Ouch this one really hurts.
I have been accumulating miles in my Mileage Plus account for 10+ years and had over 200,000.
Recently, Mileage Plus adopted new rules that allowed expiration with greater than 18 months of non-activity. I was unaware of this new policy.
Last month, I received an email from Mileage Plus to inform me that my 214,006 miles had expired and were removed from my account.
When I called customer service they were completely unhelpful. I explained to them that I receive at least 3 emails from Mileage Plus EVERY MONTH, including my monthly statement, but I received no warning from them that my miles were in danger of expiring. They just robotically chanted that Mileage Plus had no responsibility to notify me of the imminent expiration.
There are two options that Mileage Plus offers to restore these miles:
1) I can buy them back for 1.25 cents per mile…..this would cost approximately $2675.
2) I can pay $199 to enroll in a program that will restore the miles after I purchase and fly a new roundtrip fare with United before June 08……..this is the only palatable option that I will be forced to accept.
So, the bottom line is that Mileage Plus took 214,000 miles (worth more than $2500) from me without reasonable notification and will only return them after extorting $199 from me and forcing me to buy yet another roundtrip ticket from them.
Can anyone there help me to get these miles back without the humiliation of paying for what is already rightfully mine?
GBTadewaldt
Yreka, California
We have no idea what United is going to say, but we’d suggest trying an EECB (executive email carpet bomb) on them. Anyone familiar with United’s flexibility on this issue? Can they waive the fee?
For more information about how to learn to launch a EECB, click here.
(Photo:balmes)
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I’m a United frequent flyer, and I -did- receive notice (some time ago) about the change in the plan. Maybe he just missed the email, or perhaps it was flagged as spam.
I received plenty of notification my miles were going to expire early this year as well…
Even better, since I only had just under 15,000 flying miles accrued, United emailed me early last fall about a sale on frequent flier tickets: round-trip for 15,000 miles! So I bought the balance of miles needed for a 15k-mile ticket ($65), and flew a friend out for a weekend visit. So I got to use up my miles before they expired.
It is not that hard to keep your frequent flier account active if you shop online: I have accounts with Northwest & Continental as well, and always go to the members area on their sites to link up to the mileage-earning mall. You certainly must have shopped at Barnes & Noble, Target, or Best Buy in the last year??? Do it online and earn some miles and keep the ones you have.
Kind of a sleezy idea, but you might let the execs know in your email carpet bomb that you would be happy to pay the $199 for a roundtrip ticket to a neighboring town and back to reactivate you miles, and that you will take every opportunity while waiting in lines at check-in, security, boarding waiting area, on the plane, etc. to let everyone know about the pointless trip you are taking and why you are taking it.
American Airlines did this to me a few years ago. They permanently lost a customer who regularly flies transatlantic and transpacific flights with his family of four to Northwest & its partners.
NWA doesn’t do this so long as you have some account activity every three years.
I avoid United at all costs. They have not been honest with their frequent flier program. First they raised it from 25,000 to 40,000 miles for nearly every route. Then they made sure you could not fly direct. I finally turned in my remaining miles for magazines. I always avoid United. Fly Frontier instead. 15,000 for a free ticket and they mean it. It really works. They will also refill your water.
In some states “points” given to you buy companies are grouped in with “gift certificates’ and can never expire. Check to see if you are protected by the laws of your state.
While it sucks to have lost your miles, I kinda call BS on the lack of notification. I recall receiving multiple notifications from United (including in my monthly statements) about the new policy, as well as noting that they list a ‘Redeemable Miles Expiration Date’ on your mileage summary page. Blaming United for your own lack of upkeep and attention is rather lame.
I am a frequent flier member too and I got the notice. I just use the chase ff card and rack up points via that. I also have my Safeway club card linked so I am always accumulating miles.
Why did you wait so long to use your miles? were you saving for a family vacation? 200k is easily 2 round trip first class tickets to hawaii, or some fun toys from their store. Or you could have sold them to others for cash.
I don’t understand why the miles have to expire. You see, the data is stored on a computer and it takes up VERY VERY VERY little space. It is just 1 field which may occupy at most 4 bytes. This is nothing. UAL should be ashamed of themselves since it costs nothing to maintain the points. It is just sitting in the computer!
I’d take a chance and email the story to CNN, Fox, and the others on a Saturday night. Sunday is the slowest news day and they have some completely lame stories. If they pick it up you’re golden. National exposure of them mentioning it would almost certainly shame them into restoring the miles just to keep from looking bad.
This same thing happened to me with American Airlines. I called them up expecting some drama, however the phone rep was very helpful and restored all my points and said all I had to do was make a mileage donation (of 200 points) to one of their charities. Maybe you can tell them of American’s policy and say you’d boycott their services for AA?
Good luck.
This is why I still have my Asiana club membership even though I never fly with them anymore. You can accumulate miles on Asiana or any Star Alliance carrier (of which United is one), and the miles NEVER expire. NEVER. Ever. It’s in their FAQ. For elite status, 40k miles and 25k miles every 3 years for the first elite tier, 100k miles and 25k miles every 3 years for the second, and 1mil miles and perpetual membership for the third tier.
That’s how a frequent flyer program SHOULD be run. They should spend those miles and investigate earning miles through a different airline’s program. But yeah, Mileage Plus sucks.
But then Star Alliance was only founded 10 years ago, so I guess that wasn’t an option.
I had the same problem a year ago but on a smaller scale. I had about 35,000 miles expire. At the time, I was shopping around for a travel rewards credit card anyway, so I called them up and got them to credit back my miles if I got their credit card. Not the dream solution, but 200,000 miles is worth about two transatlantic flights or a half dozen domestic flights… more than worth fighting for.
I have some sympathy for your situation, but the fact is I am a frequent flyer with
Qantas (incl. British, JAL, Cathay, AA, FinnAir, Iberia, LAN, Malev, Royal Jordanian)
Singapore Air (incl. Canada, China, Air NZ, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, Silkair, BMI, SpanAir, South African, Shanghai, Scandinavian, Lufthansa, LOT Polish, Swiss, TAP Portugal, Thai, United, US Air)
Emirates (incl. Sri Lankan)
I have been travelling the world for 10 years now and on average travel around the world 4 times a year, I have never lost any FF miles, they always give plenty of notice on changes of terms.
The fact of the matter is people hold on to their miles and for a company that is in financial trouble this represents a massiveliability (*2 million + FF’ers). I think Qantas in a 10 year old audit estimated some ridiculous liability in the hundreds of millions.
Anyway long winded I know but heres my point, you may be able to transfer the points to another STAR alliance airline, do your research with these massive alliances these days you can join another companies FF program and still get the United points, but the T&C of said programs can differ greatly.
I recently lost 90,000 miles with American without notification. American used to do a regular mailing with miles expiration info but they stopped. They claim it’s up to the consumer to keep abreast of their miles. That’s fine but in my case, I had flown American only four months before they expired my miles!
When I tried to get some satisfaction from customer service, I was stonewalled. They too offered me a way to buy back the miles — the total would’ve been around a thousand bucks to buy back miles I’d rightfully earned. Some of these miles were from first class travel, some were transferred over from TWA when American had purchased the airline. TWA miles never expired and American vowed to honor that policy. Obviously it’s not the only way they’ve screwed their customers.
There are airline consumer advocacy groups trying to put forward legislation that would address some of this corporate piracy. I suggest you check them out, if you’re interested, including:
Aviation Consumer Protection Division
Aviation Consumer Action Project
Public Citizens Congress Watch
Consumers Federation of America
Consumers Union
and of course your state attorney general.
I lost 40K miles due to the 18 months expiration but I did expect a courtesy notification email that this was going to happen. It is clear that United Airlines is reducing a huge consumer debt here and are showing no mercy. They have a huge data base and send newsletters by email so it isn’t beyond them to send expiry notifications be email.
Because I am in Australia, the whole situation is hopeless. Ansett, which was the only regional airline in the Star Alliance, went belly up in 2001 so there has been no effective way to use or accumulate FF miles locally. The only way is a big flight from Australia to USA using United Airlines. The problem is that this long flight causes you to try and accumulate the horrendous amount of miles needed over prolonged periods (almost a lifetime). It’s a catch 22 and almost out of reach.
Basically, UA and their FF program are particularly useless outside of the USA anyway. But that doesn’t mean to say that they aren’t inconsiderate SOBs given their poor management of the FF program these days.
Just try and use your miles for a flight on UA when you want it and more often than not, you just can’t. It is particularly impossible with a family of four. So what’s the point? It is too hard. So now I just buy the cheapest tickets I can find on the internet and take advantage of specials that work out cheaper than worrying about “artificially free” flights from frequent flyer points. After all, FF points are really just like trailing commissions so why not take your commission up front before you fly? Then it doesn’t expire !!! And it can be used on any airline at any time. You can’t get better than that!
The bottom line is that we all have the tools to make things better for ourselves without being locked into loyalty programs these days. We are all our own travel agents so just make life more cost effective in the first instance and find that discounted flight yourself.
United Airlines can go and get *&^%$@ !!!
I won’t be flying with UA again. I don’t have to. I don’t need to. I can get a better deal elsewhere. I am not locked into their worthless FF program any more and I don’t feel trapped by creating itineraries around UA flights because I feel like I have to have more FF miles! They have managed to rip me off so that is the end of them as far as I am concerned.
I’m free, free, FREE !!!
The Friendly Skies ? Yeh, sure!
I just found out my 51,000 UA expired when I went to book a mileage award. I was told by UA that they sent a letter 2 months ago which I never received. All I ever get from UA is credit card offers sometimes 3 times a week that I cannot get my name removed. But I was told if I could get any activity of a hotel or rental car before the miles were expired, I could get the miles back. None the less, I will never fly UA or their cronie partner US, another disaster in customer service. I will stick with NW, who treats me well and the elite program is the best in the business. Always get domestic upgrades once you hit the elite level. No need to earn segmants.
I too found out that I had lost all my miles with United when I tried to use them. I have not flown much since 9/11 but I had banked on using these miles in my retirement years. At first United claimed that I had an expired email account. I explained that I have had the same email account for 20+ years and I had not had a problem with it. At that point they said they had the right to change without notification and I was just out of luck.
To those out there in the same situation (I see some lost a lot more miles than I did), I offer heart felt condolences. I know what it is like to be robbed of a promised benefit.
No … I will not fly United and I encourage all readers of this blog to consider a carrier other than United when they next fly. Flying is all about trust and I no longer have faith in United and their policies.