sciconf

Have 70k in UA - last activity in Nov 2010
Have 50k in CO - last activity in Mar 2011

1) I just connected both a/cs - it asks me if I want to transfer miles across? Is there a fee?

2) Which one is better to keep (CO/UA) - what would they call it in 2012?

3) Would transferring considered an activity towards the 18 months criteria?

Thanks

WIRunner

No fees
It will be MileagePlus. Since you can move miles between them, and they'll be combined at the end of the year, it doesn't matter much.
Yes.

sbm12

No fee.

The program will be called Mileage Plus and the airline will be called United in 2012.

Dunno but moving them to CO should obviate that need as CO doesn't currently expire accounts anyways.

sciconf

So if I transfer to CO, would my miles never ever expire? Even after 2012 (do we know the new policies)?

sbm12

The mileage expiry policy for the new Mileage Plus program has not yet been announced so no one (at least not here) knows what will be happening after January 1 with that rule.

bseller

While that's possible, my BET would be that - in line with most other major FF programs - Mileage Plus in 2012 WILL be subject to expiration policies.

Dave

sciconf

Can I move miles between family members without any fess ?

sbm12

If you mean linking the CO account of person 1 to the UA account of person 2, officially no. There was one report here of it working and many other reports of it failing.

SFOSpiff

And once again, they will fail to stand out in the industry, by picking the worst of the UACO policies to merge, all in the name of "alignment".

It's like they're trying to lose.

robyng

DL is major (IMO) and it went to a "no-expiration" policy this year. I am glad I'm browsing through these threads. As a long-time CO customer who has almost never used UA - the thought of an expiration policy had never entered my mind. I suppose a middle ground (if the new program has an expiration policy) might be that "old" CO miles are subject to some kind "grandfather exception" (I seem to recall programs in prior years that treated your miles differently depending on when and where you got them - especially after mergers). Robyn

sbm12

Yup. And when asked directly about this change the UA and AA executives in charge of their respective programs said that they saw no value in changing their policies to follow DL as they preferred to interact with engaged customers.

Shareholder

Is miles expiry really that much of an issue to anyone around here? As long as there is an activity in the account, the clock keeps resetting so I just don't get the concern. If someone can't come up with a flight, hotel stay, credit card transaction, car rental...

To OP, seems you are among those who doesn't travel much, so for the moment the best thing to do is transfer the UA miles into your CO account. I suspect the new MP program will modify the expiry policy but grandfather in any CO miles for a longer period.

That said, expiring miles are really an accounting issue, to remove a liability to UA's balance sheet. Since UA knows that a certain percentage of miles never get used, they use this mechanism to prune the deadwood among its 60 million account holders.

freezone

I seem to belong to the above group of people that try to earn miles as best possible and save enough of those miles to book for travel but also don't get to travel much. Are there any free ways or very cheap ways to keep miles alive with UA. Heard AA and BA can keep miles alive using Itune for 99c downloads, not sure if anything like that exist for UA.

channa

I wouldn't count on that -- CO claims they have no expiration date, but in typical CO spin, they also reserve the right to terminate accounts for inactivity:

If no mileage is deposited in your account for 18 consecutive months, your membership may be cancelled, and your miles may be forfeited. To keep your account active, you can earn mileage with a variety of airline, non-travel and shopping partners. Please visit the Earn Miles section of this site for a full list of earnings partners.

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US.../advisory.aspx

Joshua

Does anyone know if one's Mileage Plus number or OnePass number will become primary?

This may sound incredibly petty, but I hope it's MP. I've had my MP since 1986 and still have my original card, rainbow tulip and all. I like to get it out on the rare occasion I need to disclose my MP number.

My OnePass has less sentimental value to me.