GadgetFreak

Great news that it was resolved!

KathleennF

Hi- it worked for me, too. I got 84,000 miles reinstated by finding an uncredited hotel stay. I had not previously applied for credit because someone else paid - but then I found out that only the person who stayed there could apply for credit, so I applied. I thought that I would have to hassle United after that but as soon as the 500 miles went in they restored my 84K.

SFOPeter

Congrats on getting your miles back! Just an FYI, using a frequent flyer ticket doesn't count as "activity". Lost 50K miles on my son's account that way last year, even though he had flown been on 2 int'l biz class tickets!

Firewind

'Zat so?!

SFOPeter

Yeah I was super pissed about it. My son & I flew UA C twice in 2007 using my miles, sfo-lhr 7/07 and sfo-iad-gig 12/07, and then his miles expired in late 2008. I called UA a few times to try to reinstate but each time they said that using an award ticket did not qualify as "activity". Should have tried the hotel/car rental trick people have written about here but I didn't know about it back then... So bye-bye to the 50K miles that was in his account.

Peter

Firewind

I know I show my ignorance and naivete, but this is stunning. So sorry to hear about your misfortune. I wonder if this is the same with other air programs. In any event, this needs to change.

...because the member is demonstrating that the membership is active, and is acting in good faith. And using awards is the norm in other travel programs, so most people would think that this is the case with Mileage Plus.

Antipode

I think the catch here was that it was with your miles and not his own. If he redeemed his own mile, that should have counted as activity (afaik). It's questionable, and it certainly sucks in your situation, but I don't think it's that unreasonable.

Firewind

What is the rule wrt an award redemption keeping an account live? (I've never paid attention because my MP CC takes care of that.)

Truly

Congrats, million miler! What a relief!

I am still trying to get my measly 70,000 miles back. I actually found a Hertz rental I hadn't requested credit for, and got Hertz to send it to United, but it still hasn't posted. I spoke to Hertz on Dec. 7.

Should I be following up with Hertz?

Thanks,

Truly

violist

Any activity credited/debited to the account extends the life of the account
and its contents.

It's sort of silly of the Peter person to imagine that activity on his account
would protect the contents of his son's. Extremely silly, actually.

What's the point spread?

That would be your Peter Principle. Being in over your head by at least one level.

SacCali Traveling Man

I had worked for a company that required extensive travel in the '90's and 2000. I did no travel on UA for 6 years then went back and tried to understand what happened to all my miles accrued in the past.
I had left my previous company and did not receive the emails on the pending expiration of my miles. I called the MP line, begging for status (which is what i really wanted) but what they did tell me is I could do a "challenge" to get the miles back (not for EQM). I had to travel 10k miles over 90 days or something like that. They had sent me an email on this. I did this travel, which was easy with all the travel i do, and got my miles back.

Call the MP line and ask if there is a challenge you can do.

Lori_Q

Congratulations! And thanks for posting the resolution to your story. It's good to hear that the United agents seemed interested in helping you. We often hear the horror stories, but the successes are often overlooked.

Safe travels!

SFOPeter

Yes, in hindsight it was silly... at the time, I assumed that my son actually sitting on 6 different UA flights would count as activity on UA... which there is no question is activity on UA... but not activity on his UA MP account.

Just putting this out there in case anyone else is making the same assumption.

Peter

Flatlander MDW

OK, I'm on the urge of being sick.

I received an email from United telling me that 606 miles were about to expire from my account. Not wanting to lose any miles to inactivity I went out to check what was happening.

(A quick side note, I used to fly all the time for my job but in my new job I am more or less grounded and fly only a few times a year so I don't keep up with my mileage stuff nearly as much as I used to.)

Anyway, I logon to my account and find out that I only have 606 miles in my account total! I called up to find out what happened and find out that my 100,500 miles have expired 18 months ago. WHAT!?!?!?

So according to the person I talked to and the supervisor I am SOL since it's been more than 12 months ago. I was very polite but got absolutely no where with either of them. Obviously I never received any word that this was going to happen or I would have done something about it (how ironic that I get an email about losing 606 miles but not about losing 100k). I know that according to the MP "law" I'm screwed but I'm so upset about this I can barely focus. It took me 8 years to earn those miles and the thought of losing them is too just awful.

So my next step (I assume) is to write "the letter" to appeal to a human who can act on my behalf instead of just reading off a script. I will mention the fact that I have earned over a quarter million miles on UAL over 20 years in MP.

Anyway, two things I need from the FT folks who know about all things United:

1) Do I have any hope? Any suggestions?
2) Who should I pen my note to? I was given the generic department name and address in South Dakota. I'm afraid this letter (which I will invest a lot of time and thought into) will just get lost.

I had been banking these miles (too long I know) for when the kids were a little older and "fun" flying was a possibility for me again. Right now, I can't help but feel like these miles were stolen from me.

Thanks in advance for your advice,

Despondant Mike in Chicago