I may be losing these miles...any ideas?

[kathyclownfish]

My family of 4 may not be going to Disney in November. We have airfare through our mileage plus visa. I understand that if I do not use these tickets united will put the miles back into our account.....$75.00 per ticket fee = $300.00. I understand that I could use the tickets with the same destination (including layovers) within a year of the date of issue.

My question is: If we decide to not go in November, do I have to call united to tell them that we will not be on the flight ?

Does anyone know of any ways around the $300.00 fee? Is there any "easy" ways out of this. Thanks for your replies!

 

[DebbieB]

I would definitely call them, not just "no show".

I don't know a way around the charge, but we lucked out in an unfortunate way in 2001. We had 2 FF tickets to Las Vegas for 9/25/01. My mom wasn't well and said she didn't want to go. I held off cancelling hoping she would change her mind. Then 9/11 happened and the airlines relaxed their cancellation rules up to 2 weeks after (9/25, our date). They redeposited the miles with no charge (USAirways). So I would hold off, you never know if rules will change.

 

[safetymom]

I would suggest you ask that question on www.flyertalk.com It is a great site of information about using your ff miles and other programs.

 

[kathyclownfish]

Good for you DebbeB!! I have a feeling that won't be happening anytime soon. That September the airlines were really hurting.

Safetymom, I'll try flyertalk and see if they can help me. Thanks for the site.

Kathy

 

[cruiseonmagic]

It's just common courtesy to let them know that you will not be on those flights if you find that you will not be. Give another mileage plus customer a chance to get the tickets. I am a former mileage plus supervisor and it really fried me knowing that someone was holding reservations that they wouldn't use, especially after speaking with someone who needed ff tickets in order to afford their vacation.

You have a year from the date of issue (write down the ticket numbers, the record locator disappears after the first flight that you don't show up for) to use the tickets for the same destination at no charge (you can go from a connecting flight to a non-stop for no fee). The other option is to look at your next destination as costing you 75.00/ticket.