emcampbe

Two options:

- call back and state your case to a different agent. In he airline world, sometimes this is required (though in this situation, you shouldn't need to). It may take time to have the status restored, but it will be done

- for faster service, PM UA Insider with your MP info. and they will take care of it. I've been told they are aware of the issue and there's a fix planned, though not sure on the ETA.

cfischer

ETA? I'd say right after they fix all the other IT issues such as the miles redeposit fees for 1Ks. Maybe 2017 if we are lucky.

gannimo

I've been a UA premier for years, all with a foreign address. Part time I stay in the US for work and have used one of the work addresses as secondary address. Last year I've reached UA Platinum (with 78k miles and 5,600 PQD -- but PQD are waived for non-US residents).

Last week a mess-up with my address happened and primary/secondary address were switched. When I undid the change I was asked for confirmation that I live outside the US (which I provided even though I just undid a change).

When I checked in today for an intl. flight my boarding pass showed UA Gold and boarding group 2, both bad signs. The lounge helpdesk told me (after letting me wait for 30min) that I did not meet PQD requirements in '14 (even though there are no PQD for non-US residents which I told her).

Looks like either United's systems are seriously messed up and they happily randomly downgrade status during the year. Also, neither lounge helpdesk, people on the helpline, or their supervisors have any clue and give widely contradicting information.

Now, if they add PQD for non-residents as well then I would not complain but this is ridiculous.

I'll keep you posted...

gannimo

To answer these questions:
my account still contains the RPU upgrades that I received but they reevaluated all flights in '15 so far and removed the bonus miles.

gannimo

So, united screwed up but I'm surprised how fast they responded. I've sent a message both to UA Insider and the MileagePlus team through their contact form and I got a reply in less than 3hrs!

So, to spare UA Insider a flood of PNs just message the MileagePlus folks and they'll take care of it (or at least promise to take care).

gannimo

Once again I'm surprised, this morning I received an email that my status was changed back. All prior flights that ware recalculated got recalculated again with the Platinum multiplicator and I received the miles back. That was much quicker than I thought and I only missed out on upgrade opportunities for two flights (which are mostly a miss out of ORD anyway). Unfortunately, the next flight tomorrow will be on a different *A.

End of rant and I hope that this information is useful to some of the forum members!

entrepreneurish

Let this be a cautionary tale for anyone with a foreign address who wants to sign up for the mpdining.rewardsnetwork.com program to earn an extra 2,000 miles.

I live in Asia and am in the US sometimes, so I thought I'd give MP Dining a try. Upon sign up, I was asked to choose an address from my MP account. But, it wouldn't go through because I didn't have a US address, so I went ahead and switched to a US address for the sole purpose of signing up. I thought I'd just switch back after sign up. BIG MISTAKE! United came out with a new rule that requires verification and "10-14 days" to change to a foreign address. I could've submitted documentation, but I figured I had the whole year to.

For those who don't know, United has different elite tier requirements for US and non-US customers.

Having met the tier requirements as a non-US customer in 2014, I was already a gold member. But, now with a US address (only newly changed in July 2015), I no longer met the requirements. I would've understood if this changed my status for 2016.

BUT, the system RETROACTIVELY took away my status earned in 2014 with a non-US address AND to add insult upon injury RETROACTIVELY took away my previous gold multiplier bonus earnings as well.

Is this even legal??

Certainly, I will fight to the ends of hell to get my status and miles back.

But, what a hassle ...

Thanks for flying the friendly skies

olouie

If it makes you feel better they do this to 1k customers too. You will have to fight for your correct status and miles back.

Oh and yes it's legal for them to do this. Frequent flier programs are basically only governed by the terms of the program, which airlines can change, modify, etc at any time. One aspect that needs some reregulation.

lhrsfo

Interesting. And it shows how complicated a simple question of what your address is becomes.

I used to keep a US address on file with UA because it was easier (their systems seemed better able to cope). However, my US credit card came to my UK address. But this was painful as half the time I couldn't use it since most large corporations don't seem to be able to cope with foreign addresses. So I switched my cc to a US address and, shortly afterwards, joined MP Dining (I'm not sure why as the restaurants they offer in the Bay Area are very poor, but that's a different matter). Then, I switched my UA address to the UK because of PQD, but kept my MP Dining address in the US. It seems to work for me.

However, I fear that the banks will soon catch up with this and make it difficult to change addresses around without some form of proof of address - that's certainly happened in the UK where you need to actively prove a new address to banks and all sorts of other providers.

Silver Fox

This thread may offer some ideas in getting it back.

TerryK

Please don't. We have more than enough government regulations already.

kirkwoodj

Totally not worth it for the dining program, you just got extra screwed. Good luck.

exerda

A lot of people seem to be missing the fact that the OP earned Gold and UA retroactively took it away with the address change.

Nothing else really matters. UA screwed up (as they are will known to do). UA needs to fix this immediately for the OP. Even if the OP moved to the US midyear, already-earned status is not supposed to be affected.

kb1992

Agree completely.

docbert

And as per the thread that Silver Fox linked to (and which this thread will probably be merged with before too long), they will fix it when asked.

The fact that this is still occurring months after it was first reported is a different matter though...