Photo: Ting Chen/Flickr
Joe Woerner had hoped to celebrate his 75th birthday with a trip to France with his wife, Marilyn. But when the New Jersey man tried to book his flight using his United Airlines MileagePlus balance, he discovered that he was down 300,000 miles. The couple’s MileagePlus account had been inactive for at least 18 months and — as is the case with a lot of airlines —United’s miles expire after, leaving them with nothing but a zero balance and a few deep, heavy sighs.
The Woerners contacted United to find out where their miles had gone and were told that they had, in fact, expired, but that the couple should have received reminders that their account was on the verge of evaporating. Joe Woerner says he did not receive any kind of notice.
According to the Woerners, United told them that they could buy back their miles – another common, and expensive, solution. Woerner told PIX11:
“We would have to pay money – over $500 – to buy back the points we had already earned, which to me was just ridiculous.”
So the Woerners pulled the 21st century version of an emergency parachute: they contacted the local news. Between the efforts of PIX11 – and a doctor’s note explaining that Joe had been hospitalized after surgery for “some of that 18 month period – United agreed to re-instate the couple’s balances. “We review the accounts of customers with special circumstances on a case-by-case basis,” United spokesperson Mary Clark told Road Warrior Voices.
“It just seems to me once you earn them, you ought to be able to keep them,” Woerner harrumphed. It might seem that way, but frequent-flier miles and awards points do come with expiration dates (except those earned with Delta and JetBlue, which last forever, just like true love).
So if you haven’t booked a flight for a period of several months — and you don’t have an investigative reporter at your disposal — how can you ensure that your own mileage balances remain active?
- There are apps like TripIt Pro or websites like Award Wallet where those with multiple loyalty programs can keep track of their various accounts. If you’re not miles-savvy or an incredibly frequent flier, a simple Excel spreadsheet can work, along with setting up a reminder to check your accounts every few months.
- Sign up for a credit card that is linked to your preferred carrier. Use the card once during that 18-month period, and your account is active for another 18 months from that transaction date. And – even better – most airline credit cards hand you a significant number of miles just for signing up for the card.
- Buy something through your airline’s shopping portal or sign up for a magazine subscription using a small portion of your mileage balance (just make sure you read all of the fine print, to ensure that your year of Esquire doesn’t come with an unwanted auto-renewal).
- This sounds silly, but read your mail, both the e- and snail varieties.Most airlines will inform you if your miles are on the verge of expiring and you may still have time to take action to prevent it – preferably without getting your local news affiliate involved. Clark said:
“We send MileagePlus account holders email expiration reminders near the deadline, as well as sending offers from loyalty partners about ways to keep accounts open in addition to travel,” Clark said. “The mileage expiration date is also shown at the top of the individual MileagePlus account summary that customers may view online anytime at united.com.”
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