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What is with the United Milage Plus Service Center??

What is with the United Milage Plus Service Center??

 
Old May 29, 2007, 7:45 pm
  #1  
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Angry What is with the United Milage Plus Service Center??

Sorry for the rant, but:

Can they make this any more difficult?
The Mileage Plus Service Center; You can't E-mail them, they don't have a dirrect phone number. Just like back in the 70's, everything with this "service" center, or so they claim when it suits them, must be done by snail mail.

I've been flying a lot of US flights lately as I pay for my own flights and their price has been the best available. I credit the flights to United, as I'm targeting 1K. Automatic credit for these flights to the Mileage Plus program has been ~70% hit to 30% miss. Until recently a fax of boarding pass and Expedia itinerary with explanation was sufficient to trigger credit for those credits missed. Now, I consistently have MP credit denied with a stated need for original boarding passes and documentation. I always have spares of BP's , but why should I have to mail anything in to get credit for whatever should be automatically credited anyway? What does snail mail do for these $*%(@!~ bureaucrats that the fax doesn't? And how does one get an original of an Expedia itinerary? Since inception, IIRC, Expedia did it all via the web, I suspect they'd choke if asked to mail an "original" of an itinerary/receipt.

The last denial I got stated that because the name on the ticket didn't match the name on my account, credit would be denied. The name mismatch is just the popular version of the formal name. Think Bob vice the M+ (M-?) Service Center required Robert. I told them to change the name on my Mileage Plus account to the popular version, and was told that legal notice of name change would be required to do that. Could one even change their legal name eg from "Robert" to "Bob"?

The competition:
DL: Credit seems to post so quick, you suspect it's done while you're in flight, although I haven't tested this with their partner airlines yet.
US: Even though their customer service is typically abysmal, you can click up an on-line web talk session to get this type of trivia resolved, when you finally do get through.

Does it get any better when you hit 1K? Obviously the 1K benefit for a Ted flight is limited to the momentary glory of the Red Carpet, and US codeshares gain NADA for all. But this type of "screw the customer approach has me concerned as well as .
If this is how United deals with the easy stuff, what happens when the situation is not simple?

Anyone got workarounds? My multiple fax strategy worked once but now seems to have been negated recently, also!
NY-FLA is offline  
Old May 29, 2007, 8:12 pm
  #2  
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Originally Posted by NY-FLA
What is with the United Milage Plus Service Center??
Not much, really.
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Old May 29, 2007, 9:03 pm
  #3  
 
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Originally Posted by NY-FLA
Anyone got workarounds?
Move your business to an airline who seems to give a rat's behind ...

Last edited by iluv2fly; May 29, 2007 at 11:40 pm Reason: unnecessary
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Old May 29, 2007, 9:19 pm
  #4  
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Originally Posted by dcgators
Move your business to an airline who seems to give a rat's behind ...
It seems UA really does give a rat's behind. Unfortunately that intensity is focused on what inanane trivia can we possibly spew up to make the simplest of transactions totally. bizarrely complex? Glad to know the rest of the operation doesn't warrant this type of brilliant entrepreneurship

Last edited by iluv2fly; May 29, 2007 at 11:41 pm Reason: removed deleted portion of quote
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Old May 29, 2007, 10:59 pm
  #5  
 
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There is a direct 800 phone number that I have been using for years. The IVR used to say something about welcome to the PremEx MP Service Center, so it may only be available to 1P and above. I'm not going to list it here, but if you are 1P or above, I suggest calling reservations and asking them for it.

In any case, I've never had an issue with getting credit from *A partners, so I count myself as lucky. 30% missing credit is hard to believe. Your issue with your first name seems to be an issue you've brought upon yourself so I can't have too much sympathy for you there. I might suggest if you are looking to credit a partner flight to UA, you remember to match the name to your MP profile.

Service is better as a 1k, but based on your rant below, I'm guessing won't meet your expectations.
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Old May 30, 2007, 4:52 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by PCTraveler
In any case, I've never had an issue with getting credit from *A partners, so I count myself as lucky. 30% missing credit is hard to believe.
30% denial may be hard for someone with your charmed experience to believe, but if US goes irregular, and I take alternate routings, the automatic credit works 0% of the time. I think experienced US flyers would tell you that 30% irrops is a fortunate experience with LCC.

Originally Posted by PCTraveler
Your issue with your first name seems to be an issue you've brought upon yourself so I can't have too much sympathy for you there. I might suggest if you are looking to credit a partner flight to UA, you remember to match the name to your MP profile.
Well, thanks, anyway, but I wasn't really in need of sympathy. Next time I'm named, I'll ensure I pick one that has no popular alternate form that's accepted by the rest of the Western business world, including UA res. (The last UA flight I booked, for sh&@s and giggles, I booked my ticket under the diminutive form of my first name and United accepted the reservation under my MP account and stored it with the different first name with nary a hiccup.) Apparently different rules apply when there is an immediate gain for UA.


Originally Posted by PCTraveler
Service is better as a 1k, but based on your rant below, I'm guessing won't meet your expectations.
Yeah, my standards are so incredibly high. Fly with a UA partner, and get credit for it, or in those cases where for whatever reason credit isn't timely in forthcoming, quickly fix it without making up reasons why you can't. Much too difficult for those on the bottom rungs of the recently released Consumer Reports survey.


I do appreciate the advice on the phone number, but I think it's the same as the one on the back of the 1P card. Got to talk to the "B" team on that number last night. Perhaps regular business hours will produce a CSA that is capable of a modicum of rational thought. Hope to find out today.
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Old May 30, 2007, 6:02 am
  #7  
 
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Wirelessly posted (RIM BlackBerry 8700c: Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.02; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320) BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Um, let me get this straight. You want to randomly choose a name which sometimes matches your MP account, and sometimes, for 'giggles' you ticket under another name, and you expect an automated system to simply 'know' that two different names are the same person (and not, for example father and son). Well good luck with that.

Why not simply use a name consistent with your ID and MP registration? Otherwise you are just begginng for manual intervention.

I suspect, btw, that on international flights your 'giggles' would lead to denial at security or passport control a nonzero proportion of the time.

-C
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Old May 30, 2007, 6:15 am
  #8  
 
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There was a thread a while ago that mentioned that someone at UA had said that the physical BP requirement was driven by Sarbanes-Oxley. S/OX is apparantly the new version of "due to security requirements...". This was one of my favorite recent lame-o excuses for a decidedly (and bizarrely) unfriendly customer policy by UA. Especially given how bad LH is at posting flight segments and how well known this problem is.

As for wanting to know if this specific thing improves when you become 1K, nope. Even 1Ks have to go through this "mail the original BP" in process. To note however, I've never had a problem eventually getting such segments to post, though it has taken upwards of 3 months. For good or bad, that's the process, and it eventually has worked for me 100% of the time without further issue.

Also note, I've never had a problem calling MP and getting an agent, and I've found the people there to be perfectly competent. They are simply under instruction to tell people to follow this process for credit.

As for the name mis-match, I have to agree that this is a problem of your own making. Especially since Robert>Bob changes the first letters that the computer would scan to grant credit. Something like Donald>Don probably wouldn't be a problem. But either way, you're just asking for trouble with this, and apparently getting it.
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Old May 30, 2007, 7:06 am
  #9  
 
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Originally Posted by NY-FLA
The Mileage Plus Service Center; they don't have a dirrect phone number.
My MP card has the phone number on the back.
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Old May 30, 2007, 7:14 am
  #10  
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You just need to get someone on the phone and don't hang up until you get them to post the miles. It is a hassle, I agree.

My US post rate is about 90%. 100% would be nice.
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Old May 30, 2007, 7:20 am
  #11  
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For 1P's, the phone number is not on the back of the card. The 1P reservations line is there.

I had a screwy situation yesterday where I was redeeming an award ticket and the reservations folks couldn't find my miles. The only way to get the MP Service Center on the line was for the 1P agent to call them directly with me on the line. They did resolve my problem and issue my ticket, but it was annoying to have to invest 30 minutes on the phone to get it done. I had already invested a prior 30 minutes over the weekend getting the itin set up and put on hold - and that was after using the ANA website to figure out exactly what flights had availability so I had a very good idea of what I was asking for before I called.

No idea why the 1P agent couldn't find my miles. Literally, she quoted my account balance 120k lower than what it should have been, and I was redeeming a 120k award. Clearly the miles had been pulled for that award, but she couldn't "find" them. The MP Service Center did, and I was told that "somebody in Detroit" manually issued my ticket. Screwy.
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Old May 30, 2007, 7:25 am
  #12  
 
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Originally Posted by magiciansampras
My US post rate is about 90%. 100% would be nice.
Mine's been about 75% so far this year.

US really is the pits when it comes to reporting mileage. Things seem to usually post the Saturday after the flight. If in two Saturday's you don't see anything, its time to mail/fax in your BP's.

Also, to the OP. I always ensure that my name on the BP matches the name on my ID. TSA folks are stupid. I don't want the hassle. I use my middle name a lot. However, I always have my full name on the BP's, as it matches my ID. Hence, my UA MileagePlus name is also my full name.

So, if the OP wants to go by Bob instead of Robert, perhaps consider changing the name on your MP account to Bob? And then consistently ensuring that your BP says Bob. You can always request the name correction at the counter upon Check-In.

It has also been reported that the "auto-generated" letters from MP are abnormal. For instance, four times so far this year, I've had to fax & mail in my BP's to MP. All four times, I got a letter saying that the mileage claim was denied (due to whatever reason). However, upon checking my account, the miles had been posted!
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Old May 30, 2007, 8:11 am
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The same thing happened to me last year. Was missing credit for 2 US segments, sent the stubs in, nothing posted for 6 weeks. fax a copy of stubs, get a denial letter at the same time credit posts!
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Old May 30, 2007, 9:31 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by pinniped
No idea why the 1P agent couldn't find my miles. Literally, she quoted my account balance 120k lower than what it should have been, and I was redeeming a 120k award. Clearly the miles had been pulled for that award, but she couldn't "find" them. The MP Service Center did, and I was told that "somebody in Detroit" manually issued my ticket. Screwy.
The miles are typically reserved when you make the award booking to prevent people from booking multiple itineraries if they don't have the miles to support them.
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Old May 30, 2007, 4:25 pm
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I have been trying to get miles posted for a flight I took in early April. I faxed and mailed the original boarding passes. THe csr told me I needed to "resend" the original boarding passes again (hard to do when I've sent the originals). So I asked for a "supervisor" -- he was rude and told me the only way I'll get the miles is if I send the original BP's "again." Neither one of them seemed to be able to grasp the concept that I'd already mailed the originals so I cant mail them AGAIN.

I had the same scenario with NW, but they posted the miles immediately.
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