Frequent Flier Reform

Monday, 23 November 2009 | by Pat's Picks

I had a moment of panic about a month ago when I realized it had been almost 18 months since my family had flown on one of the airlines that we collect frequent flier points on. The airline was about to take away all of our hard earned miles.

At a news conference this weekend Senator Chuck Schumer said that shouldn’t happen without warning. He called for industry-wide regulations to protect consumers and asked the Department of Transportation to review claims of abuse. Said the senator: “As the holiday travel season approaches, we cannot let airlines and credit card companies continue to fly off with hard earned frequent flier miles. 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.” Schumer estimates there are $165 billion worth of frequent flier miles in circulation and that 20 percent or more will go unused, because of confusing policies and additional fees.

Read the story in today’s New York Times or click here to watch video of the news conference from NY1.com