Watch Aeroplan activity warnings

Customer gets new credit card, but agent misrepresents rules

Stan Belza was collecting Aeroplan points for a special cruise trip with his wife. But one night before he tried to book his flights, he found his 220,000 miles had been wiped out.

Aeroplan has a policy that allows miles to expire in members’ accounts if there is no activity in a 12month period. Activity means earning new miles or using existing miles by redeeming, donating, sharing or transferring them.

Belza knew of the activity rules and thought he was following them.

But he made an erroneous assumption about which credit card to use.

More than two years ago, he received an invitation from American Express to apply for a Gold Rewards Card. This would allow him to accumulate points for products and services or if he liked, to transfer his points one-on-one to Aeroplan.

“I spoke to an American Express representative, who told me there was no downside for me to change cards, just advantages. So I switched,” he says. “Since then, I was religious in trying to accumulate enough points for the trip.”

His wife was accumulating points on her Aeroplan Visa card for a one-way flight from Toronto to Rome. Meanwhile, he would use his Aeroplan points to fly them to Toronto from Abu Dhabi.

Last November, they had enough miles and booked the flight to Rome using his wife’s Aeroplan account.

His first chance to book the return flight was on Dec. 17.

On Dec. 15, he logged into his own Aeroplan account and saw a balance of 220,000 miles.He needed to redeem165,000 for the Abu Dhabi-Toronto flight.

“I saw a notice in red at the top of my account, indicating that I was due to lose my miles unless my account was active in the past 12 months,” he says.

“I believed I was active, having contributed via American Express three to four times a week. So, I ignored the warning, believing it to be a generic message sent to all Aeroplan account holders.”

Unfortunately, he misinterpreted the activity rules. And he compounded the error by not paying heed to the warning messages.

His Amex Gold Reward Card transactions did not count as qualifying transactions until he transferred the points to Aeroplan. But he didn’t plan to transfer them until he booked the flights.

On Dec. 16, he logged into his account again and noticed he had a zero balance. He spoke to an Aeroplan supervisor who was sympathetic, but could not reverse the deletion.

“The maddening thing is that if I had transferred even one point before midnight of Dec. 15, my account would have remained active and I could have redeemed 165,000 miles for our return flight,” he says.

I asked Christa Poole, a spokesperson for parent company Aimia Inc., to explain the rules for loyalty plan members. Here’s what she said:

If you are a primary cardholder of an Aeroplan-affiliated credit card (such as TD and CIBC), your miles will not expire because of inactivity, as long as you are in good standing.

Only TD and CIBC Aeroplan Visa cards, plus American Express AeroplanPlus cards affiliated with Aeroplan, enable you to earn Aeroplan miles.

Some cards may offer points transfers to Aeroplan, but the points count as a qualifying transaction only once those transfers are made.

When I started writing about Aeroplan’s liquidating points of inactive members in 2004, I was upset to see few warnings to members about upcoming expiry dates.

The advance notification system has improved since then, Poole says. “We want our members to remain active and have several ways to check to make sure they’re not at risk of having their miles expire,” she says.

Members can see the date when their miles may expire by logging into aeroplan.com and clicking on “Your Aeroplan — overview” or by using the Aeroplan app and clicking on “Your account — overview.”

Aeroplan posts a “Stay active with Aeroplan” message on members’ accounts if they have been inactive for six months.

Aeroplan sends a personal mileage expiry notification to inactive members at least 10 to 12 weeks before the date when the miles are set to expire.

You can find an explanation of the expiry policy at Aeroplan’s blog.

Aeroplan’s five million members aren’t all plugged in to electronic messages. Why not send letters to their homes to inform them their points will soon expire and tell them how to stay active? That would get their attention.

Perhaps I’m expecting too much. If you check Aeroplan’s terms and conditions, number 24 (out of 37) states the handsoff attitude quite clearly.

Each member is responsible for keeping up to date on the Aeroplan program, the amount of Aeroplan Miles in their accounts and their accumulation and redemption activities by consulting Aeroplan.com. Aeroplan shall not be liable for the member’s failure to do so.

As for Stan Belza, he had his 220,000 points restored after a one-month investigation.

“They made it clear that my case was unique and their legal department agonized over the decision, but they ruled in my favour. None of this would have happened without your help,” he said. Ellen Roseman appears in Smart Money.