Unclaimed miles
 

Hi,

I booked a UA flight via expedia from Man-Was in June and had put my frequent flyer number for Skywards (Emirates). I was checking my Skywards account today and noticed that the miles weren't credited. I called UA customer care who informed me Emirates were no longer partners with UA and I should have checked it before putting the frequent flyer number for Emirates. So, I asked about the next best option to transfer the miles to a Mileage Plus account, but they have a one off charge of $25 for this as I didnot enroll an account within 31 days of my flight.

Is it worth transferring about 3000-3500 miles for $25? I have miles n more account (Lufthansa, a Star Alliance member) as well ( enrolled 2 years back). Is it possible to transfer in them?

I would really appreciate if someone could suggest:confused: me the best way to use the unclaimed miles.

Thank you in advance

Chandra

Transfer into your existing LH program.

Miles in a United MileagePlus account are worth about 2 cpm (cents per mile), nominally. Reasonable valuations range from about 1 cpm (if you're not willing to invest a lot of time in maximizing the value you get from them) to 3 cpm (I consistently redeem at about this value, but it takes effort).

So you're looking at between $30 and $90 in value there. I don't know how much a Miles-and-More mile is worth, but I'm guessing it's not much less. So if you have the option to put the miles in your LH account for free, that's probably the best deal. On the other hand, if it's gonna be $25 either way, then you could go either way. And just letting the miles slip out of your hands is probably not cost effective, since they're worth at least $30.

Thanks for your replies.

I guess I will have to check with Lufthansa's Miles n More first if I can transfer them or not.

I think I would receive more or less 7000 miles actually ( customer care seems to have calculated the miles for one way), so maybe the $25 charge would be worthwhile.