Customer Relations or Customer Services?

Three questions:

1) What's the difference?

2) Which should be contacted for chasing up missing partner miles and TPs?

3) E-mail or letter?

Thanks!

Email. You'll need to send a copy of your boarding pass.

Log on to your FC account, then on the "Your Account Summary" page there's a link for "Missing Miles" under "Your Shortcuts" on the right. That's got details.

I've just done this to claim missing miles from a SAS flight. You should only need to email with boarding pass and eTicket if its a partner airline. The Missing Miles page allows you to enter details in an online form for VS flights.

I've done all that, alas. Three e-mails (one via the website, two direct to [email protected]), one phone call, one Twitter exchange and no miles or TPs posted (after six weeks).

I'm not quite sure what's left to do. Beg!?

hmmmm... I sent my request to the customer.services address on the 29th Jan and got a reply a few days later. I'd try chasing again until they credit them!

I'll give it another go, MoJoJo!

I wrote to Customer Relations, and received the response (from CR, not CS) that it actually takes up to 45 days (not what is written on the website) for partner miles to post.

Also I was told that it's their policy not to contact pax until the partner airline accepts or denies the claim (VS on Twitter telling me to expect a response "in a few days").

I wish VS would manage expectations/communications better...

My FC Number wasn't associated with my SAS booking and I didn't get chance at the airport to get it done at a check in desk. My flight with SAS was on the 27th Jan, I wrote to them with boarding pass and eTicket on the 29th Jan and got a response and the miles credited a couple of days later. Not sure who sent the response as after checking I had the miles I deleted the email

Thanks, MoJoJo. That's certainly been my experience in the past with missing partner miles.

I guess I'll just wait out my 45 days...

Another quick question: what exactly is the process for verifying partner flights which accrue VS miles and TPs?

In other words, what is it that VS does once you send them your e-ticket and a copy of your boarding pass from the partner airline? And why does it take up to 45 days?

Yeah, that was three questions, I know ...

I would also love to know the answer to that. It seems a bit mad to me that it takes as long as it does when you've provided them with scans and full details. Maybe they're just really, really busy...

[honey lamb]

Another quick question: what exactly is the process for verifying partner flights which accrue VS miles and TPs?

In other words, what is it that VS does once you send them your e-ticket and a copy of your boarding pass from the partner airline? And why does it take up to 45 days?

Yeah, that was three questions, I know ...

They verify with the airline that you did fly with them. Yes, I know they've got the boarding pass but they still check. I found this out after a flight with Singapore Airlines after I realised that their website (which was as flaky as the VS one) had not retained my FC number and a less than helpful SQ check-in staff refused to help. When the miles were not posting in spite of my sending in the boarding pass etc, I called FC who told me this. As other partner airlines on the same trip had posted and he confirmed they had verified, I saw no reason to disbelieve him

Thanks, HL.

Wow, that seems like an incredibly labour-intensive process.

It's perfectly possible to have a boarding pass but then not actually fly and claim a refund (ticket T&Cs permitting). If you did that, say, 14 times with Delta in First Class you could potentially earn VS Au (not to mention hundreds of thousands of miles) without ever stepping on a plane. It seems perfectly reasonable, therefore, that they check that you actually flew (or at least had your boarding pass scanned at the gate) before they cough up in order to prevent fraud.

It's perfectly possible to have a boarding pass but then not actually fly and claim a refund (ticket T&Cs permitting). If you did that, say, 14 times with Delta in First Class you could potentially earn VS Au (not to mention hundreds of thousands of miles) without ever stepping on a plane. It seems perfectly reasonable, therefore, that they check that you actually flew (or at least had your boarding pass scanned at the gate) before they cough up in order to prevent fraud.

Not to mention many people don't print boarding passes anyway. So, yes, it's perfectly reasonable for VS to verify, but what I don't understand is why it takes so long; why it's not automated. Surely there is a gate-scan flag on the e-ticket or something easily verifiable?

In terms of people-hours, it must cost VS a huge amount of money to manually verify non-posting partner miles and Tier Points.

You'd think it would be automated but when it comes to airlines talking to other airlines I wouldn't have thought they had access to each other's systems so it probably has to be done by phone or email. And I doubt it's considered a very high priority - as you say, it must cost them time & money so I wouldn't be surprised if it's a "when you've got time" job for customer services.

It's not just airlines - until relatively recently solicitors still insisted on using telex, fax or post to talk to each other - never email - and banks took 3 days to clear a cheque! A company can invest billions in the latest technology but if it's not compatible with its rivals' it's back to basics when they need to talk to each other.

You must be right, gumshoe. This explains how people can miss the first leg of those BA/VS flights ex-DUB (not that this is advised)!