MSPeconomist

IMO the concern with gifting something from UA to a stranger would be that you don't know their history with UA. If they're a broker, have transacted UA stuff in the past for money or as a barter arrangement, or have participated in some other dubious transactions, you and your FF account could be caught in the sting.

EMan

That's a good point and something to keep in mind.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be a total stranger and, in the case of a free upgrade, I would need their Reservation's Confirmation Number, so I could personally apply the upgrade.

WineCountryUA

Many of the past cases have been issues with gifting to total strangers and appears the strangers did not understand the proper "etiquette" -- perhaps acted in a suspicious manner and then were unable to explain how or why the got the cert applied.

Best I can remember there have been no reported issues with gifting to friends and family -- but when ever I do it, I brief them on what to respond if query, as I believe many other on the forum also do.

I have absolute no fears gifting to friends & family.

Often1

There are plenty of stories of cancelled tickets and UG's based on the history of the individual "giftee".

The T&C make clear that all aspects of MP and the certs are the property of UA and it is UA's sole discretion that counts.

Few, if any, legitimate travelers want it otherwise. The freebies associated with a ticket paid for my a third-party such as an employer are easily classified as income and one way to keep it otherwise is not to rock the ownership boat.

DELee

As I noted in the other active "closed account" thread, I was gifted a CR-1 back in its day by a 1K colleague from work for a LAX-JFK p.s. flight. Obviously not family but in this case a higher manager. We did not have a discussion on what to say if United came calling but it would be easy to show a work relationship.

If I felt sufficiently generous and someone from work was booked on a flight where RN>0, I'd also gift them an RPU or even a GPU if they were on a W or better ticket.

David

eng3

Thanks, that is precisely what I was thinking of. I couldn't remember if anyone had their accounts closed over this or if it was "just" a cancelled ticket. That's why I didn't go into details. I just found it troubling that UA will make snap judgments and cancel a ticket possibly stranding someone when they may infact be within the rules.

Thus why I gave the warning to the poster who wanted to start giving away to "anyone"

bocastephen

"We" are quite a few posters from the old Travel/Security forum, and you're really over-reacting. I used a false birthdate on countless itineraries many years ago before precheck and global entry and nothing happened to me, or anyone else from the forum who did the same. At that time many of us were at war with the TSA with its stupidity and data-grabbing, we we decided to fight back. Bottom line, there is little to no change of anyone finding out or any impact to the OP unless they want to use precheck.



United is a corporation. It is not a charity, a person, or a little girl selling lemonade on the street corner. United is not your friend, a relative, or a caring companion. Defending a corporation is really just odd - everyone has, to some degree, an adversarial relationship with corporations, and that's how it should be - you need to take care of your own interests first because there is no corporation in the world that is looking out for you. No one here has any fiduciary responsibility to United or its shareholders.

Everyone here is an adult, and can make and be responsible for their own actions. Personally I would never sell my miles or upgrade certificates because my value to United is minimal, and I don't want to lose the benefits I've earned and spent money on. In the case of the OP, it's United who is behaving in an idiotic manner by cutting off its nose to spite its face. If a customer is giving you 30k+ a year and is caught selling one upgrade certificate, the response is to fire the customer? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Punish the customer and counsel them to abide by the program rules? Sure, of course...but cut them off? Absolutely stupid.

In this case the corporation is doing something dumb, so if the OP wants to try another route, that's up to them as an adult.

Productivity

For everyone saying it makes no sense for UA to lose a high value flyer to AA/DL, remember this doesn't happen in a vacuum. The others do the same thing. For this guy never flying UA again, UA is picking up business from an AA flyer who tried the same thing and now spends on UA.

BBSHOPSINGER

It was brought up on a previous post, but mostly ignored. If United gave any lenience to the selling of instruments, etc., that would spell the end of the program. The IRS would jump right on it. We'd end up having to pay taxes on what we get from these programs. The value would be over-stated, and the instruments and miles would become unusable.

I don't know where anyone got the impression that it isn't made very clear that they aren't transferable. I've always know that I can give away a flight to a friend or family member using miles, but the minute I start accepting money, that is strictly forbidden. This is spelled out very clearly in the terms. No excuses. Just don't do it. You could mess things up for more than just yourself.

jpezaris

I've been reading lots of the reactions and advice here, and am familiar with thee stories, but two things struck me just now.

1. It didn't used to be this way. UA turned a relatively blind eye to certificate sales. There were only occasional stories of infractions, and they were limited to the really big ones where many (dozens?) of certificates were for sale.

2. I don't see why UA wants to quash this secondary market. It creates, in the long-term, more business for them and no cost. The certificate costs are sunk, and have a good probability of being sold because they resulted from a negative experience -- a lost customer. If they get sold, they might get a new customer. The downside, of course, is that the original disgruntled customer has a higher chance of letting the certificate expire ... and the bean counters prefer that scenario.

NoLaGent

I certainly hope that the irony is not lost on you as a representative of the Travel/Security forum, that you state this:

"Before pre-check, during the "at-war" years many of us had with the TSA, we regularly entered false birthdates to mess with their database without any repercussion."

I would think that a large percentage of folks on this forum are Pre/GE travelers, so it does seem rather important.

Xyzzy

I wouldn't count on that hapening. UA holds all the cards here. It's UA's program and the rules say that it can administer it as it so chooses. I advise nt poking the bear...

LAXOGG

You didn't read far enough past that post. Refuted by a knowledgeable FT'er.........and as a knowledgeable "tax guy", I concur. Total non issue.

hirohito888

Exactly - some are asking for leniency for a "minor" infraction. But everyone in the industry is doing the same thing, there is no in-between. The present value of $50k/year HVF spend for the next 20 years is only around $630k, given the size of UA, I think UA can take the hit.

And those who think a corporation can't fire a high valued customer, it happens frequently in the banking industry. Banks routinely evaluate their wealthy customers and determine if they're worth the risk of doing business with them or not; if they find any red flags, terrorist financing, narcotics, politically exposed, the bank wouldn't hesitate to fire that customer, no matter how many millions they deposited in the bank.

kilo

But UA could keep their own HVFs and get AA's!

All they need to do is punish them by taking away their status , miles and/or upgrade instruments but leave their MP accounts open so they might continue to spend with UA.