I hate to make this into an "us" (frequent flier) versus "them" (airlines) but the airlines are making it very difficult for their best customers. The airlines would do well to take a few lessons on improving the customer experience and building customer loyalty. A frequent flyer program is not the answer to building customer loyalty and these days it highlights just how little they care about customer loyalty.
This Fortune Magazine article describes how one flyer, Mitchell Berns, had his original non-stop Delta flight canceled "due to weather" and found himself booked on another flight, with connections, for the next morning. After checking the National Weather Service, he discovered snow was forecast for 5am the next morning, hours after his flight was supposed to land. Other airlines were still scheduled to fly, but Delta refused to give him a refund so he could purchase a ticket on another airline. He paid for a JetBlue flight out of his own pocket and landed at his destination without incident.
Back at home, he filed a small-claims suit ($15 in NY) against Delta for the price of the JetBlue ticket and won when Delta failed to show up in court. Delta offered frequent-flier miles (yeah, right) and then attempted to negotiate a confidentiality agreement (I can see why Delta wouldn’t want this story to be picked up in the press). Berns counter-offered with $100 off if Delta paid within 2 weeks OR the confidentiality agreement - not both. Surprisingly (or not), Delta took the $100 off the original JetBlue ticket.
"The lesson is, Don’t let them bully you with bogus cancellations," says Berns. The whole thing took him about four hours, he recalls, resulting in earnings of less than half his hourly billing rate. "But I’d do it again," he says. "That’s how good it felt."
It’s always a good thing to stay positive, but don’t let the airlines take advantage of you, the customer.