Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

expiring miles

Rob and I each got really misleading letters from United Airlines’ Mileage Plus frequent flyer program this week:

Dear [my name / Rob’s name]:

A records review indicates that your Mileage Plus® Miles are about to expire. To avoid forfeiture of your miles, redeem them now for your choice of magazine Rewards for absolutely NO CASH COST.

Important: Orders must be postmarked by 9/15/07. Simply indicate your selections on the reverse side and return in the envelope provided.

If you do not use your Mileage Plus® Miles, they will soon expire. So please take a moment to complete your certificate and return it right away. DON’T DELAY - This opportunity to redeem your expiring miles for Rewards will end on September 15, 2007.

Thank you for choosing United Airlines.

Sincerely,

Virginia Wilson
Program Director

A coupon underneath the letter lists my current mileage, my Mileage Plus account number, a “date of notice” (8/1/2007) and a “respond by” date (9/15/2007).

At first reading, it looks like I’m being told that my frequent flyer miles are expiring soon, so I should put them to use on some crummy magazine subscriptions I’ll never read so the points don’t go to waste.

But that’s incredibly misleading.

Yes, my United frequent flyer miles are expiring — but in September 2008. And even that date will change: I’m flying United for a trip later this month and, according to their policy, miles expire 18 months from the most recent account activity.

I’m really disappointed to see that United would do such a thing (or, if the magazine program is run through an outside vendor, why United would allow one of its partners to do such a thing under its brand).

I don’t mind being told that United has a program where you can redeem frequent flyer miles for free magazine subscriptions. But the way this was done is dishonest, insulting and certainly discourages me from doing business with them in the future. Nice work from a program ostensibly aimed at promoting customer loyalty.