MOVING THE GOAL POSTS

I booked a flight on January 15, via the Thai Airways website, from Brussels to Hong Kong departing March 6.

As a member of Aegean Airlines Miles + Bonus, I chose the K class economy reservation in order to collect 100 per cent of the miles flown. However, when I checked my account, I was surprised to see only part of those miles had been credited, so I contacted Aegean.

In their response, they explained that changes to the mileage redemption scheme had been issued and published on February 27 – and that my flight and class had therefore automatically been revised.

I found this response unacceptable, and question the legality. I specifically chose a more expensive ticket to earn 100 per cent of miles – which I was clearly entitled to at the time of booking. Subsequent changes made by the airline should not impact this. Marc Barber, Belgium AEGEAN AIRLINES RESPONDS: As Mr Barber mentioned, our members may easily see the corresponding miles of their flights by consulting the fare earning charts, which are available through the official website of Miles + Bonus.

However, respective charts can be periodically altered, according to any updates on our internal agreements with the air carriers.

In such cases, our customers are immediately notified of the relevant changes via our official website, while the new mileage charts, depicted on our website, are applied with immediate effect. Respective information is also included in this link, which states: “the effective date relates to flight events, regardless of the booking date”.

Based on the above terms, although we understand that Mr Barber booked his flights before the change of the “Thai Airways” charts, Thai can only authorise the mileage accrual according to the valid earning charts.

However, in this case we have exceptionally credited the additional miles to Mr Barber’s account as a goodwill gesture.

We appreciate Mr Barber’s initiative to bring this to our attention. It is our pleasure to answer customer questions and receive feedback on our loyalty programme. We look forward to welcoming him on board our flights in the near future.