US Airways miles expiring, how/when keep/reinstate them (merged)

 
Old Aug 4, 2009, 4:38 pm
  #46  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: a hotel room, somewhere...
Posts: 962
resurrecting thread cause it helped me

did a search and this thread helped me; so i figured i'd add a data point.

have a month til my US Air miles expire so, to cover my bases, i went with 2 recommendations from this thread: bought a song on itunes and signed up for points.com.

the points.com 10 miles signup bonus POSTED TO MY US AIR ACCOUNT 10 MINUTES after i signed up! WOW! yes, on the US Air site (sorry for the all caps, but for anyone needing this i wanted it to stand out). unbelievable.

if i remember, i'll come back and post how long it takes the itunes to show up. i did a screen capture of my US Air Miles activity page just to cover my bases in case it disappears or something.

anyway... thanks gang, that was easy schmeasy.
uncommonsensical is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2010, 10:31 am
  #47  
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Boston, MA
Programs: UA 1K 3MM Lifetime, AA PlatPro,Marriott Titanium Elite Lifetime, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 741
Miles Expiring - Need Suggestions

I usually ignore my Dividend Miles emailed statements and usually credit my US flights to United.

By chance, I looked at the statement this month and saw that I've got 230,000 miles expiring at the end of this month. So I've got to take some quick action.

It's too short notice to do a MR. I could pay $40 to save the miles. Or buy something in the mall? Will mall activity hit my account fast enough to save the balance? Is there anything cheap in the mall worth using miles on (or some other strategy that I haven't considered ... book a trip using miles and then cancel it?)?
edsh is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2010, 11:03 am
  #48  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: US-CP, UA, Marriott Rewards, HHonors, Avis,
Posts: 4,549
The fastest might be to buy a few more miles, especially if the 100% Bonus on purchased miles is still going on. I would expect a couple days delay between any skymall merchant and US to credit the miles, but a purchase of US miles should hit your account pretty quickly (the bonus takes a little longer but the original miles should go pretty fast).

Not too much in the skymall catalog is cheap and I'm not 100% sure but I don't think you can buy items with miles, only buy items with money and get a mileage bonus.

Any acticity in your account will keep the miles alive. I'd be worried that buying a trip with miles and later cancelling it would come back to haunt you in the form of a retroactive mileage expiration. They also charge all members other than CP a mileage redeposit fee when you cancel, which is a lot more than the $40 keepalive fee.

Or you can just transfer them to me
I can find something to do with them!

Last edited by dcpatti; Mar 19, 2010 at 11:05 am Reason: typo
dcpatti is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2010, 11:20 am
  #49  
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: CAE,AGS
Programs: AAExP, Hyatt Globalist, HHonors Gold, IHG Spire, Marriott Plat
Posts: 3,124
I agree with DC Patti - the easiest thing would be to buy the miles - you can buy 1000 miles for $27.50 - get 2000 for your purchase. I bought a few the other day and they posted in about two days. Or, as she offered, you could transfer to me too.
miffSC is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2010, 11:40 am
  #50  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Maine
Programs: US Airways Chairman, PetSmart PetPerks Elite
Posts: 366
There is always the US Airways shoppoing mall. My partner was about to have her miles expire. She went there and bought an item she needed for under 5 bucks and saved her miles that way. The bonus was: the merchant was offering free shipping!!
vincentvan is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2010, 11:58 am
  #51  
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: The Bay Area, USA
Posts: 158
another option

I don't know how long it takes to post a points.com transaction but assuming it's less than a week, I would just buy some miles. The 100% bonus is going on through the end of March.

I have not tried this, but another possibility is to buy a refundable ticket and use the Dividend Miles Multiplier, then refund the ticket. The price is still 2.33 cents/mile like points.com. According to the terms, you earn the Multiplier miles as soon as you pay for them (so perhaps Points.com is relatively instant too). For all I know this is all points.com anyway, so it's probably just a quick.

Watch out! Points.com is a Canadian company and they run many airline purchase/share miles programs. Therefore, your transaction may be subject to a foreign purchase fee (usually 3%) even though this is done in US dollars. So you may want to use American Express or Discover just to be on the safe side to avoid this unless you know that your Visa or MasterCard doesn't charge this.
askmrlee is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2010, 3:20 pm
  #52  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: MR/SPG LT Titanium, AA LT PLT, UA SLV, Avis PreferredPlus
Posts: 30,959
There are many options and discussions on this topic posted here - try the Search function or I'm sure someone will provide the links.

I buy a couple of iTunes on my kids' accounts every 18 months, but that seems to take between 1 and 3 weeks. There was also another site where I earned 10 points for signing up, nearly real time. Points.com?
CPRich is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2010, 8:23 am
  #53  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: MR/SPG LT Titanium, AA LT PLT, UA SLV, Avis PreferredPlus
Posts: 30,959
Originally Posted by CPRich
I'm sure someone will provide the links.
...or not

Best/Easiest way to get some miles?
Save Expiring Miles?
How to keep US DM from not expiring?
US Air miles expiring, best/easiest way to post some activity without flying?
Need miles to keep account active -- QUICK!!!
Expiring miles account
Any suggestion for some quick DM miles?
Expiring miles?
Help with expiring miles
upcoming mileage expiration-any quick miles for me
expiring US miles

Mods, perhaps a merged thread? Or a sticky?
CPRich is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2010, 11:52 am
  #54  
 
Join Date: May 2000
Location: HH Gold, Marriott Gold, PC Plat, Emirates Silver
Posts: 2,676
If you want simple, easy, quick and no out of pocket expense, donate 1,000 miles.
mileshound is offline  
Old May 19, 2010, 3:59 pm
  #55  
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1
GREAT

10 free DM from signing up with points.com saved 28K US Air dividend miles that had expired. The "purged miles" were reinstated in my DM account in less than 5 minutes. Best way to post activity without flying.
mattolomew is offline  
Old May 26, 2010, 1:03 am
  #56  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: YVR
Posts: 119
My miles were set to expire on May 30th... and I bought a song on iTunes a few weeks ago. It still hasn't posted to my account. I bought it from the US iTunes store and suspect that I will never get the points because I'm Canadian.

I then purchased some photo prints from Snapfish a couple weeks ago, and they were just posted to my account. Now I'm good for another 18 months or whatever it is.
Dope Man is offline  
Old Jun 8, 2010, 10:36 am
  #57  
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 1
Miles Expiration

I recently found out that my US Air miles expired. The reason I was given by a US Air Agent was it was due to 3 years on no activity. I was not provided any warning in advance. Does anyone know if I have any recourse?
david78660 is offline  
Old Jun 8, 2010, 10:59 am
  #58  
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: PHX
Posts: 4,782
Originally Posted by david78660
I recently found out that my US Air miles expired. The reason I was given by a US Air Agent was it was due to 3 years on no activity. I was not provided any warning in advance. Does anyone know if I have any recourse?
Unlikely. Unless your claim is that you didn't agree to the terms and conditions when you opened your account. You probably did. If you opened the account before they implemented the forfeiture policy, they likely sent you new terms and conditions to the address on file. I guess you could try claiming you didn't get them.

Depends on how many miles are at issue. Usually, within 18 months after expiration, you can have them reinstated either by paying a fee or doing certain partner activity (like applying for a credit card). Rather than going the "I didn't get notice" route, you might try calling or e-mailing and asking whether they will allow you to reinstate even though you're outside the 18 month window. I think they have lots more discretion to do that than to simply reinstate forfeited miles for free. If you don't have one, tell them you'll apply for the US Air credit card. If it's a small number of miles, they may say yes. If it's lots of miles, you could ask to pay the fee even though it's outside the window. The more miles, the cheaper the fee per mile. For example, if it's 100,000 miles, it's $400, which actually is a pretty good deal. If it's 10k miles, it's about 1 cpm, which is still cheaper than buying them from USAir. They may let you pay the fee, although I wouldn't put the odds at better than 50/50.
lkar is offline  
Old Jun 8, 2010, 11:16 am
  #59  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA Plat, DL GM and Flying Colonel; Bonvoy Platinum
Posts: 24,221
Welcome to FlyerTalk!

As you spend more time here, you'll see that FT is divided into forums for each airline and a variety of other (mostly travel-related) topics. With a quarter million members and over ten million posts, that's the only way to avoid total chaos.

Airline policies regarding mileage expiration vary. There is no standardization.

Your question applies only to US Air. There's a forum for it. There's a good chance that it has already been discussed there. You could try a search using a word like "expiration" that's unlikely to appear much in any other context.

If it hasn't been, that's where the Dividend Miles experts hang out (though one of them just posted here). I'm going to ask a moderator to move it over.
Efrem is offline  
Old Jun 8, 2010, 12:04 pm
  #60  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: US-CP, UA, Marriott Rewards, HHonors, Avis,
Posts: 4,549
I'd say it's unlikely that you will be able to get these miles back. If you were closer to the 18 month inactivity point where they expire, you would have a chance; they let you pay to reinstate the miles up to a certain date. But you're now 18 months *past* that. I wish I had better news for you. FWIW they normally alert you when your miles are close to expiring and then email you an offer to pay to reinstate them once they have expired so perhaps you are using a different email address these days.
dcpatti is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.