1.1 million miles expired 6 wks ago

Old Aug 2, 2010, 8:15 pm
  #121  
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How long was your account inactive for (with no earning or redeeming) ? This change happened a long time ago, so it's probably going to be hard to get an exception.
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 8:16 pm
  #122  
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I wouldn't hold much hope, but good luck.
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 8:22 pm
  #123  
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Obviously you have lost track of time. To have lost your initial 100K means you've not flown in at least two years, nor had a single non-travel transaction. Nor did you even bother to check you MP account for a year. If the miles meant that much to you, you'd have at least checked your account once or twice a year and found one or two partners to earn miles from. You can appeal but your disinterest for over a year suggests you're crying crocodile tears. The sooner people start considering their FF accounts to be akin to their IRAs, the more interest they'll take in keeping an eye on them.
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 8:35 pm
  #124  
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It is ironic that you kept track of your WN account while UA was expiring...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...4-30-10-a.html

Write UA a letter, perhaps they can offer some sort of a challenge to reclaim the miles but I doubt it...
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 8:42 pm
  #125  
 
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As a non-elite your access to saver awards would likely have been limited anyway. You're probably thinking of these 100k miles in the context of a different era. Likely the most you would've gotten would have been two standard domestic economy seats and a small handful of miles left over. In the grand scheme of things, you really haven't lost all that much. Certainly not what you're wanting to hear right now but that's probably as close to a bright side as you're going to get at this point. I'd be fairly surprised if you made any real headway; UA just recorded a huge bump in revenue from expired miles and so that's factored into their stock price at this point. To go around giving back expired miles they'd have to take a charge down the line. Not likely!

(For the record, I think an 18-month expiration schedule is overly aggressive but, as has been pointed out to me in a different thread, it's pretty much industry standard practice at this point).
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 8:57 pm
  #126  
 
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Originally Posted by Shareholder
Obviously you have lost track of time. To have lost your initial 100K means you've not flown in at least two years, nor had a single non-travel transaction. Nor did you even bother to check you MP account for a year. If the miles meant that much to you, you'd have at least checked your account once or twice a year and found one or two partners to earn miles from. You can appeal but your disinterest for over a year suggests you're crying crocodile tears. The sooner people start considering their FF accounts to be akin to their IRAs, the more interest they'll take in keeping an eye on them.
I think that's a little harsh. If the OP was under the impression (based on the fact that for years, they didn't expire) that the miles were not going to expire, then why would they check their account at all? I personally stopped two relatives in the last three months from letting their miles expire. It wasn't because they didn't care; it was because they didn't know.
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 8:58 pm
  #127  
 
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Originally Posted by mdc22474
Right now, I can't help but feel like these miles were stolen from me.
Victim statements like this don't really help your case.

Given that the miles expired 18 months ago, and that they expire after 18 months of inactivity, it means that you haven't had any sort of transaction for 3 years. So you need to assume at least some of the blame here (not really getting that impression from your post). To be sure, the miles expiration thing really sucks, however this is an industry-wide practice so UA can't be singled out for it.

I do sincerely wish you good luck in trying to get them back.
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 9:01 pm
  #128  
 
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Some have reported a challenge from UA of a $199 payment with the need to fly one flight (R/T possibly?) within 12 months to gain back expired miles. That being said, given that your miles expired so long ago, I'm not sure that they would offer. It may be worth an ask from a Mileage Plus representative.
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 9:02 pm
  #129  
 
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My husband has no status with UA but he got a note from them telling him his miles would expire on ....date a couple of months in advance. We flew him OW to SLC on his miles which pushes his expiration date up for the remaining miles.
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 9:04 pm
  #130  
 
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I can take the harsh "It's your own damn fault" comments, I know that's true intellectually.

What happened is since I moved a lot of my flying to SWA and Delta, I just stopped looking at my UAL miles. I had no idea it had been that long. I flew in 2006/7 and then for various reasons, didn't fly again on United until 2009. Usually I throw a car rental to each airline every now and again to keep it active. I just never saw this one coming. Yes, I know it's my own damn fault but the "stolen" comment is my emotional reaction to the loss. It just doesn't seem right. Whatever notification I was given never got to my eyeballs or I would NEVER have let this happen. If I had received a mailer or anything this would not have happened... OK, now I'm whining I admit it.
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 9:05 pm
  #131  
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I don't get it.

OP says UA alleges 100K miles expired 18 months ago.

OP gets a notice that 606 miles are about to expire.

Therefore there was activity 17 months ago.

Therefore there should have been sufficient activity to keep his 100K miles alive.

Thus he should have received a notice that 100606 miles were about to expire.

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Old Aug 2, 2010, 9:09 pm
  #132  
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Originally Posted by mre5765
Therefore there should have been sufficient activity to keep his 100K miles alive.
How do you figure that? The last activity on those 100,000 miles was 36 months ago. They expired 18 months ago, and his 606 mile activity came after they had already expired (probably 12-14 month ago because they start telling you to burn the miles on magazines about 4-6 months before they expire).
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 9:13 pm
  #133  
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Like others, since you have not had any activity for over 2.5 years ( or more -- might help if you can fill in the activity history), you are not likely to get a positive response from UA While others have been successful in restoring miles, by a challenge or finding an old uncredited item, being more than 12 months after expiration is more than others have reported.

some related threads that may help
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ad-merged.html
http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index...Expiration_(UA)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...d-threads.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...red-miles.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...6-wks-ago.html
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 9:15 pm
  #134  
 
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Write a well worded letter, I wouldn't push the idea that you've flown 250,000m over 20 years though, I mean thats 12,500 a year, you'd not be considered a premium customer unless you were buying full Y/F, I mean I've flown 970,000m in the past 7 years and I don't even throw that at them as I know there are people that do a lot more than me.

Explain the situation that you never received a letter, why are you receiving one now about 606 miles, when did they send the last letter out (though I doubt they are responsible in their Terms for sending you notice, and ask about paying an amount of money and flying a flight or 2 on UA, see what happens.

You are most likely going to get an ICC when calling with no status and they really cannot help you.

Send a letter to WHQ and hope for the best.

Good luck!
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Old Aug 2, 2010, 9:18 pm
  #135  
 
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I can only go back in history until 1/1/2009. Here are the only two items in my history:

2/1/2009 - 100,450 miles expire
3/24/2009 - 606 miles flown.

Therefore, I must not have had any activity from August 2007 until February 2009 (not really that long all things considered). I probably checked my mileage balance during that time. I obviously have not checked my balance since at least 2/1/09 or I would have seen the expiration.

The recent email I received is because the 3/24/09 miles are close to expiring. Not to beat a dead horse but it would have been nice to receive an email like that a year ago. (Remember the line in Dr. Strangelove where he yells out: "of course the whole point of a doomsday machine is lost if you KEEP IT A SECRET" )
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