Comments on: United cuts the lifespan of frequent flyer miles

By: Grover

Grover — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 19:04:07 +0000

Just happened to me as well. Any way to successfully get your miles back?

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:56:51 +0000

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.

By: Tess M S

Tess M S — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:20:12 +0000

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.

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:36:04 +0000

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.

By: ryan l.

ryan l. — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:12:48 +0000

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.

By: Norman

Norman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:06:41 +0000

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

By: Smriti

Smriti — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:30:25 +0000

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??

By: Maureen

Maureen — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:42:00 +0000

I just found out that I lost 65,000 miles. I would love to join in on a class action suit.

By: Nina

Nina — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:06:21 +0000

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.

By: Dianna

Dianna — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:42:47 +0000

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.