Frequent Flyer
 

My last Mileage Plus statement from United Airlines deducted all of my 70,000+ mileage points that has been carefully logged over the years. Apparently I had not been travelling with United over the last 3 years as I had temporary left my job to coach my child in his schoolwork nd my account was inactive. 70,000+ miles is quite a lot of mileage to lose overnight. I was not previously made aware of this ruling. Is there someone who can advise how my mileage may be recovered?

i think it is gone..sorry

Can someone clarify whether you need to fly on United or add miles to a United account to avoid deletion. I have flown on United but have had the miles accrue to my USAirways account. If the rule is that miles have to be posted, I can transfer miles from AMEX to United to preserve the United miles. Anyone know exactly what the rules are?

If it works the way AA's frequent flyer program does, It doesn't matter how you get miles, as long as you have some posted every three years. This way, the days counted for the three years always get pushed back and you never lose the miles. I have a Citibank AA Advantage credit card, so I'm assured to get miles posted every month and never lose my miles.

You have to earn or redeem miles within 36 months. Here are the rules:

#

Account activity
# Any member who has failed to earn mileage for a calendar quarter may, at United's option, be excluded from receiving newsletters, statements, correspondence or other materials, including notifications of Program changes or special promotions, until the next quarter in which he or she earns mileage. Any member who fails to earn mileage during the first twelve months after enrollment in the Program may be removed from the Program.

# Any member who fails at any time to engage in account activity for a period of thirty-six (36) consecutive months is subject to termination of his or her membership and forfeiture of all accrued mileage.

# "Account activity", for purposes of these Rules, shall be deemed to occur when a member accrues mileage in his or her account in any manner set forth in these Rules, or as otherwise approved by United, or when the member redeems any Mileage Plus or partner award by the use of mileage in the member's account.

I checked the "accrual methods" and it lists airline, hotel, rental car, and other partners. I don't see Amex listed as a partner. I doubt very much that transferring miles from AmEx would count as an accrual. (interesting: it mentioned that redeeming miles for an award ticket is a redemption that keeps your account alive but if you return the ticket and have the miles re-deposited that the redeposit doesn't count as an accrual)

But it is easy to have some activity. For example, it only costs 1,200 miles for a 13-week subscription to the Wall Street Journal, and you can subscribe online at united.com. You can also earn miles by subscribing. USA Today and some local papers are also available, depending on your zip code.

If you are sending flowers to somebody on Mother's Day, you might use FTD and earn 10 miles for each dollar you spend. There are a couple of other flower delivery companies that are partners. See both the Retail & Grocery and the Additional Partners here:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1176,00.html

To TeeTee - 70K miles is a lot to lose. The rule is definitely there, but I think you should call Mileage Plus, ask to speak to a supervisor, and see if there's anything you can do. My guess is that they may be able to work something out with you, like if you fly UA on a paid ticket for a few times within a particular period. Or something like that...

It's worth a try, as 70K miles is worth >2 domestic roundtrip, or >1 roundtrip to Asia.

With United's cash flow problems, maybe they will let you buy your miles back.

I too lost over 25,ooo miles as of 1/1/05. Even though i flew united to bkk in october 2004, i did not use my credit card for that trip and lost my miles. i thought that if i was adding miles...that would keep my account active...i appealed to anyone who would listen to no avail....
i just booked my return flight to asia
on China airlines...

I don't understand, if you flew United less than a year ago, shouldn't that have stopped the clock on losing your miles? I don't blame you for not using them on your next Asia trip. I got pretty upset with United myself a couple of years ago when flying home from BKK, and when it came to choosing an airline to go to Japan last year, we went with American, even though it was slightly more money, just to prove a point. Not that American is any better, they don't even give free drinks on international flights anymore. Does anyone know if Cathay Pacific still gives free drinks in coach on international flights? We're flying them to Kuala Lumpur in Sept and it would be nice to have a couple of bloody marys without having to shell out 5 bucks a piece for them.

Hi TeeTee-If, in fact, you have lost your miles for good, let United know you won't be flying with them again and start a ff program with another airline. We make it our business to use miles up when we have them. Any airline can change their ff program rules at any time and then you can lose those points without recourse. Also sometimes the points do not justify the flight costs. Other airlines are much cheaper, in many cases! Best of luck to you!

laurieco - Free alcoholic drinks on all CX flights. Don't worry.

I also have no idea what's with divediva's problem.

Question to DC...Is United now hooked up with AmExp's Membership Rewards Program? I ask because I have been in United's program forever, but in the past...almost... decade I have had my Membership Rewards points transfeered over to Delta since United was not a member of the program. I just transfered over about 17,000 points into the Delta account a few weeks ago all the time wishing they could go to the United account. I haven't received any printed information saying that United is connected to Membership Rewards. Happy Travels!

To Tee...Tee...You don't have to fly to keep your account active...unless things have suddenly been changed.In the OLD days you had to actually FLY most of the time to get points. You just have to show,ACTIVITY on your account...which means you could have just done it through purchases...for example...bought someone some flowers through the flower program that United has and then that would have shown up as activity on your account. Or join the restaurant program and get points that way. I used to do that...all those rules are listed on your account statements.I've been in frequent flyer programs since the early 80s when I had over 300,000 miles on Pan Am.It would have been very easy to have kept those miles. Happy Travels!

Oops, United isn't an AMEX participant. Guenmai, thanks for pointing that out. I would have been complacent about it until it was too late! I must have beent thinking that the new relationship between USAir and United had something to do with it.

I've been able to get Mileage Plus to reinstate expired miles in the past for a fee, but this was a few years ago. Call and see if they'll still do this, doesn't hurt to ask.

i am going to call united again...and attempt to get them to restore my miles... i flew united to bkk in october, just didnt use my united credit card....you would think that should keep me active...
i will let you know what the outcome is...i am flying united to reno on tuesday of next week...so maybe they will be kind...ya think???

divediva, it appears to me that there must have been a mistake with United. Flying with them does keep your account active - you certainly don't have to use their credit card. Call them!

And let us know what happens.

divediva, did you give them your Mileage Plus number when you made your reservations to BKK? Or did you give it to them when you checked in for your first flight?

I hope that you still have your boarding passes and receipt for your BKK ticket. You should see your MP number on them. If your MP number is on the receipt or BPs then United made a mistake if you didn't get credit for it. That mileage accrual would be enough to keep your account alive.

If you didn't give them your MP number then, normally, it would not be too late to get credit for the flight. There is a process for getting missing mileage credit.

There is a good chance that they will be kind. You definitely want to have the info handy about your Reno flights, you will want them to put your MP number into that reservation. Good luck.

divadiva,
Do you mean that you didn't give UA your Mileage Plus account number either at the time you booked or at check in? Whether you used their credit card should not have anything to do with whether you received actual flight mileage credit.