Tip: Always Audit Your Loyalty Program Accounts
In this hobby, knowledge is power. This adage holds true for maximizing travel rewards credit cards and taking advantage of award chart sweet spots, but it also applies to managing your account balances as well. Recently, I was reminded of an important strategy for doing just that: Make sure to regularly audit your various loyalty program accounts to ensure that your points and miles are posting properly.
The issue began when I traveled to Europe in November 2017 with my wife and daughter, and we snagged a great deal on a one-way business class ticket on Air Europa from Miami (MIA) to Munich (MUC) via Madrid (MAD). Unfortunately, the airline's online check-in system wouldn't take our Delta SkyMiles numbers, and we were very rushed at the airport and thus forgot to add them before the flight. Knowing I could retroactively request credit, I enjoyed our trip and faxed in our boarding passes and flight confirmation email upon our return.
Within a few days, the miles posted to my account and my daughter's account, but I noticed something strange in my wife's account:
When I clicked on the Reason Code link, I was told the following:
This was simply not possible, as my wife doesn't even have a membership with any other Air Europa partner. After a few emails back-and-forth, despite Delta's system showing that it was credited to another program, the agent agreed to post the miles to my wife's SkyMiles account manually.
7,557 SkyMiles are worth $90.68 based on TPG's most recent valuations, so this wasn't an insignificant number of miles, but even if you're just talking about a few hundred miles, it's worth keeping an eye on your accounts to make sure things post as they're supposed to. For some suggestions on how to do this, see my post How Do You Keep Track of Your Points and Miles?
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