Flying High with Air Macau Privileges Frequent Flyer Loyalty Program

In June of 2007, I went into a local branch of Bank of China in Macau and applied for a Bank of China - Air Macau co-branded MasterCard Platinum Card. Since I already flew with Air Macau a few times earlier that year and already had an Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty card with me, I figure I could easily spend some money with my new credit card and would soon be eligible to accumulate enough points for free flights.

So I carefully entered my existing Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty card number into the credit card application form. I received my new credit card within two weeks.

Another two weeks had passed and I though I had accumulated enough points to top up my previous flights in exchange for free flights. But I was surprised to find out that instead of transferring credit card spending points to my existing Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty card, they issued me a new number and credited the points I spent on my credit card into my new Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty account.

So I called their hot-line and asked them to amend the situation. Then the staff politely told me to write them an email and promised me that the situation will be resolved as soon as possible. A month passed and nothing happened to my account. So I called again, wrote another email and waited another month. Still nothing happened. Then it became a monthly ritual for me - something I have to do every month in order to reinforce my presence on this planet - pay the mortgage, electricity bills, credit card payments, and call Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty program. Every month I would call the Air Macau customer service hotline, write them an email and then logged online only to find out nothing had happened to my account.

Maybe the process for handling such as case is too complicated. Maybe the staff handling my case thought I was just another insignificant little guy with only a few segments in his account. Maybe somebody within Air Macau thought it would be a waste of time to serve someone with enough miles to exchange for only one flight segment, and chances are little guys like that would never complaint and they could easily got away with their laziness. Maybe I was simply forgotten, again and again by various staff within Air Macau.

Today I looked at the calender and was about to repeat the ritual again. I suddenly realized that it was the anniversary of the story of my insignificant missing miles with Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty program. I just had a huge dumplings for breakfast and somehow I felt like doing something drastic to kick-start the day. So I searched for an annual report of Air Macau from the Internet and re-sent my email to all board of directors and senior managers. That was 8:00 a.m. in the morning.

By 11:00 a.m., I received an email from the public relations department of Air Macau, saying that my two Air Macau Privileges frequent flyer loyalty accounts had been merged and everything had resolved.

By 3:00 p.m., I received another phone call asked me if I had read the email the sent me. The only thing I had said to the person calling me was, "you should have called a year earlier."