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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