The toughest part of this hobby is getting people to do what they promised. Living up to your own promotions and crediting dates should not be all that difficult.

Here are a few examples of what I’m waiting on:

United Airlines Mile Plus Visa Referral:

Many of you asked me to refer you to the Untied Mileage plus Visa card where you would get 30,000 miles after first use and I would get 15,000 for the referral. That is a great benefit, that costs the new card member nothing and rewards me for sending in the referral. It is one of the main ways I get compensated for the work on the blog.

Sarah from my hometown had fantastic followup with me indicating that she wanted a referral, applied using my referral info, got approved, used her card and got her miles for first use. I have not been as lucky. My phone call to United and Chase took me into telephone hell with one person sending me to another person who actually sent me back to the first person’s supervisor. The time for crediting is past and no miles for the frugal guy.

If you took advantage of my referral offer for the Chase United Mileage Plus credit card and made it all the way through and got your points, will you drop me a note at

Hilton Surpass Card:

This one really bothers me as Amex is usually perfect in customer service. I upgraded in July, used the card and have an email from Amex that I indeed would get the 30,000 Honors points that are above and beyond the original 10K I got with the Hilton Amex card. I have it in writing. Last I looked it is November and I used the card in July. It is supposed to be an automated system that will post my points. Nothing yet. Update and now after 12 + weeks without a point, they want me to call them to straighten it out. Crazy makers one and all.

Bank Direct AA Miles:

 I was supposed to get a 5,000 mile AA bonus for a direct deposit of 3 consecutive months. The good news here is they actually care and returned my email with a phone call. The representative asked two quick questions about the source of my direct deposit and said it would be handled. He then followed up with an email confirmation. I like these guys. If you have extra cash laying around earning little or no interest, let me refer you to their mileage checking account which pays 100 miles per $1,000 in deposits per month. I had a significant amount of cash laying around between selling our house in Michigan and buying in South Carolina. In four months I added 75,000 miles to my AA account. Non taxable event as well.

Some providers are good and some just don’t seem to care. When I finally got the supervisor on from United Mileage Plus, I ran into somebody that cared and I think, repeat think, it will be handled.

But why we have to go through this grief, in this computerized age is beyond this simple mind.