Roger Albertson

Last week, I tried to book a United flight with miles. After flight selection, I was redirected to a page that said I had insufficient miles. There was no way to continue. I therefore tranferred miles into my mileageplus account. The miles showed up in my account. This time, there was no "insufficient miles" page and I proceeded to book, thinking I was using my miles. Due to changeing planes, I canceled and rebooked 3 times all within the 24 hr. Grace period.

Unfortunately, I was charged $564 four times to buy 60,000 miles. I did not see an obvious page saying I was buying miles during the process. Since the "insufficient miles" block Was removed, I assumed I was using miles.

I spoke with several representatives that seemed sympathetic, yet the email respinse from a lead MP representative was a form letter saying: sorry all purchases are final. At this point, are there any higher-ups I could contact? Could I do a charge back? Or would that destroy my relationship with mileageplus?

LondonElite

Welcome to FT, Roger.

I don't really follow what you are saying. Where did you transfer miles from (into your UA MP account)? What do you mean you 'rebooked three times within 24 hours'? For the same flight? How could you do this if you didn't have sufficient miles? Finally, how could you not know you were buying miles when you must have been asked for your credit card information?

I'm confused...

drewguy

I take OP to be saying that to purchase an award ticket he used the "purchase extra miles" option to provide him with enough. But then when he cancelled and repurchased the ticket 3 times, United repeated the purchase miles transaction 3 additional times (for miles not needed to purchase this ticket).

OP - if I've described this accurately, I would contact United once more to explain the situation, and that it appears to have been some sort of undisclosed bug. If they don't respond, I'd do a dispute with your credit card company for all but the legitimate purchase, and explain to them that United billed multiple/repeat purchases erroneously.

As for MP, it sounds like you don't have many miles anyway, so if the worst happens and they cancel your account you're not out a lot (maybe some lifetime miles).

laxmillenial

It doesn't sound like you purchased miles at all? You said you 'transferred' them into your account. If you have no receipts for purchasing miles, yet United charged you, wouldn't these charges be incorrect?

LondonElite

But how do you not know you're buying something when your credit card is required?

transportprof

One thing I've never seen reported here on FT is United reversing a purchase of miles. That's one thing they don't do, and show no mercy for extenuating circumstances, from all the tales I've read here over the years.

pmarrsouth

Dispute on credit card charge, who to call at United?

elbejt2

post #34

steaminer

Unless you can prove you didn't authorize the purchase, United is not going to reverse the charges - and this would be very hard to prove if it was done online.

Not really sure how this happened in the first place; more detail on the steps as they happened would help determine if this is user error or a bug. If a bug that you can replicate, it may be a justifiable argument. Otherwise you can try to chargeback and show they were multiple duplicate charges, but that's not guaranteed since you have technically reaped the benefits of the charges.

Loren Pechtel

It sounds like he authorized one purchase but got 4.

Kacee

Maybe he clicked to authorize four times but thought he was just confirming the initial purchase, not realizing each was a new transaction.

The essential intermediate step that may have been omitted here is to sign out and then back into your account to see if miles have been redeposited from the canceled award before attempting a new redemption.

flyerbaby19

$564 for 60k miles is quite a deal. I don't think they sell them that cheap. something doesn't sound right.

AceReport

Agreed, I've never seen them lower than 1.5c and thsts with bonuses.

Baze

I read it as he was charged $564 four times fo 60k which would be $564 for 15k 4 times.

OP, am I reading your post right? 60k miles for a total of $2256?

pmarrsouth

Seems correct as the refunded guy was originally charged ~$4800 for 130K. Also OP's wording reads as $564 x 4