for Sunday. "When a consumer accumulates valuable frequent flier miles, they should not have to constantly worry that they are going to expire with little or no notification from the airline."
[...]
Frequent flier model programs began 20 years ago, most with no expiration dates for the benefits. In the last decade, airlines have created three-year windows for consumers to use the miles, Schumer said.
The Air Transport Group, a industry trade group, defended its member companies by pointing out that "the system hasn't been targeted by regulators." Well, yeah. That's probably why Senator Schumer is raising the issue.
"It's time to probe frequent-flier accounts, senator says" [USA Today]
(Photo: Kossy@FINEDAYS)
Since Chucky Schumer's entire life is built around being a rampaging dumbass, he probably doesn't have better things to do...
]]>@HurtsSoGood: hahahaha
]]>@magic8ball: I agree. There are many issues with airlines right now. Someone has to fight for consumers, don't they?
Senator Schumer has worked very hard to get variety in an airport upstate that has none. I know if you live outside of New York, or even upstate New York, you may not realize this. But if it wasn't for him, there may not be a Syracuse airport. (Especially if US Airways goes under...)
]]>@wjamny: Ahh, yes. Let's vote everyone out of office so that then no one will know what to do.
I'm all for term limits. But voting everyone out of office is a little unwieldy.
]]>If you knew about that policy from the get go, you probably would have chosen a different carrier.
We would also like our competitors to be forced to prove availability of seats. There are certain airlines who are notorious for just about giving miles away, yet making it nearly impossible to redeem.
]]>Personally, I don't find frequent flyer miles all that useful and mostly a pain in the backside. Well at least on American Airlines. The last time I used any flier miles, the only eligible flight was at 6:00 am, meaning I had to get up around 4:00 am to make the flight. Anyways, about 30 minutes into the flight, there was a mechanical issue and we had to return to the airport. They were able to put all the passengers onto the 8:00 am scheduled flight. So if the 8:00 am flight was so empty, why could I not have used my miles for that flight?
]]>@VidaBlueBalls: You are looking at it all wrong...by addressing this problem you will lower stress levels and therefore improve everyone's health, therefore they will no longer need health care. And Steroids, that also falls in with healthca...awww forget it, I can't even pretend to fake that I am serious.
Nothing more than a way to get facetime on the news.
]]>Shouldnt they be treated about the same as grocery store promotions and coupon books? They are an add-on to the service provided, and they can pretty much make their own rules as they go. As long as they aren't changing them without notice why should I care?
(To be fair, I never have enough miles to get squat, I fly as little as possible, and never stick with a preferred carrier).
]]>Frequent Flyer miles are a perk for doing something that you likely have to do already (flying for work or personal travel). Their sole purpose is to try to encourage people to use one carrier whenever possible to maintain their status as a "preferred customer" or to accumulate enough points to get a free ticket or "purchase" other services that you may want.
The points have no cash value, and consumers do not (directly) pay any money for them. FF points should be thought of like a coupon for a grocery item. The provider gives you something to encourage you to use their product or service, and they place an exparation date on that enticement.
]]>@ecwis: Hey come-on, don't forget Baseball...Congress wasted awhole week debating the use of steroids by baseball players a couple of years ago.
]]>@working class Zer0: How should they protest it? By not flying anymore?
Not every airport has dozens of airlines to choose from. For some, they don't have options. How are they going to protest?
]]>Great job Chuck - cherry pick a non-important issue to get yourself in the news. Just more proof that all of these multi-term incumbants need a reality check and need to be voted out of office.
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: Or one of Schumer's extended family, for whom he can't wraggle a seat on a gov't jet, complained to him about this horrific problem of expiring frequent flyer miles...
]]>@ecwis: Doesn't Senator Chuck U. Schumer have bigger fish to fry?
If the airlines changed their policy and customers don't like it, they should protest. Why is congress involved?
]]>@pecan 3.14159265: No, he means that he's bringing up the issue at the time when it will make the biggest impact on consumers, and thus his re-election chances.
]]>"As the holiday season approaches..."
Really? Did he just wake up? The holiday season for flying has been going on for at least four months because people try to book way in advance to get better prices. He should have been investigating this long before people booked their flights for Thanksgiving (which is this Thursday, in case Schumer didn't know), and Christmas, which is less than a month after that.
Maybe he's just preparing for next year's holiday season.
]]>While it's annoying that they expire after t3 years of non-use, it kind of makes sense since they're called Frequent Flyer Miles.
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