1.1 million miles expired 6 wks ago

Indeed, it's unfortunate, and I doubt you have any recourse at this point.

This happened TWICE to my old advisor at my university in Japan, a nice lady who happens to not religiously keep track of her MP account. Seeing as how busy she is managing as many as 30 international students a year, it's understandable that she would lose track of something like this. So, after the second time and no sympathy from UA, she just dumped UA and went to NH instead. Hope it was worth it for that nice revenue boost from expiring miles.

The 18-month policy is ridiculous and far too short, but it's also a loyalty program, so what can you do.

I would check to see if you did any qualifying hotels or car or partner activity in the last few years that would make your miles not expire. That is what I had my friend do, we found a partner flight that we had taken and he got his miles back, so check for any activity that might count.

If you throw your car rental activity around, see if you can go back through old receipts and see if maybe there was one you threw the FF number on United that never got posted. That might help your case.

Even with the exception and the fee, the limit on that, is 1 months. Back in the day, expired, meant expired. Here is the link to the program giving people a 2nd chance to unexpire miles within 1 yr. http://www.ualmiles.com/ReinstatementMiles.jsp

I can't seem to find the link from a yr ago when they announced the accounting boost for reduction in debt due to expiring miles, but this is the one from the 1st 1/4 of 2010...UA valued that at $64 million in credit back to the UA coffers. http://www.gadling.com/2010/04/29/un...hanks-to-your/ For 100k miles, your reinstatement fee would have been $1275.00. Almost makes one glad you can't resurrect them at that price ($0.0125/mile+a $25 flat fee.)

Award programs are big money. The debt added to the books is huge, and the value of expired miles is not chump change. Sorry to hear of your loss, but without ever truly being a frequent flier (but a member of a frequent flyer program) UA has very little incentive to want to re-incur the liability of your miles. I wish you luck, but think of that as (4) inexpensive nonrefundable tickets that wasn't cncld prior to the date of dptr. I've had other things in my life expire or go unused (even concert tickets) that have no residual value 1 day late. It hurts, but life goes on.

"Loyalty" to numerous airlines is tough. One isn't loyal to any, rather just an accumulator of benefits from each. It's tough to keep track of those points when you accrue them over years without any repeat business. My recommendation is to concentrate on 1 program in 1 alliance and keep track of it..."orphan miles" IMHO aren't anything to lose too much sleep over..I've been reset by Starwood and Hilton numerous times, have never redeemed an award, yet give them my numbers every time I stay with them. All I am is a victem of their marketing depts with no value to me...and I don't sweat it.

On this I disagree with you. As I recent 1K guy, I never had a problem finding domestic saver award travel as a 2P or 1P. Not always the dates I wanted, but I have yet to waste miles on a standard award. Certainly a 1K has some extra Y awards sometimes, but a 1P or 2P pulls from the same as a general member.

After your being a loyal cust. for so long,that alone,especially being a mil .miler would give you some weight.
Other than that,did you use anything related to UA that would/could count as UA miles(credit card(which is what I use at the present) car rentals,hotel stays or anything else UA recognizes as earning points.It could be eating out,sending flowers and a dozen other things.Go through your files to find ANYTHING that would have earned miles whether you signed up or not.

??????

Guy isn't a million miler. Guy may have flown "almost 250,000 miles" in his life on UA over an extended period of time with just one ticket in the last 3 years (and only 606 miles at that, not that I think short flights are not profitable one...they can be very expensive.) He has stated that he has given his loyalty to companies other than UA (specifically WN and DL, which is tough in Chicago to give biz to DL until recently as they have been a tiny player,) and when he did fly UA in the past, it was for work (not a strong indicator of loyalty driven spending, rather need based.)

Not trying to impugn the guy, but where do we get a "long time loyal flyer" or a "million miler" from his self disclosure?

As you said it, you are SOL, and we all feel bad for you.

The moral of the story: if the miles are important to you, check your acount regularly (like you do with your WN account). Checking the account once a year is not all that unreasonable.

While I agree with you that 2P and 1P should be able to find domestic saver awards if they are very flexible, a GM like the "one who lost 100K of miles" does not have a great chance to get something useful, even if he is flexible (and you may be talking 3 stops to get from point A to point B if something would be offered at all).

I feel bad about the loss of miles, but how loyal is the OP if he hasn't flown UA in nearly 3 years. Not a bunch of sympathy here. Sorry.

wwbgd

How do you figure? GM/3P/2P/1P all access the same inventory.

OUCH. I've always told myself that if things change, and I move to a job that no longer requires any travel, I'll just have to go and get the Mileage Plus VISA so i never have to think about points expiration... then again... having SOME activity once every 18 months is no big deal...

Well I sent my humble "throw myself at the mercy of the court" note to United HQ via snail mail last week. We'll see if I hear anything.

There's nothing wrong with asking.

How do you get a hotel stay or rental car posted to another persons account?

For example I found an old hotel stay that was never credited to me, I would like to help a friend out who has just lost his miles, but I'm not sure how to proceed. Neither of us are part of the hotels frequent traveler program.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!