if1km

Alex: Electronic Travel Certificates may not be transferred, sold or bartered. However, the original recipient of the certificate may use it to arrange travel for another person.

boss315

+1 There is truly no free lunch!

astroflyer

This sounds like a once-through prisoner's dilemma. In this case, it sounds like it's to your advantage to implicate prisoners B & C. If you were playing this game more than once, that wouldn't be optimal, but I think that's your best choice here.

Treat it like a political scandal...admit your mistake, apologize, and promise never to do it again.

v1rok

I really appreciate all commenters who were trying to be helpful.

However, I didn't appreciate those who replied like this guy:

boss315
Quote:
Originally Posted by UnitedFlyGuy View Post
You broke the rules. Pay them.
+1 There is truly no free lunch!

[Unduly personalized text edited by Moderator.] I am guessing a lot of these people did something similar (or even much worse). But I won't go further than that...

Let me try to work with what I have first. I am not a conspirator. I just did it out of pure convenience. I was not trying to profit. Far from it.

Even though I have not done this regularly, I booked tickets with my miles and my certificates for family members. Again, out of convenience, but not because I wanted to scam UA or anything... My SO has a different last name. The mailing address could also be different (out of convenience - work/home/relative). How many of you done the award booking for friends and family, huh? Don't have to answer... I am not the bad guy here

Doc Savage

Using your miles for family and friends is ok with most programs, you just can't get anything of monetary value in return.

Unfortunately, you almost certainly broke the rules with your trade, though. To keep your miles, you will likely be forced to pay back the certificate value.

5khours

Yes you are.

v1rok

Would you care to provide an official and explicit statement by UA to back up your following claim? (Again not expecting a response. Just venting...)

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Whether or not you thought you were doing something against rules, United has been alerted to something in the chain of events that is. I'd just pay what they want and move on. The trading of flyer instruments with people you don't know has some risk. I never do it. This one bit you in the a.

You're not going to get much sympathy.

channa

You're allowed to buy tickets for others, including friends and family members with different last names.

You're just not allowed to buy/sell/trade.

You worked out a trade, and what you traded for was a stolen item. Sorry, you lose on this one. Pay up, move on, live and learn.

I had an ETC stolen recently (used by someone I don't recognize on a market I have no connection to). It's good to see they go after these sorts of things.

STS-134

...which is, of course, complete BS. I would never let anyone, even my best friend, book me an award ticket, or use his/her miles to upgrade me on a flight, without giving him or her something in return. Whether it's tickets to a sports game, or dinner out, etc, depends on which friend it is, but you're a real jerk IMO if you take and don't give back.

emcampbe

How about on the first line of the transfer miles page, which states:

Yes, I know you have to pay UA for this.

But I think the comment you are responding to was meant to say that you can use miles to book an award for family and friends, assuming they are not paying you for it - there is a term disallowing this.

Steve M

That's an easy one. Rule 30 of the Mileage Plus rules says in part:

burlax

But so are many things in the Western culture. You don't get shocked when asked 'how are you' even though you know that your well-being is the last thing on the other person's mind.

That provision is there to disallow precisely the same kind of transactions OP claimed to have participated in - trades for things of value with people you don't know.

Steve M

That's perfectly acceptable to UA.

Again, you are allowed to do so for convenience or any other reason you might have, as long as you don't exchange something of value for the award ticket.

There's not requirement in the UA program that the last name be the same, the mailing address be the same, or that the person be related, so I'm not sure what the above has to do with anything.

Many of us. The key difference between those situations and yours is that you traded something of value for the award ticket. In your case, it was of direct monetary value, and where the currency was in fact UA ETC money. That's where the problem is.

Well, to UA, you are. You don't seem to see the difference between just issuing an award for a friend or relative (possibly with a different last name and/or address) and doing so in exchange for something of monetary value.

What's interesting is that as far as you've related so far, they're not even claiming that the problem is the improper use of award mileage, but your unauthorized use of ETC value. That's a separate problem altogether. But, you're going to have a hard problem explaining how you came into possession of and thought you had authorization to use an ETC for a passenger that you don't even know, without explaining the "trade." By not explaining the situation, you would likely be viewed as someone that attempted to mis-appropriate an ETC and should expect to be dealt with accordingly. If you do explain it and they believe you, then that remove malicious intent with respect to the ETC, and UA may be happy just if you repaid the money you used but were not entitled to. But you can't do that without bringing up the separate issue of trading the ETC for an award, and should at least be prepared to deal with the consequences of that.

Doc Savage

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...s/default.aspx