Anybody with any experience getting wiped points reinstated?

[Homer]

Scrap what I just wrote. I've Googled it.
I'm getting a Tesla Battery for solar power to the house in the next week - not the car.

Well the PowerWall will still be cool. I don't have one, but we're considering putting solar in and then the battery is almost essential unless your consumption is mostly during the day.

 

[Mattg]

Ouch!

I do recall reading about another AFFer who had their QF points expire. I believe they were able to get them back via a "reinstatement challenge", although they seemed to imply that Qantas was partly responsible for the points expiring - whatever that means.

Here's what this particular AFFer said:

For complex reasons which they accepted/agreed my husband's 400,000 points expired six weeks ago. They gave us a reinstatement challenge which is quite simple - earn 2500 points with two partners over 6 months.

And here's the original thread if you're interested: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ocked-saddened-qantass-response-my-77132.html

 

[Homer]

Thanks! Yes in my case it's completely my own fault. I hope QF will tell me they have a 7-day cooling off period on points expiry or something like that ;-). As an aside, and I don't know whether this is true, somebody in retail told me most stores allow you to redeem a store gift card 30-days after the expiry date just for customer relations reasons.

 

[JessicaTam]

There have been cases (such as the one Mattg has cited) where they have been lucky. There have been cases where they haven't.

I agree with others that the expiring points email should be separate from the usual monthly statements/advertising emails.

All I can say is - "Good luck" and let us know how you get on.

 

[tuapekastar]

I wish you luck Homer. I share the opinion that while, technically, you (and others) are warned of impending expiry, it deserves an email of its own rather than being buried in a 'general' mail. A cynic might say it is deliberately done this way.

 

[JohnK]

There have been cases (such as the one Mattg has cited) where they have been lucky. There have been cases where they haven't.

I agree with others that the expiring points email should be separate from the usual monthly statements/advertising emails.

All I can say is - "Good luck" and let us know how you get on.

Don't quite understand the email notification from Qantas buried in another email that most won't read.

Received email notification from Virgin in August that my dads points were expiring in September. I managed to transfer them over.

 

[dajop]

I agree with others that the expiring points email should be separate from the usual monthly statements/advertising emails.

The email I've received from some other programs are very much separate and very much marketing in nature ... "your points are about to expire, here's 10 different ways to earn points to keep them from expiring ... take a flight, shop on our shopping portal, dine at a partner restaurant, rent a car, sign up for this credit card .. etc etc.

 

[Major]

I don't travel much with QF these days but I do keep my FF A/c ticking over using those things listed by dajop and others.

Recently managed to then use these for a couple of J flights on CX

I hope you are able to rescue your points

 

[serfty]

...
I agree with others that the expiring points email should be separate from the usual monthly statements/advertising emails. ...

Sadly, I think this is deliberate policy ... breakage is good! (For the Frequent Flyer program's bean counters.)

Try getting the month of last activity if it was over a year ago on Qantas.com - you won't. Once upon a time this was prominently displayed.

 

[blackcat20]

Sadly, I think this is deliberate policy ... breakage is good! (For the Frequent Flyer program's bean counters.)

Try getting the month of last activity if it was over a year ago on Qantas.com - you won't. Once upon a time this was prominently displayed.

I was about to suggest the same; it's in their best interests that you don't notice the impending expiry.

 

[cove]

We have had a girlfriend lose 180,000 QF points by inactivity.
Attempts to recover were fruitless.
She ignores emails and texts....
If there was a medical reason that might help.

 

[Homer]

Just reporting back. I'm impressed with the way QF has handled this. Red Roo replied this morning to say they had forwarded my request to senior management who would contact me directly. But in the meantime I had also called the QF service centre this morning before receiving Red Roo's reply.

The service centre agent said that as I had called soon after the deduction and as a gesture of goodwill they would offer me the QF Goodwill Points Challenge as per a previous forum post. I need to earn 2,500 points from two different sources within six months and they will reinstate the points. The agent nominated flights/hotels as one source and a credit card as another source. So I just had my Centurion RM transfer 2,000 points to QF and I'm about to book a flight, to attend a funeral..., and I'll try to use QF for that.

So that's a big thumbs up from Homer to QF!!!

 

[Major]

That's a positive outcome. It could easily have ended with a total loss

 

[JohnM]

A close run thing - after all, rules are rules (although I sympathise in that they embedded the expiry warning in marketing material).

I think QF has also been very generous only expecting you to earn 5000 points.

 

[Homer]

A close run thing - after all, rules are rules (although I sympathise in that they embedded the expiry warning in marketing material).

I think QF has also been very generous only expecting you to earn 5000 points.

Yes I had no issue with the rules (please refer to my first post) and accepted full responsibility.

My understanding is they only expect 2,500 points to be credited, but the points must come from two different sources.

 

[Buzzard]

Well done Homer and a very well handled situation by Qantas.

 

[JohnM]

Yes I had no issue with the rules (please refer to my first post) and accepted full responsibility.

My understanding is they only expect 2,500 points to be credited, but the points must come from two different sources.

Fully understand that you made your position clear in your first post, so no criticism intended or implied.

Sorry, 2500 points it is - even more generous!

 

[Homer]

Fully understand that you made your position clear in your first post, so no criticism intended or implied.

Sorry, 2500 points it is - even more generous!

And I'm sorry if I appeared defensive. I just wanted to be absolutely clear that I wasn't ever intending to engage in QF bashing because I want to keep the right to continue to roll my eyes at those that wonder blissfully unaware into situations and then attempt to blame the airline...

 

[Dr Ralph]

Great result Homer. Well handled.

I only ever took from your comments that you were just asking if something could be done in this situation. I never saw any intimation of Qantas bashing from you.

 

[badseed]

I can only speak broadly about this, but I have recent knowledge of one case where a man had well over 1m points, and he suffered an illness leading him to not use his account, and eventually the points were wiped. Again, only noticed when his son helped him to login to redeem some flights that they noticed (a holiday in F to thankfully to celebrate an almost-complete recovery after years of rehab).

At first QF didn't budge, didn't offer any reinstatement 'challenge' etc. Strongly worded letter from a friendly legal type sorted them out though ;-)

As many have indicated above, the use of the monthly spam email as your only warning of impending financial loss (yes, the points do have a value...) is likely highly unreasonable.

I suspect QF know that they would lose any such case were it to be litigated, but the number of people willing to do so when the legal cost may very easily exceed the value of the points is also very small that it works in practice. Not everyone has a lawyer in the family willing to spend 3 or 4 hours hassling QF for gratis.