Choose your credit card or airline reward programme with the utmost care to get the best deal possible. Such reward schemes are complicated varying enormously from card to card, and airline to airline, in the terms and conditions of usage.
Highlighted in this (April) issue of CHOICE are some of the complaints to the Consumer Council regarding the exercise of redemption rights for goods and services.
The disputes arose from the lack of transparency in seat availability for flights, unexpected expiration of redeemed air-ticket; high cost of redeemed products; and levy of service fee for reward points conversion into airline miles.
In one case, a complainant planned to redeem 3 round trip air-tickets for a trip to Sapporo, Japan from February 14 to 22 in 2015. To be sure he made his flight booking on February 27 in 2014, one year in advance. He was shocked to learn that he would be put on the waiting list for the flight.
Through the airline's online booking, he found that seats were actually still available on that flight. He questioned the practice of the airline imposing quota restriction on seats availability for mileage redemption, and was dissatisfied with the lack of transparency of the practice.
Upon conciliation of the Council, the airline explained that the availability of seats on a flight for mileage redemption was dependent on various factors, including estimated passenger traffic, popularity of the route and travel season.
As the booking fell within Lunar New Year holidays, seats for redemption available in that flight had already been booked. The complainant later accepted the offer to switch to a flight on another route.
In another case, the complainant redeemed in April 13 a round trip air-ticket to Taipei scheduled for departure on October 11. An e-ticket was subsequently issued to him for confirmation.
Much to his dismay, he was notified in September that the validity period of his ticket had expired in June, and that he would need to pay a surcharge of US$120 in order to use the ticket.
He claimed he was unaware of the details relating to the ticket validity period and that the staff had issued the ticket without drawing his attention. Upon conciliation, the complainant reached an agreement with the airline concerned to let him use the ticket without any surcharge payment.
The third case is about a complainant who realised that her 76,000 miles would soon be due for expiration and she had no plan to travel abroad, decided to redeem for a suitcase rather than air-ticket. Since the redemption required 100,000 miles, she agreed to pay an extra $800 together with all the free mileage she had earned.
But no sooner had the transaction completed when she received an email for confirmation, it dawned on her that the currency referred to was actually US dollars.
According to the complainant, the suitcase was sold for some HK$5,000 only and that the mileage rewards she had would entitle her 2 roundtrip air-tickets to a Southeast Asian destination. It was unreasonable that she had to surrender all the reward points and, furthermore, pay an extra HK$6,000 for the suitcase.
The company contended that full details of the redemption and the currency used for transaction had been listed out on its web, and emphasized that once the reward points were deducted they could not be returned under any circumstances.
In the fourth case, the complainant converted online his credit card reward points into 10,000 airline miles. When he received the monthly statement, he discovered there was an entry of $300 for service charge for the conversion.
He alleged that the fee was charged without his prior knowledge and deemed that the bank had the responsibility to display the fee charges prominently. He sought the assistance of the Council. On conciliation, the bank maintained that the levy of the charge had been clearly stated on the web, but agreed to waive the fee to settle the dispute.
Another common cause of consumer complaints concerns the hotlines of these companies as they are always engaged and thus unable to offer timely customer service and assistance.
Consumers are advised to familiarize with the rules and restriction of redemption, regularly check on the expiry dates of accrued miles, and allow sufficient time in planning well ahead for travel with redeemed air-tickets.
Last but not least, never be carried away by free air travel by excessive overspending. Always be mindful of the risk of overspending outweighing the benefit of reward.
The Consumer Council reserves all its right (including copyright) in respect of CHOICE Magazine and Online CHOICE ( https://echoice.consumer.org.hk/ ).