Garuda Indonesia, established in 1947 has evolved into one of the most respectable airlines in the world. This is what encourages me to become a loyalist to Garuda Indonesia. After knowing that Garuda Indonesia has a frequent flyer program, I apply with no hesitancy at all.
A few days ago, I opened GarudaMiles apps to check my mileage. I logged into my account and was very perplexed with my mileage situation. My mileage got deducted and the explanation was a bit ambiguous. Determined to find out about the situation further, I decided to call Garuda’s customers service.
Garuda’s representative explained to me that they were having an auto upgrade program, every customer that they think is qualified to be upgraded, was upgraded automatically. But the tradeoff is your mileage got deducted automatically without prior notice. I was pretty frustrated with the situation.
Fortunately, the representative was kind enough to give me two options, either I can keep the new status and lose the mileage, or I will be downgraded back to my previous status and my lost mileage will be reinstated back to my account.
In the end, I choose to keep my new status. But how does this policy impact Garuda’s loyalists?
- For those who don’t really pay attention to their mileage, this practice can be a nice surprise. When they go to the airport, check in as a silver/gold/platinum member, and get the VIP treatment, it would be awesome.
- For those who really care about their mileage, this practice can be a great disappointment. Nobody wants to lose mileage that they have earned.
- For those who love to share their experience with others, this can potentially be a bad publication for Garuda. This practice is not fair for consumers and it might hurt GarudaMiles brand image.
In conclusion, the whole auto upgrade program situation is a bit confusing for me. Deducting someone’s mileage without giving the owner any prior notice is unfair.
In the future, I really hope that GarudaMiles willing to improve its auto-upgrade policy to increase their frequent flyers’ satisfaction.
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