miles_navigator

So this got me wondering if the OP can open an account with another Star Alliance partner to claim his UA travel miles on going forward, not sure if Aeroplan is best one. Or does OP need to move on from star alliance completely for miles, upgrades and awards.

But please OP now that you have learned the hard way, don't repeat it on another program. It's not worth it.

I have reading stores every now and then like this over 25 years plus, i.e. before big data tech et all.

Fanjet

As far as I know, the OP is not banned from flying United. Nor does United have any power to ban the OP from joining the FF plan of another Star Alliance carrier.

dcpdxtrans

Not sure why I made it this far in the thread... My emphasis above. Is it against the rules to give away all of your benefits? I've given away lots of travel-related benefits--though none were UGs--to folks I didn't know. Didn't realize I might be risking it all just to be kind

PTahCha

I know Southwest sends out a fair warning as first strike, because we got a stern letter back in the days when they issued paper vouchers for a free ticket.

Still, there has to be some type of increased volume in redemption of PP or miles to catch UA's attention as an anomaly.

WineCountryUA

No it is not, as stated earlier -- if given freely and no compensation provided, you will be fine. But if you sell those benefits or take other compensation, you have violated the terms of the UA agreement and the consequences can be severe

It is always useful to fully reread the terms of the program. Section 10 Prohibition of sale or barter, in particular

Another good discussion thread, Should I be hesitant to book an award or upgrades for family / friends?[/h4]

i0wnj00

Your voluntary participation constitutes acceptance of T&C for any rewards, mileage or points earning scheme, regardless of whether you read the T&C or not. There's no way that an airline or anybody for that matter will offer anything without first explaining to you what the rules are in order to participate. All of these programs generally don't allow you to trade the rewards, mileage or points points for cash unless they are the ones or have authorized partners who participating in buyback.

You just admitted that you didn't know the rules, so the prudent thing to do was to ask United if you can sell your points to friends for cash or other trade them for some kind of benefit.

When I wanted to stay past the noon checkout time at my most recent Hyatt stay, I asked if they can extend the checkout time to 2pm. She told me that they charge past 1pm, but as a courtesy gave me the 2pm without charging me extra. I'm no Elite or Top Tier Member, but still I got the 2pm checkout time. I didn't know the rules for late checkout, but what I didn't do is use that as an excuse and complain about the extra charge for checking out 2pm.

From a customer service standpoint, it would be better if they warned you of what you did or allegedly did wrong, give you a copy of their T&C and give you an opportunity to explain/apologize, but they are under no obligation to do this. They can kick you out of their programs for little or no warning at all.

WineCountryUA

The problem with giving a warning, you are essentially giving everyone carte blanche permission to violate the rules until UA catches them, as there is no negative consequences after being caught. If UA's goal is minimize the amount of this happening -- which is the better approach? zero tolerance or a mulligan for everyone?

i0wnj00

When members have been given a warning, it means that they have been caught in the act of breaking the T&C. There's no carte blanche permission to violate the rules, it means that "We caught you and here's what our expectations are if you want to continue your participation". The warning serves to keep participants from doing this again and to let them know they are being watched.

If participants want to keep up with the undesired activity, then UA can remove them, then next time around. Because the participants have been warned already, they're already on a short leash.

jsloan

If UA were to start issuing warnings, it would take about thirty seconds for the first post to go up: "Sell your PlusPoints; the worst that can happen is that you get caught and go onto UA Probation."

There have certainly been anecdotal reports of UA acting upon a suspicious transaction to which they were not a counterparty: At check in, agents ask the recipient, "how did you get this upgrade?" or "who upgraded you?" and judge the response.

I suspect that the fraud department may have the ability to flag a reservation so that online check-in will fail, in order to initiate the question process, but I don't know for sure.

nachosdelux

If you kite a check at a bank (ignoring the criminal liability), the bank is going to shut down your account, no questions asked.

Seems like United is taking the same approach.

rstruthe

I never read all the fine print but clearly knew I couldn’t sell miles. The forums definitely helped but even before that knew it wouldn’t go over well.
good luck to you finding a new loyalty program and hopefully lesson learned so it doesn’t happen to you again.

halls120

They do give every member a warning, It's called the Terms and Conditions that you are supposed to read when joining MileagePlus.

escapefromphl

When I was 1K I gave away multiple upgrades (>10) to people at my work who my only connection to was as a co-worker. No exchange of any kind, just a gift. I don't see there is any risk in doing this, but random folks off the internet, yeah I'm sure that will get your account flagged pretty quickly.

rittenhousesq

The first time I ever used someone else's upgrade certs they belonged to my father. I was flying to HKG for business and the client agreed to pay the upgradable coach fare. Even though we had the same last name, I was grilled by the check in agent on how I got the upgrade. I of course provided the correct answer and there were no issues (she was actually very apologetic when I told her who upgraded me). Since then, whenever I've been upgraded with someone else's points or certs (or visa-versa) we've been on the same PNR, so that is just fine with no questions by UA.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

This.

Give every one of millions of MP members one chance to sell miles or points? That's millions of tickets. The forfeiture of one's account after being caught is the warning UA is providing to others. As we see, the OP is probably telling friends, acquaintances, and (definitely) strangers about his situation - those people might be more careful.