United Airlines Flies Away Customers

I took a flight to the west coast last month on United Airlines (UA). The trip went smoothly; very well in fact.  Earlier this week I checked in to see if my frequent flyer miles were credited.  They were.

I decided to check the kids' accounts to see how they were doing towards a free ticket. It turned out that on April 30th one of them with alomost 35,000 miles lost all of them for inactivity. I called United to see what could be done.

First I was told that UA sent out numerous emails warning customers that inactivity would lead to loss of miles. After a back and forth discussion that sounded like something out of "Who's On First' it was established that 'numerous' did not refer to the emails I might have received, but to the millions that United customers received.

I received an email in November and forgot about the miles expiring in April.

Then came the question of restoring the miles. It could be done. By paying $199 and flying in the next twelve months. The $199 is not applicable to cost of the ticket. It is a service fee.

I emailed United to see if something could be done. These were the miles my daughter had accumulated since her childhood.  So far no reply from United.

I could have used as few as 500 miles on restaurant vouchers and saved the day.  Oh well.

In the meantime I pointed out to a supervisor that it was not worth it for United to lose our family's business over 35,000 miles.

I pointed out to the supervisor that I had over 500,000 miles on the airline; that Sara and the kids probably had another 100,000 miles. I went through the hell of flying through Chicago, the cancelled and delayed flights. The buses and car rentals back form O'Hare. The broken promises about improved services.

We all know the drill.

She did not say anything, but I knew what she was thinking.

It is worth it in the grand scheme of things to lose you and your family as a customer.

When United deducts the tens of millions of miles, a few upset customers like me are calculated into the planning. They do not want to lose our business but it is a small price to pay compared to the millions of dollars of liability for those frequent miles that they wipe off the books.

Anyone have Northwest's phone number?

Comments

[Dan Sebald]

1-800-USA-RAIL

[Cindy]

I know the feeling. We manage the frequent flyer accounts for 5 family members on about 6 different airlines. And yes, we've learned to plunk "itty bitty" mile rewards into different accounts on a rotating basis to keep them active.

I learned a lot from flyertalk.com. Maybe a forum answer there can help you out.

[3rd way]

Delta did the same thing to me.

[wondering]

1-800-225-2525

And, you don't have to fly through O'Hare.

[Badger Pete]

Anyone who flies through Chicago gets what he or she deserves. Only an idiot relies on United or American to get you to or from O'Hare!

[jon]

Two words: Midwest Airlines

[Jess Wundrun]

The valuation of an airlines' frequent flyer program business is often higher than the valuation of the airline itself. And now you know why.

[Anonymous]

Have you heard about the war in Iraq?

How about global warming?

[Donald Pay]

You have to understand these are "frequent flyer" programs. They began as a way to attract repeat business of people who fly several times a week. Your 500,000 miles if accumulated over 5 years is something Mileage Plus would bend over backwards for. If it's accumulated over a lifetime (yours), they'd like to have your business in the future, but probably not enough to restore your kids' accounts. Your kids' flying history is not "frequent" enough to be of concern to them, and they could care less about losing their business, especially since they gave you fair warning that miles would expire if not used.

My wife used to work at Mileage Plus in the 1990s when they did something similar. Enough people complained then that they extended the miles for 6 months. If enough people complain, they may extend it this time, too. Call back after several weeks and complain again in a polite way. I assume you didn't fly off the handle too much. The CSRs write all the abuse down so if you call back, they have you flagged as a malcontent.

Another way is to play chicken with them. If you can, and especially if your kids can, book several cancelable flights on United, and let them know you'd like to fly on the airline, but will have to re-consider if the miles aren't re-instated.