United Airlines may be improving the food and seats in first class, but for the majority of air travelers, they’re not winning any points.
And I don’t just mean the pretzels they eliminated. The latest lap in the ongoing race to the bottom is in the Mileage Plus program. The airline is cutting the lifespan of its miles in half, from 3 years to 18 months, for accounts without any activity.
Granted, anyone who spends or redeems any miles whatsoever, whether they’re flying, renting a car, buying stuff through the airline’s online mall, or filling out a survey, during that 18 month period restarts the clock. But for infrequent flyers with low balances in their accounts, hoping to scrape enough miles for a domestic coach ticket, this matters.
Even worse, they backdated it to July 2006, so the clock has already been running.
Last year, US Airways did the same thing. But at that time, immediately following its merger with America West, US Airways was in the process of rebranding itself as a low-cost carrier, a la Southwest or jetBlue. (Whether it is actually a low-cost carrier or not, that’s another story. But it’s the image they’re striving for, even making their ticker symbol “LCC” on the New York Stock Exchange.)
Low cost carriers have tended to put shorter lifespans on their miles. But United isn’t marketing itself as a low cost carrier. If anything, they’re trying to shape themselves as a premium brand. This isn’t how you do it, United.
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January 22nd, 2007 at 2:52 pm
This may be good for the bottom line, but it stinks for the frequent flier. It won’t do anything to make customers loyal to these types of airlines. It personally pisses me off as I fly with both airlines.
The airlines seem to forget that they need more customers to grow. First, they squeeze their employees to stay afloat and now they are squeezing their customers. I hope this move bites them back.
February 5th, 2007 at 7:33 am
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March 27th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
So much for the loyalty programs… I’m glad JetBlue, Virgin American, and even Southwest will be flying out of SFO soon. Now this is a great reason to no longer be loyal to United…
May 20th, 2007 at 7:52 am
[...] – United cuts the lifespan of frequent flyer miles – United cuts its online booking bonus in half – United Airlines’ War on Pretzels – Reader [...]
August 9th, 2007 at 7:44 am
[...] rule changes and expiration dates. Things like United’s mileage expiration policy, which not only changed the lifespan of miles from 36 to 18 months, but started the expiration [...]
June 7th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I just found out my 152,000 miles expired last week from this policy. I do not have any recall or record of the policy change supposedly mailed in 2007 in which I was pregnant and unable to travel due to related sciatica. I received no reminders my many miles from past overseas travel, were about to expire, unlike with Delta. Had I known, I could have easily bought extra miles to keep my account active.
I am so mad & even with their ‘flight challenge’ mileage reinstatement, I would have a hard time flying at this stage as a single mom of a teething 8-month old. Why would I want to fly with such a deceptive, lack-lustre service ever again, even if I could??!?!
October 4th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Like Gina, I’m mad! I’ve only just discovered that the miles we had accumulated to use for a round trip from New Zealand to visit our daughter in London, England had been expired without our knowing anything about it. No way is it worth buying them back, which was one option given, as due to our exchange rate it would cost almost as much as buying tickets out right. And I find the idea of the ‘flight challenge’ very dubious as it would mean taking a shorter trip that we had never planned just to retrieve our miles plus the additional expense of signing up for the challenge and buying flights. And I’m not sure if we could even use our miles as United aircraft no longer land in New Zealand. The whole thing stinks.
March 28th, 2009 at 6:06 am
Hey guys I am one of those people who United stoled my 43K miles , in my opinion they must be punished for this , I want to file lawsued , anybody want to join me the more of us the better . This company must pay for that . Let me know if you want to join. We can’t just complain and complain how bad United are nothing helps but the real judgement in court may do wonders.
June 14th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I just found out that I lost 65,000 miles. I would love to join in on a class action suit.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I just found out that I lost 131k miles and I am so mad right now! And like Gina, I never received any reminders that my miles are expiring! The only way for me to redeem these miles is by registering for the challenge for $200 and then buying a ticket. And since I don’t live in the US, I will have to spend close to a $1000 to get my miles back! A bit ridiculous isn’t it?? And to top it off, the customer service agent I was talking to hung up on me! Reason enough to forgo the miles and never fly United again??
February 16th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
I find United outstanding in their Mileage Plus program. Are you people in outer space; United does an outstanding job of notifications on their programs; of course if you ‘click on’ No on the query of whether you want to be on any of their notification lists what do you expect, a full page ad in the New York Times…get with it. I have over 600k satisfied miles in my acount and fly United internationally and find their service, and by the way on time departures outstanding on international routes.
Norman
March 1st, 2010 at 12:12 am
There are several ways to create “activity” in your Mileage Plus account in order to retain your miles. The simplest is to give away 1000 miles every 18 months to your choice of charities on United’s list. This is free & restarts the 18 month clock ticking.
March 20th, 2010 at 7:36 am
I’m a Peace Corps volunteer serving for the standard 27 months plus an extra 12. I am setup to receive notifications but did not get anything regarding my 77,000+ miles expiring. They don’t seem to care at all that I’m a Peace Corps volunteer and don’t understand it is hard for me to show activity when serving abroad like this for 27+ months. I’m extremely disappointed in them and lack of Corporate Responsibility for those of us serving abroad and will avoid flying with them in the future.
June 28th, 2010 at 10:20 am
I am one of those dissatisfied United Mileage Plus members whose miles expired and was told that I have to spend $199 to sign up for the “flight challenge” and spend more money for a qualifying flight within 90 days. I just wished that United Airlines would notify their UA Plus members when their miles will expire. I phoned them one day before my miles expired, and I was told that a purchase at their partner grocery would extend the expiration. I had a rather long conversation with their agent because I wanted to make sure I understood what I had to do. He never mentioned that there was a mininum purchase I had to make. He said that as soon as the transaction is submitted to UA, the miles will automatically be extended. Anyway, the next time I checked the status I was very dissapointed to find out that they had indeed expired. I was told that my purchase did not qualify because it did not meet the mininum requirement. Now I have to spend a lot of money to reactivate these miles. I am just very dissapointed.
June 28th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
I was told last week when trying to make a reservation that my 211,000 miles expired in July, 2009. No prior notice. I have a month remaining in my grace period to get them back via the.$199 Flight Challenge – has anyone out there successfully gotten their miles back this way? I’m a little skeptical at this point. I’m pursuing both United and Chase for misleading me.
October 31st, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Just happened to me as well. Any way to successfully get your miles back?