Frequent Fliers Worry They May Lose Miles if Airlines Go . .

[dbaker]

Frequent Fliers Worry They May Lose Miles if Airlines Go Bel
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Business travelers who wait patiently at airport security checkpoints have a new topic to ponder while passing the time in line: the safety of their frequent-flier miles.

Experts point out that FlightPlan's PrivilegeFlyer doesn't offer the same guarantees associated with traditional insurance policies. In the event a major airline were to fail, PrivilegeFlyer customers would have little recourse should FlightPlan be unable to pay out.

Indeed, Mr. Petersen refused to identify the companies that underwrite FlightPlan's miles-protection program, though he says his company is still paying claims to customers who lost their miles when Midway Airlines shut down in 1991.

[dbaker]

For what it's worth, I suggested last December that I felt that PrivilegeFlyer was worthless and a bit of a scam. As a result, Randy Peterson got all upset and extremely defensive about it.

He emailed me a long, rambling rant on 12/26/01 that included:

Not financially sound? Well, because we've never borrowed money in 16 years doesn't make us not sound. Besides, if we were not sound, do you think any bank like Wells Fargo would have loaned us any money to help finance building our own million-dollar plus office building?

Why won't you find the word "insurance"? If you were as smart as you think you are you might have searched for AwardGuard in the FlyerTalk search engine to see if the topic had been discussed before. This question has been answered before - too bad you didn't feel it was worth searching for. The reason why is because we are the insured company rather than the individual, meaning nothing other than we are not a formal insurance company. Is that bad or good? Depends on how you look at it. Good in a sense because it means we have chosen this path so we don't have to spend the enormous amount of money it would take to have every single employee we have that works in customer service and may answer the phone to become a registered insurance agent in every state. Good because in doing so and becoming registered, the cost of the membership program may be 2-3 times higher.

To my knowledge the Web site has never been down and I can't seem to find any other comments than yours it is not accessible. I know I had no problem this morning finding it. Why would you choose to state something and then say you could not verify it?

He also mentioned all the tag lines that journalists have given him over the years, including on from the Wall Street Journal, which is now pretty ironic.

This will be the second time in a week that his business practices will need a long explanation. Funny how that is.

Cheers.