A lot of milage for those points

I'm sucked into the rewards of credit cards. It's evil. I got a catalog today advertising all the stuff I could order with my "miles". Yay! The thing is, I haven't used that card for years. In fact the only reason I kept that card open is because I saved up 19,000 points. I know, I know, you're thinking I'm really in debt. Almost out of it, thanks for asking.

So my point. Because I haven't used that account for so long, I no longer have the card or statements or anything. I probably do - somewhere - but didn't feel like digging through a bunch of junk at the moment. I tried to log onto the account online, but of course couldn't remember my username or password. I clicked on the "forgot username" button, where I was prompted to enter my 16-digit account number. See the problem?! I phoned them twice (the first time was hung up on), and finally got to speak with a barely-english-speaking customer service agent. After asking me all but my first born, he was allowed to tell me I have just over 19,000 points. I asked for my account number so I could go online and make the transaction to "puchase" something with my hard-earned points. But he was only allowed to give me the last four digits of the account number. I can see -almost- why they would do that, but if I provided ALL the correct answers to the security questions, wouldn't it seem like he's really talking to me, the account holder? Humph. The best he could do is to mail me a copy of the statement (that will include the account number). So, I'm excited to spend my 19,000 points in the next month or so. After all, I probably spent $8,000 in real money for the $50 "reward" I'm going to get. By the way, I will be closing that card so fast afterwards! I hope they don't go out of business before I have the satisfaction of doing so!