$150 re-crediting fee for uncleared upgrade award??
 

Is this a new fee that I'm not aware of? I used 20k miles to request an upgrade on a paid Y-fare ticket between SFO and NRT and, as usual out of SFO, the upgrade didn't clear. United said that they'd refund the miles, which never happened. Upon my fifth contact complaint with United, I got this response:


Dear OP,

Thank you for writing us. I understand you are inquiring about a refund of 20,000 miles for an upgrade from San Francisco to Narita. I contacted Mileage Plus on your behalf and they advised me that your ticket shows you were originally booked on April 1 and changed to April 2 and that your upgrade was from Denver to San Francisco to Narita. In addition, they are showing that to have the miles recredited you will need to submit a credit card for the $150 re-crediting fee to have the miles redeposited into your account.

In order to process your request, please send me an email advising me about the DEN to SFO flight and the credit card information for the re-deposit fee. I will need the expiration date and the full name and billing address on the credit card. Once I receive this I will respond back to you directly.

We appreciate your cooperation.

Regards,

<agent name>
Customer Care



Hmmmm, I never flew out of DEN, so I have no idea why Mileage Plus would have that on their record, and my ticket was never changed. But even if I did, would it matter since I'm requesting a refund for an uncleared upgrade award? Either Mileage Plus is pulling irrelevant excuses out of their butt or I'm missing something here.

Wow, so this is clearly in the past and they still want to charge you a redeposit fee? Unbelievable.

I've actually had some good luck with agents lately regarding redepositing miles from waitlisted awards. Both knew the policy that if the upgrade hasn't cleared (i.e. still on the waitlist), you can have your miles back at no charge (although the second one had to ask a supervisor first). Both times my mileage showed up within minutes of hanging up the phone.

I know you said you've made several attempts to contact UA, but keep trying as there are good agents out there somewhere!

The agents are wrong. Uncleared upgrades are refunded gratis after the fact.

The OP needs to call MP and cut out the middle man who apparently doesn't know what is going on with this past itin.

I've said it many times ---I DON'T SEND THIS NEW AIRLINE E-MAILS OR LETTERS! IF YOU WANT SOMETHING REALLY SCREWED UP AND WANT TO BE SUPER PISSED, CONTACT CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH AN E-MAIL!

OP, give MP a call, if you want this thing handled correctly, and disregard the response you received!!!

Thanks for your input and for setting the facts straight with United's policies that they haven't been following regarding my ordeal. Here's my contact history:

4/9 (8 days after flight): Called Mileage Plus. Agent said that re-deposit will take up to 14 days due to consolidated system
4/16 (15 days after flight): Called United Premier line. Agent submitted a mileage re-deposit request to Mileage Plus. Agent said that the request may take up to 30 days to be completed
5/16 (45 days after flight): Emailed Mileage Plus. Was told that the miles would be re-deposited into my account by the end of the week
6/5 (65 days after flight): Emailed United customer relations. Agent said that I need to pay a $150 fee to have the miles re-deposited.

Anything I can do now or is it pretty much over for me and my 20,000 miles? Keep calling Mileage Plus until they re-deposit the miles? I felt like I've pulled all the strings.

Go back to step #1 (4/9) and call MP!
2 weeks is the pat answer that everyone gets.
Call MP!
Tell them what happened and if you feel like you're getting the run-a-round politely dismiss yourself and hang up.
Call back to MP!
They can redeposit these 20K miles on the spot.
Call MP --- Don't e-mail anyone again, especially customer service, whose sole purpose in life is to screw everyone they can!
Be patient and very, very politely, but firmly explain that you have been getting the run-a-round, but don't tell them anything about you previous communication with the Premier line or customer service or they'll pass the buck to them and you'll be sent to a black hole and never come back to earth.
Explain that you've been calling every week or so for nearly 2 months and you really want to get your miles put back in your account NOW, which you were promised on numerous previous occasions.
They can do it, but you need someone that gives a damn and patience will pay off. Don't fall for the $150.00 redeposit fee and don't confuse them with previous nonsense like you flew from Denver.

Just tell them that you want your miles returned today, as was promised by numerous agents and waiting is getting you nowhere!

Good luck!

I think this is a scam to get your cc info. There is no such redeposit fee.

I recently left my kindle on a UA plane and reported it to lost and found. I received a very similar signed email from a "united employee" asking for my cc info so they could FedEx the kindle to me. Everyone I showed the email to (including FedEx) said it was a scam.

I reported the incident to UA, and they deposited 10K miles into my account, not understanding the bigger issue of "employees" trying to gain access to cc info.

UA could have a bigger problem here and I hope UA Insider sees this thread.

-----

This never crossed my mind because I figured that it'd be clean coming from United as I contacted them first. But now when I look at it, it does seem somewhat suspicious because the agent has my itinerary info wrong and she requested my credit card number, expiration date, billing address, and full name directly. How would I go about reporting this agent to United Insider?

Get your miles back first!

The situation that the OP is in is that there are too many middle people who have now got this refund thing totally screwed up.

i.e. Denver - $150,00, and who knows what else?

He needs to call MP and if necessary ask for a supervisor, but if he gets the right person this matter will be resolved promptly, as mine have been when I've finally had enough manufactured b.s. and made up stories by people that don't have a clue of what they're doing, so they make up stories. The OP did the correct thing by posting on here and getting headed in the right direction, as he apparently was about to give up.

Op - Give-em a call tomorrow and please let us know what happened, but don't let them stall you any further.

A follow up letter to someone can be done later, but get this resolved before more misinformation gets added to the pot!

I hope one of the moderators could bring this thread to the attention of UA Insider. Now that I see someone else received a suspicious email from UA requesting cc info, it seems someone at UA should look into this.

Oh, and yes, of course, the OP needs to call UA to get his/her miles back.

If you want, send a brief concise but detailed email to Smisek. My buddy actually knows Smisek and told me how to write an email to Smisek that will actually get answered. Emails with info that is documented and easily traceable will be taken care of quickly. Emails that are ambiguous or lack specifics are tough to address...

Well, after a 16-minute phone call with Mileage Plus, my 2 1/2 month ordeal was solved. I had to be put on hold for a couple of minutes, but the agent was helpful and the miles were immediately re-deposited into my account. And no Denver faux record and no $150 re-deposit fee. I guess everyone was right all along: keep calling until you get an agent who actually gives a crap and who doesn't toss the matter to another department, which seems to be the new trend for United phone CSR's.

Thanks for all your input and advice. I'm going to email Smisek about what happened. Will get back to you if I get a response.

It's Really Simple...
 

Just stop flying United. The merger has destroyed a once great airline...

This doesn't sound so odd to me - my daughter left an iPad on a Delta flight. It was found and they wanted CC to pay for Fedex back to us. Handled by phone, but could have been by email.