TRAVEL Cereal deal for air miles proves hard to swallow for customer

American Airlines has tightened requirements for trading in mileage.
By DON OLDENBURG
WASHINGTON POST
When Judith Beck started collecting American Airlines AAdvantage air-mile coupons from her Kellogg's All-Bran cereal boxes a year ago, she had dreams of flying her son and daughter-in-law somewhere warm during the winter. Maybe taking a vacation herself.
Free flights! A 100-mile coupon in each box of the cereal that she eats anyway -- sort of a frequent-eater program! What a deal!
After collecting 20 certificates from 20 boxes, Beck called American Airlines to find out how many more miles she needed to cash in for a ticket. It "seems you need 25,000 of the air miles," says the reader from Sterling Heights, Mich. "I guess it would take me a while to eat that much cereal. That adds up to 250 boxes of All-Bran."
When Beck complained to Kellogg's, the customer rep was "dismissive," she says. "They stated that they only print the offer, and it's up to American Airlines. The information on the outside of the All-Bran box makes this sound so terrific. What a rip-off!"
She pitched the coupons out in disgust.
Many miles awarded
Kellogg's spokeswoman Jenny Enochson says that despite Beck's unhappy experience, the program has awarded more than 1.6 billion miles since it started three years ago. "This offer is highly valued by many of our consumers," she says.
The cereal box, Enochson adds, does provide program rules -- but as Beck pointed out, it doesn't detail the number of miles needed for travel or upgrading.
"American Airlines ultimately sets these requirements, and they are subject to change," she says.
Although you need 25,000 miles to travel, under the American program, you can cash in as few as 5,000 miles for a one-way upgrading.
According to a May analysis of 11 frequent-flier programs by Consumer Reports, those requirements have tightened across the airline industry lately, making it harder for consumers to claim award tickets.
Stricter requirements
The report found that American Airlines "has increased mileage requirements for some awards" and recommended that consumers maximize their miles by patronizing hotels, car-rental agencies, telecom companies, grocery stores, florists and, yes, cereal brands partnered with its frequent-flier program.
Travelers now earn about 40 percent of their miles from nonflight activity, according to Consumer Reports, which suggests that consumers check airline Web sites for lists of air-mile partners.
Carlo Bertolini, spokesman for American Airlines, says that was Beck's "misunderstanding" about the cereal program.
Most customers use the cereal promotion to add miles to their frequent-flier total, most of which is accumulated through air miles, credit-card purchases and so forth.
"It's just another method we're extending to people," he says, adding that American this year eliminated expiration dates on the cereal coupons, so someone such as Beck could conceivably earn all her air miles just by eating cereal -- without a time limit.