Keep paperwork plus notes

In March ’09 I received a promotional e-mail from American Express stating that if I opened a credit card account (and met other requirements), I could get 25,000 air miles with Delta Air Lines plus two passes to Delta’s airport lounges. Having a number of air miles with Northwest Airlines and knowing that Northwest was merging into Delta, I called and applied for the American Express Card.

In about mid-April American Express sent another promotional e-mail, but this one offered 40,000 miles plus two Delta passes for opening an account. I called American Express (800/257-0770) again and the agent willingly helped me change to the “40,000 miles” offer. It took him almost 20 minutes.

By mid-July I began to wonder why I was not seeing any additional air miles on my credit card account. I called American Express and discussed this with them quite a few times. Imagine my surprise when they said they had no record of either transaction.

Unfortunately, I had not kept copies of the two promotional offers; I assumed they had a record of all transactions. I have applied for offers with other airlines and had no problems.

On Aug. 17 I kicked into problem-solving mode. The offers had to be somewhere; they couldn’t just be in cyberspace floating around.

I called Northwest’s frequent-flyer-miles department. They could not help me, but, staying on the line, I was connected to someone dealing with Delta air miles, who turned me over to someone in the customer service department at American Express. Each person gave me their phone number in case I should be disconnected.

That last connection lasted for 1½ hours. I found out later that the AmEx rep was in the Philippines! She stayed on the line and called another customer service person to help me in a conference call. The AmEx rep in the States did not seem to understand the issue, however, and the woman in the Philippines realized that she had to resolve the problem for me.

The key seems to be knowing the code number for the offers; only the woman in the Philippines was able to find these for me. After much time, she informed me that I finally had been credited the 25,000 miles and would receive the two Delta passes.

As it turned out, the man at AmEx customer service who had taken all my information for the 40,000-mile offer was just passing it on to others to see if they could change it for me. It was just a request! I thought he said I had been given that offer.

I did receive the 25,000 miles. My two Delta lounge passes arrived in the mail at the end of September.

Needless to say, I have learned I need to keep better records. Without the code number, it took many calls to find someone who knew what to do.

Has anyone else had this problem or did I just happen to fall through the net?

LORNA TJADEN

New Hope, MN