transfer award miles
 

I am attempting to transfer / get credit for ALL of my father's United award miles to my mother. My father died in April, my mother is the recipient of ALL assets from his estate. United's base charge for transfer is $110 for ONLY 15000 miles per calendar year. Dad's award miles total is 180,000 miles.

Does anyone know how I can get All of these miles transferred to mom now w/o paying thousands of dollars?

Mom is in her 80's, still travelling, and would like to utilize some of these miles sooner instead of later!

Thanks,
Julie

I know with Delta you can book travel out of the account for anyone. Do you have to move them out or can you keep the account open and use the miles as needed.

Sorry about your loss. Here is a thread from Flyertalk on this, specific to UA. Hopefully it will have some useful information (note that the early posts are pretty old, but the end of the thread is from this year). I just skimmed it very quickly, but it appeared that some have been able to transfer with a small fee.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ed-2010-a.html

I have access to my husband's account as well as my own because I know his FF # and password.

Can you get online access to your Dad's UA mileage account? If so, you could book tickets for your Mom through your Dad's account without having to transfer the miles.

Now, if UA knew about this, they might not like it but can't imagine how they would find out.

Agree with above - I book tickets using my DH miles all the time - you just need to log on to his account and book a ticket - after selecting flights you get to select a passenger - and it can be anyone and it is only breaking the rules if you then sell the ticket.

If you don't know his password there must be some lost password help screen - and if all else fails have a male call up UA and say they are him. They will put you thru all sorts of nonsense, but it should work.

Thanks for you support folks. I reviewed the thread from flyertalk. Have attempted to contact United, no response. I either get lost in the maze of automated phones or no response via email from MIleage Plus Center.

Mom is not tech savvy, so to have her request ticks online is not possible. So, I'm back to square 1. Any other suggetions?

Emailing Mileage Plus is hit or miss. Did oyu call Mileage Plus or the United Reservations line?
I call UAL all the time and it's not that crazy calling mileage Plus - maybe you are calling reservations by mistake?

Julie, why can't you just request the tickets online FOR your Mom?

I don't believe you're correct in calling your father's miles 'assets from his estate.'

According to the fine print in my mileage plan's terms & conditions booklet, if a participant dies, unredeemed mileage no longer has any value. It also states mileage is not transferable and cannot be bequeathed, devised or otherwise transferred by operation of law. I would be surprised if United's plan doesn't have similar rules.

What you're trying to do is likely to be considered fraud by the airline.