mmolesky

SFO-based traveler here. I've been a longtime United flier and was a multi-year 1K member until 2018, when I moved over to SAS EuroBonus due to some changes in my geography. With SAS leaving Star Alliance on August 31st, 2024 I'm considering moving back to MileagePlus as my frequent flyer program. However, since my flights on United metal over the past 6 years (~90k) haven't credited to my lifetime flight miles (~400k) for Million Miler status, I'd be restarting that track from behind (and it would be much easier for me to qualify ongoing for Gold or higher status on another *A FF program like Aegean).

Has anyone requested a recalculation of their lifetime miles to credit previous flights on United metal that were associated with a different frequent flyer program? NOT asking for redeemable miles, PQPs, or anything like that, simply progress toward MM status based on actual United flights I took. It would make a big difference in deciding which FF program I move to, and the SAS alliance change is pretty unprecedented.

Does anyone have advice on the best contact at United or approach for this request?

(I figure this question fits somewhere between the MP, EuroBonus and Information Desk forums, but MP veterans would know the best contact channels)

Gabdawg

I don't mean to sound rude, but I would be angry if United entertained your request. We all have choices on which airline to be "loyal" to. You have to own your choices. Can you imagine how many people would start requesting this? Do you then subtract lifetime miles from the other frequent flyer program? That's a huge ask.

tods27

Nope, and never seen it discussed here on FT. Other than the great restatement shortly after the UA/CO merger, I can't remember any time UA was willing to recount the lifetime miles, and even in that case, you had to have credited the flight to your MP number.

Honestly, I don't see why this would impact what program you move to. Either you care about trying to get to 1MM status, or you don't. It does seem that you already made that decision when you decided to move to SAS. If Agean fits you flight patterns and benefits desired better, go with them.

mmolesky

I can totally understand that sentiment, and I don't necessarily expect United to entertain it, but I do think this is a pretty particular situation.

Firstly, SAS was one of the few founding members of Star Alliance, so my whole intention (and expectation) was to stay loyal to the alliance through that - and still include a mix of flights on United metal but with a heavier tilt toward other *A partners because I was spending more time in Copenhagen and other European cities. For US-based EuroBonus elites who are now going to be orphaned from *A, United is a natural home and it would be a welcome one-time gesture.

Secondly, I did show decades of loyalty to United prior to the switch. I'm not one to be playing status match ping-pong; yes, I had made a conscious long-term choice to move, but then effectively got abandoned by SAS.

Thirdly, I'm not asking for any kind of redeemable miles or current status upgrades (beyond a standard status match challenge), only credit for BIS miles. SAS doesn't calculate lifetime miles, so there isn't really an apples-to-apples comparison.

P.S. I should also clarify that I'd be totally fine to subtract those miles from my SAS account if they would allow a one-time retroactive change older than 12 months. It wouldn't impact my status with their program.

Thanks, yeah, I tried searching pretty thoroughly and hadn't seen any similar conversations other than the UA/CO reconciliation.

The challenge is that I'll be continuing to travel regularly to destinations in Europe that United doesn't serve directly from SFO, and I value having more choice to mix in transatlantic segments with LH, LX, TP that are more convenient. However, I'll still be doing plenty of domestic/North American flights where I'll be UA exclusive. If I'm on a closer track to MM, that incentivizes me to move my membership back to MP and fly more of those transatlantic segments with UA. Otherwise the incentive tips slightly to Aegean where I can spend less and fly any *A carriers to keep *A Gold or above, but without the advantage of a lifetime bonus. It's the SAS alliance change that's forcing a decision of how I'll focus my flying over the next 5-10 years, which will still be mostly *A regardless, but the mix of carriers within it would look very different.

jsloan

You're not. Whether you get the other 90K miles or not, it seems that you may be at least a decade away from achieving 1MM status. If 1MM status is the only reason to choose UA, don't.

The reason is simple: none of us have any idea what the Million Miler program may look like in ten years' time. You could dutifully fly UA for years, get up to 950K lifetime miles, and then find that UA changed the rules. Maybe they decide that 1MM status should be Silver for newly-qualifying members. Maybe they reclassify Gold as being *S and therefore missing lounge access. The point is, it's foolhardy to make decisions today based upon what things might look like that far in the future.

An additional 9% of 1MM should absolutely not move the needle for you.

tcdtcd

UA MP will laugh at you upon the request!

mmolesky

Yeah, fair. I fly more like 80-120k/year all-in, but for the next ~3 years my flights will be partially split with Air France, so it's probably still at least 7 years away for me, best case.

PTahCha

You are better off asking for a status match/challenge.

PLeblond

What type of flying do you do? Who is paying for your flights?

If someone else is paying and there is a good portion of paid J, perhaps free agency is now your best friend? With a good credit card for IRROPs protection and a lounge pass programme there is less and less reason to be "loyal" to an airline programme.

Kmxu

While MPSC agents laugh their hearts out in their cubicles, but they will put a nice reply such as �pmCO would gladly take your request into consideration. But we are very sorry that the MP of UA dba CO could not grant such a nicely worded request.� YMMV! 🤪

notquiteaff

SAS made a conscious long-term choice to move alliances, just like you made a conscious long-term choice to move to another program. It’s all just business; if you feel that SAS abandoned you, then UA presumably is entitled to feel abandoned by you

And you made UA, the operator of your flight, pay SAS for the miles you had credited to your SAS account. Now you want additional consideration for those flights. Sorry, I agree with everyone else that this is not going to happen. And that it shouldn’t happen.

By the way, did you enjoy UA Club access based on your foreign *G status while you were an SAS loyalist? If so, are you going to offer to retroactively pay UA for those visits now that you are rescinding your SAS loyalty?

tcdtcd

�I divorced you for a better offer six years ago. I�d like to come back to you and can we assume those six years count on our marriage timeline?. I�m so sorry I was wrong.�

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Repooc17

Policy: you can request for retro credit within 12 months after the flight, and, you will not get anything regardless of timing, if those flights had been credited elsewhere previously - e.g. to SAS.

Your "relationship" with United, SAS, or any other companies are all business in nature and transactional to the core. The classic mistake is believing loyalty exists; you may be/have been "loyal", but it is certainly an one-way street.

ContinentalFan

I suppose the only way to confirm that the answer is no is to ask.

WineCountryUA

As a starting point, it is doubtful such functionality already exists.
Someone would need to pull the data for flyer SAS then somehow divine the LT miles and then somehow figure how to credit the flyer's UA LT miles but not the other parameters.Seems we are talking 50-100 flights (ballpark). In highly automated systems, these sorts of "tweaks" are difficult to do. Something similar was done at 2012 merger to adjust for the difference in methods pmCO and pmUA accounted for LT miles and pmUA flyers received a bonus correction. I suspect this was a signification effort. Something similar is done for ORC, but there UA manually suppress the actual flight data and replaces with the original flights. and get it right most of the time. Also clear UA can do a "manual" correction (based of data seen in ORC reports). And oh by the way, this is being requested for years that have been closed out, all the way back to 2018. UA only has online access to 2021 and forward.

This is the sort of project that I would have assigned an intern and expect them to take a couple of days depending on how archived the data is.

Sometimes a simple request may not be all that simple. I suspect I have only scratched the surface of the problems this request involves.