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United Miles Will No Longer Expire
Matching a long standing Delta policy, United Airlines’ miles will no longer expire. It was never very hard for those with United MileagePlus accounts to earn or spend even a couple of miles once in a while, so really this has the most positive benefit for those that fly the least with United – but might feel cheated when they learned that previously hard earned miles expired.
I understand both sides of the coin…. if you haven’t earned or spent a single mile in 18 months, you aren’t exactly “loyal” and loyalty is a two way street. Or at least it should be, even if, in my opinion, airlines have been the side generally flipping the middle finger to their real frequent flyers by gutting the loyalty program award charts in favor to loosely linking the price of award seats to revenue tickets, thereby making it impossible to “save up” for an award ticket.
Still, this move by United should be viewed as a favorable one, even if it’s on the heels of a far greater move to decimate the MileagePlus program announced just a few months ago in April. They’ve also said they will reinstate miles for those who had their miles expire in July/August of 2019.
So, all in all, while I’m happy the miles no longer expire, I sincerely hope they continue to at least keep award charts for partner flights – else their miles will become just a very weak cash equivalent worth totally ignoring.
Pressure on American Airlines?
This move does put some pressure on American Airlines to similarly end the practice of expiring miles after 18 months of inactivity, as they are now the only major US carrier to still have a mileage expiration policy.
How do you feel about this move by United?
Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
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