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United announces "MileagePlus Miles Never Expire" (effective immediately 28 Aug 2019)

Old Aug 28, 2019, 10:20 am
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United Airlines Announces MileagePlus Miles Never Expire
Airline continues to make improvements to its award-winning MileagePlus loyalty program

CHICAGO, Aug. 28, 2019

-- United Airlines announced that effective immediately, MileagePlus award miles never expire, giving members a lifetime to use miles on flights, experiences, hotels and more.

"We want to demonstrate to our members that we are committing to them for the long-haul and giving customers a lifetime to use miles is an exceptionally meaningful benefit," said Luc Bondar, vice president of loyalty and president of MileagePlus at United. "Our MileagePlus program provides customers more ways to earn and use miles than any other U.S. airline. More customers used miles to book award trips in 2018 than in any year before, and we expect with today's announcement that even more will use miles to travel the world in the years to come."
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United announces "MileagePlus Miles Never Expire" (effective immediately 28 Aug 2019)

Old Aug 28, 2019, 5:43 pm
  #91  
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Originally Posted by porciuscato
Let's face it: this is United's BIG RESPONSE to the fact that every other rewards card (Amex Blue, Gold, Plat; Chase Freedom, Sapphire, Ink) is eating their lunch. I used to run up around $100K/year on the UA Club Card. Now it's about $2K. UA did their survey and everybody told them they don't want worthless miles at a low earn-rate. So instead of maintaining the miles' value or increasing the earnings rate, they did this pathetic measure. It's not going to work. I'm surprised they're that obtuse.
Apples and oranges comparing airline co-branded credit cards vs. travel reward credit cards. They each have their own space.
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 6:03 pm
  #92  
 
Join Date: Oct 2018
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Originally Posted by uastarflyer
This is a benefit for families with younger kids that can’t have CCs and fly “once in a while”

Yes dynamic pricing is bad but let’s not be so cynical, this on its own is a good move for customers.
It is trivial to use MileagePlusX to make a minor throaway $1 purchase once every 18 months from the kid's account. Do have to remember that, but it's really inconsequential in the larger scheme of things.
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 6:08 pm
  #93  
 
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 916
About time but I lost all of my United miles thru the years , after they started chardging for 2nd bag......

I do have 120k miles on Delta that I need to use sometime !
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 6:20 pm
  #94  
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Originally Posted by tarheelnj
The dynamic award pricing and doing away with the close-in fees (making the 1K no-fee redeposit benefit less valuable) were bigger deals. Yes, this does save a few $5 gift card exchange charges every year and a half for family who earn the occasional miles on paid tickets, but mostly fly on my miles.
I think until we see how they do dynamic pricing, the no close-in ticketing change is probably useless (the closer, the more miles needed anyway) and the 1K no-fee redeposit might become even more valuable (since you essentially can keep re-pricing if award level goes down).

Originally Posted by tr3k
It is trivial to use MileagePlusX to make a minor throaway $1 purchase once every 18 months from the kid's account.
As we just did for my mother's account 2 days ago

What I really hope UA will do is to not charge for date/time/routing changes on awards. Maybe this change will proceed the next bad news
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 6:32 pm
  #95  
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Originally Posted by username
... What I really hope UA will do is to not charge for date/time/routing changes on awards.
UA has been doing this for years -- fees based on status
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 7:47 pm
  #96  
 
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Originally Posted by naumank
If this is true, how would it benefit customers ? The longer one holds the miles, the less the miles will be worth.
Worth more than zero which is the current value after a year and a half. If you could get a coffee and danish in 20 years for free it's a free coffee and danish.

For me, I earn mainly on partner airlines whose own programs are wastes of time or are IT nightmares, and buy based on my schedule and their price so I am not a huge regular earner but I'd rather have them than lose them.
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 7:48 pm
  #97  
 
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
UA has been doing this for years -- fees based on status
That’s hardly not charging.
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 7:55 pm
  #98  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Wow. When was the last time there was a good MP surprise?
1981, when the program launched?
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 7:59 pm
  #99  
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This is indeed great news!!

I can now cancel out my membership in their useless dining program and take myself off their E-mail bloat lists. I don't need anything they advertise and only travel them in upper classes to begin with.
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 8:27 pm
  #100  
 
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It’s a trap!
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 8:52 pm
  #101  
 
Join Date: May 2001
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UA Announced that MP Miles Will Never Expire

In my email from UA tonight:

"Have you heard? Miles never expire.We're always looking for ways to enhance our MileagePlus® program. So that's why effective immediately, miles no longer expire.We hope this change makes it even easier for you to make the most out of your MileagePlus experience"
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 8:55 pm
  #102  
 
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For some reason United only chose to notify me of this exciting news at 10:03 pm EDT (which was when I got their email). Then I come on here and it's old news since 4 am this morning 😁!

Anyway, I think this is just something they did to temper the overall devaluation of their program and moving to dynamic pricing.
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 10:12 pm
  #103  
mr8
 
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So can/will they still close accounts for inactivity...?
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 10:14 pm
  #104  
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Originally Posted by mr8
So can/will they still close accounts for inactivity...?
UA will likely maintain that option just as a protection for the future but as far as I know UA does not do this today.
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Old Aug 28, 2019, 10:27 pm
  #105  
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Perhaps this should be merged into the “Remaining Vestiges of Continental” thread.

When I moved West 12 years ago, I had to choose an airline for my (then) monthly trips back to Louisiana. At that time only three (3) airlines served BTR: American (from DFW), Continental (from IAH) and Delta (from ATL). DL would have me fly ABQ/PHX to ATL then “backtrack” to BTR, which left AA and CO as the two viable options. The fares and times were similar, but I had over 20K unexpired miles in my OnePass account from flights I had taken to Europe in the mid-90s, ten years prior. That was the deciding factor.
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