US Airways Special Dividends Earned in 2014 Pulled By American in 2015
So I clearly didn’t do my homework on this one…
Late November found me wondering if I should do a mileage run to hit 125,000 miles on US Airways and earn free US Airways Club membership. Since I found a flight for less than the $450 annual fee on the Citi Executive card I decided to take a straight turn to Las Vegas in December.
Fast forward to now when I decided to cancel my my Citi Executive AAdvantage Card before the next annual fee came due. And was promptly denied access to the Admirals’ Clubs. I tweeted at American who said they saw I had a membership and to be sure to show the membership card. So I call to get the card sent, and am told that there is no membership on file, only the expired membership from the credit card.
I press further and was told that because Special Dividends has been discontinued, so has my lounge membership. Surely I was earning membership for a year? Not as far as the Admirals Club people are concerned.
And though I took a screenshot of the page showing the special dividends, I neglected to take a picture of the confirmation page saying I had entered my information and qualified for a membership. And no one seems very anxious to help — “we sent an email to everyone saying that special dividends were going away.” So I wasted my time and money on a pointless flight that earned me at best a few months of lounge access.
And I’m trying to figure out how I missed this so I don’t repeat in the future. And old Archive.org archived page has the language reading:
A free US Airways Club membership
Whether you’re looking to be productive or relax, US Airways Clubs make doing both more enjoyable. Come in and take advantage of the club before, after or between your flights.
It doesn’t specifically say you get membership for a year, I guess I just assumed that you had earned the membership for the coming year just as I had earned my Chairman status :(. The most unfortunate thing about all of this is that throughout the whole process of trying to figure it out, I haven’t felt like a valued 125K flyer. If they can’t give me lounge access, it is what it is, but along the way all customer service folks have been dismissive and unsympathetic for the confusion.
So lesson learned to really pay attention to the terms & conditions before making these decisions.
Maybe it was some crossing of the updates between the cancelled card and the posting of the benefit? I hit 125K in late November or early December and saw the dividend on my account soon after. But it took several weeks before I got my membership card in the mail and could gain entrance to the clubs. And my card says it’s valid through 2/2016.