It’s hard to imagine that a simple mistake could cost you thousands of points or miles, but that’s exactly what happened to me when booking a flight to Cancun for my friends and me.
I have always been diligent in managing my rewards since hearing horror stories of people losing large portions of their balances through one mistake or another. But no one’s perfect: I trust my account too much to automatically update after a points transfer, and it ended up costing me 15,000 miles.
Here’s what happened and how you can avoid it. making the same mistake.
The Transfer: Moving Membership Rewards to Delta SkyMiles
Two of my friends and I decided to go to Cancun this summer and I volunteered to book us with points and miles.
At that time, it had nearly 200,000 Amex Membership Rewards points, so Delta Air Lines was at the top of my list of airlines to consider as it is one of Amex Transfer Partners. I knew I could easily book some tickets to Cancun and still have plenty of points to spare.
One of my friends wasn’t flexible on our travel dates due to her work schedule, so I kept a close eye on her Seats.aero to find the best option for us. Delta turned out to be the cheapest option for our flight to Cancun, very lucky for me.
In total, you would need to transfer 69,000 Membership Rewards points to Delta SkyMiles to book this flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to Cancun International Airport (CUN). So, that’s exactly what I did.
Historically, my transfers were credited to my account immediately. This time, however, the miles did not publish immediately. I made the transfer on a holiday weekend and heard that transfers can sometimes take a couple of days to post, so I waited.
Big mistake.
Reward your inbox with TPG’s daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers to receive breaking news, in-depth guides, and exclusive offers from TPG experts.
Related: Why you should dominate some credit card transfer partners and (most likely) leave the rest behind
The Mistake: Waiting Too Long to Contact Delta Support
I waited a few days after my transfer to contact Delta support.
My loyalty account balances are always automatically updated after previous transfers, so at the time I thought Delta’s system was taking too long to process my transfer.
The transfer was actually posted right after I made it. When I contacted support, a representative confirmed that my updated balance was not showing up in my account due to a technical issue on Delta’s part. The solution to view them was simple: log out and log back in.
As soon as I logged out and logged in, the problem was fixed. My 69,000 SkyMiles were available.
I immediately navigated to Delta’s reservations page to get three award tickets, only to discover that the flight I had chosen had price went up in the few days since I last checked.
It wasn’t anything surprising, but it wasn’t a painless increase either. In total, I had to transfer an additional 15,000 Membership Rewards points to Delta to cover the additional cost.
I’m lucky to have a significant Membership Rewards balance, thanks in large part to the welcome offers I’ve gotten from my American Express® Gold Card and American Express Platinum® Card.
If those 69,000 points were everything I hadI would have been in a very difficult situation. Transfers are always one-way, so I wouldn’t have had the option of using those points for another airline.
The lesson: always be proactive in contacting support if your transfer is not posted
The mistake itself was easy to avoid. I should have contacted support after 24 hours as my previous transfers were always posted instantly. Any unexpected delays in your rewards posting are worth contacting support, in case there is a technical issue.
Even if nothing happens, believe me: it’s better to be safe than sorry.
This is especially true if you are using most or all of your rewards balance for a transfer, or if your travel dates are inflexible. Of course you can always buy additional points or miles if you need more and have nothing left to transfer. But that can get expensive if you need to purchase a substantial amount of points and miles.
In the end, the best strategy is to contact support if something doesn’t work. Do not rely on your account balance to be displayed correctly.
Related: Don’t Fall For This Airline Customer Service Scam
In a nutshell
In the end I was able to book the flight for my friends and me. 15,000 SkyMiles didn’t wipe out my rewards balance, but it took enough for me to learn an important lesson.
I spent a lot of time focusing on general things like using the correct card for certain purchases and prize tracker tracking that I missed something so simple. If you plan to transfer to Delta SkyMiles soon, remember to log out of your account and log back in after the transfer is complete.
Above all, don’t hesitate to contact your loyalty program support if you’re concerned about how long a transfer takes. If something feels wrong, it probably is.
