WineCountryUA

In reality no one has reported on issue from UA with sharing passwords. No problem booking tickets for other people even if not on the same ticket. Very common.

Phone numbers do not matter.

However, using the same FF account on tickets of multiple individuals is a major no-no

jsloan

If this flight gets cancelled mid-trip, he shouldn't need any additional miles to get home. If the disruption is prior to the day of travel, he should call UA; if it's on the day of travel, he should work with whatever airline caused the problem.

Ari

Every situation is YMMV; password sharing requires a lot of discretion. I wouldn't share my password unless someone were managing my reservations on a regular basis (i.e. a personal assistant or close family member); this OP's situation doesn't seem like a good fit for password sharing.

UA isn't stupid, they know people do it-- they can see my computer logging into and out of multiple accounts seconds apart if they look, but they can also see me as the administrator of a PerksPlus account with some nice revenue attached to it if they take the trouble to look-- and that the accounts I log in and out of are linked to that PerksPlus account-- and that awards and upgrades from those MP accounts go to the MP members and their family members--as they should-- not to other company employees as part of a company "MP slush fund" of sorts. (That's what the PerksPlus awards essentially are--MP awards are for the members).

Rule of thumb: if you are stepping into the member's shoes (acting in the member's interest), UA is probably going to leave you alone. If you go in to do awards for yourself and you aren't a family member or start using multiple accounts to gang up on United (like effective pooling of instruments to maximize usage efficiency by expiration date thereby reducing breakage), UA has reason to be unhappy and might take action. The terms say you can't do either, but in one case UA cares and in the other, they don't.

eng3

Guess it depends how you define "friends"
But this is what I was referring to in my earlier replies
Award Ticket Fraud?

WineCountryUA

They were not an acquaintance (a friend of a friend) and they were not briefed -- so broke the best practices suggestions.
Know the traveler (& they know you) and brief them.

Plus it was 16 years ago, so very uncommon for even this poor practice case.

escapefromphl

If you define it the way most people do you’re fine.

eng3

Yes rare, I'm just pointing out there does exist non-obvious instances where someone can be within the rules and still get in trouble. There is no requirement that the gift recipient knows you. (If I had miles/instruments expiring tomorrow, I might be willing to just give it away to a random person. I know people who have given upgrades to random military) In this specific case, the lesson is to brief the gift recipient ahead of time on the terms of the exchange and what to say. One of the few times this thread is actually useful to the reader.

ani90

I doubt UA would take kindly to repeatedly distributing expiring instruments to random strangers, even if for free. They can still argue that you are not using these instruments and your mileage plus account in a way that had been intended, and thus shut you down. Whether one receives payment or not in return, repeatedly giving out instruments to strangers can have a similar effect to selling them, from the UA perspective. When UA grants these instruments, they do so with a knowledge that only x% will actually be redeemed. Mass gifting to strangers would sure change that balance.

I think this is the bottom line. Gift instruments only to friends and family - anything beyond that will leave you at the mercy of UAs interpretation. From the accounts in this thread seems no room for explaining, for example, how come you got to have 'friends' in Guinea Bissau, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Uruguay but yet never had any friends in the United States where you actually live....

spartacusmcfly

I wonder how UA's Chief Revenue Officer feels about this:

1. Any gifted/sold PPs result in flyer paying a W fare.
2. Without access to PPs, flyer buys a discounted fare.
3. W fare is often 2x the discounted fare

So the Chief Revenue Officer gets 2x the revenue on tens of thousands of sold/gifted PPs. Yes, UA's VP of MP argues it takes space away from other elites, but as our own pre-covid FT survey has shown, the majority of elites were satisfied with their ability to use their PPs.

Revenue carries the day at most companies. I'd bet UA is similar.

fumje

Not sure I follow the thinking, but are you aware that +P can now be used on the deep discount (STLKG) fares? So for potential revenue to be diverted, you just need someone willing to sell 80 +P.

escapefromphl

It’s not that simple, the seat may been sold using miles or someone else may have used ~$500 of their own money + 20-30k miles for a MUA upgrade rather than purchasing PP. I’m sure UA would still rather get the revenue themselves.

Aussienarelle

It was personally suggested to me by a UA agent that I could gift my unused GPUs to random strangers. This was before I realized I has GPUs and an agent mentioned to me they noticed I had never used them. I did go down to the local airport and "gift" them to random folks as they checked in.

I have since gifted on a regular basis to military members as have others. I also proactively switch seats with your military folks in uniform. I attempt to do this anonymously.

I do get something in return - a warm fuzzy feeling of joy.

So my gifting started with a suggestion from a UA employee.

ani90

Also OP is assuming that for the passenger who buys W fare plus 40 PP on eBay the alternative would have been a discount economy fare. That seems unlikely. People go to such sites because they are looking for a business ticket and what they are buying when they buy those PP on eBay is a cheap business ticket (and not the W fare with PP). The alternative could well have been buying a business ticket with cash, buying an upgrade after purchase, paying for a TOD upgrade, buying a business award ticket etc, or even buying a cheap business fare on an alternative airline.