Thank you very much for this info, which I received just in the nick of time! The CSR I spoke to at UA did not seem too pleased, barking off a snide comment that I couldn't transfer them back. I have an SK EB account which will now become my primary *A account. And I will have a nice, long vacation at a Hilton property!

Thanks again!

diana, I must have talked with that same rep... or at least one in the same foul mood. She also told me "you know we're not going out of business ma'am". I said fine... but I just want to be safe!

"2. There will be many FURIOUS Mileage Plus members tomorrow and in the days to come."

For sure... but there's no point as it's too late now. There was what? all of six hours notice?

FewMiles..

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Yeah, I got that same one. Very snide, very rude. I said, "I feel bad for UA at this point," and after my explanation, she said, "yeah, everyone is listinging to all sorts of incorrect information that UA is going out of business, which it's not. Hilton is doing this because they've been hit with too many requests lately. This is only making it worse." She was quite snippy in her tone of voice and her comments.

About half the MP people I have talked to lately are snippy. One hung up on me and I had only begun my conversation and was quite polite in asking about an award. If United wants to continue it needs to snap these employees to attention. Unfortunately, if you don't have a name, you can even report them. One supervisor in Seattle had me fax her a letter and has not responded to me in two days. Good grief. What are they thinking? Alas, I was busy this afternoon and missed the opportunity to make a transfer. To add insult to injury, Chris at [email protected], in the process of correcting my account, locked me out of it. I have no idea what she did but I cannot get my PIN to work and even the one they say is mine (an old one) comes up with an error message. This happened to me about a year ago and took Adam Burke to fix it. Soooo, no MP, no HHonors. Guess I am staying home!

One simple question: why the panic?

Rather than suffering the devaluation, I'm burning my points on award travel and upgrades.

I proceed under the assumption that UA will be around for at least six months (enough to drain my miles), and that even if not, my current status and continued flying UA will get me ahead with another carrier.

I suspect the reason why they discontinued it was because too many UA MP customers were transferring to HH. HH hadn't realised how many redemptions would come through and now have a huge liability of HH points which they have to cover off.

Rather than let this continue like this, particularly with uncertainty over UA whilst it is in Ch.11, they probably decided to 'suspend' the service until further notice. Further notice probably being until there is further clarity of the future stability of UA before more people panic and do the transfers.

Not such a bad idea afterall, but having been one who was *severely* burnt with Ansett GR, I would urge FT'ers to burn your miles on UA or do something with them, maybe i'm being too cautious, but after what happened with Ansett, I don't feel comfortable about any hints of insolvency or even a Ch.11 filing. If I had UA miles, I'd be doing the same or using it (probably to the detriment and harm of the airline realising the points, especially if lots of people did it), but on the other hand, I want to protect my bottom and the value I have rightfully earnt in that program.

Very interesting.

I tried to transfer 70,000 MP miles to my HH account around a month ago. I asked for a 'receipt' and was told that was not possible. Yesterday morning, first day back in the office after 3 weeks vacation, found there was no change to either my HH balance or my MP balance so I rang again to transfer again. No receipt again but was told my MP balance should refelct the transfer immediately. This morning, having been amazed at this thread, I chacked my MP balance and it HAS been reduced by 70,000, so there is a way of checking the success of any requested transfer.

Phew!

[This message has been edited by gbogo (edited 03-21-2003).]

I moved 275,000 UAL miles a couple of days ago. I was 10 miles short of moving another 5,000 and asked the agent if it was possible to get a courtesy credit of the 10 miles. I was told "of course NOT".

I wish I would have known about the Delta miles transfer ending. I have about 300,000 of them I wanted to move also.

IMHO, I don't blame Hilton for it. It is the "payee" when miles are converted into points and the "payer" when the reverse happens.

Its not the volume that is of concern to Hilton. IMHO, Hilton does not believe that UA would exist as a company when the accounts are settled between them the next time.

6 months notice is a norm but these are not normal times. If I had my finger on the button at HHonors, I would have done the same.


[This message has been edited by Bourne (edited 03-21-2003).]

In all fairness, As I recall Dl and HH gave about three weeks notice about this as opposed to UA which gave like 6 hours.

Good question. I, too, decided to stand pat (~96K mi.) even after reading last night's flurry of posts.

I suppose it depends a lot on individual circumstances. Having some HH points for a change (I never accrue HH, but take US miles instead) isn't all that useful to me personally, and like you I'm content to burn MP in coming months if I have to. For others, it may be the opposite.

[This message has been edited by beltway (edited 03-21-2003).]

Iam not CERTAIN that Hilton did not have a late and dramatic change of heart of this.

See if you agree:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum57/HTML/007156.html

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From everything I have read UA had nothing whatever to do with this. It was HILTON calling the shots it seems.

To me there is another interesting irony. On the same main page that announces that I cannot transfer UA miles is an offer to give me bonus HHonors points for joining MyPoints (which is owned by UA). I can then earn MyPoints and transfer them to HHonors points.

I don't get it.