Due to circumstances entirely beyond my control I am unable to use a Mileage Plus award ticket booked for tomorrow. It at this point only has several weeks of usability left.

A year ago I would have paid the $100 fee to redeposit the miles, if really necessary. Nowadays, I'm not so sure. With the breathlessly fast rise in energy costs (even without a major supply crisis from war or terrorism) and devaluation of frequent flyer miles, I'm not sure I am going to be able to use all the airline miles I have and the cost of award tickets is going up fast anyway. I have no status on United now, and with all the recent changes I doubt I will seek status with them any time soon.

Would you pay $100 to get 25,000 miles back?