United Bonus Miles or Free Upgrades - Targeted

United is offering a targeted promotion.  You can either get extra United miles or free upgrades.

You need to enter your United MileagePlus account number here.

I did not qualify on my account or my wife's account, but maybe you will.

If you qualify, your bonus is dependent on how many times you fly between now and November 15th.


1 Qualifying flight = 5,000 bonus miles or one upgrade
2 Qualifying flights = 10,000 bonus miles or two upgrades
4 Qualifying flights = 25,000 bonus miles or 3 upgrades



Hat Tip - Mommy Points


Not every ticket class qualifies for bonus miles so read the terms carefully if you are hoping to get the bonus miles.


Here are the full Terms and Conditions

MileagePlus Terms & Conditions:

1. Only original recipients of email invitation to the offer can register and participate in the promotion.
2. To qualify for this offer, eligible members must register, purchase and complete a paid, qualifying roundtrip to any destination worldwide on flights operated by United and United Express^® within the qualifying ticketing and travel periods.
3. Ticketing dates: August 15, 2013 through November 15, 2013
4. Travel dates: August 15, 2013 through November 15, 2013
5. Offer is valid on H, U, E, M, B, Y, Z, P, J, C, D, A and F fare classes. At least one segment of the qualifying roundtrip should be booked in the eligible fare class to qualify for this offer.
6. For this offer, a roundtrip is defined as travel from an origin city to a destination city with return travel beginning in the outbound destination city back to the first origin city with all segments on flights operated by United and United Express. A segment is defined as one takeoff and one landing. One-way, circle trips, multi-city itineraries and itineraries with stopovers do not qualify for this offer.
7. The offer is not valid on United-marketed codeshare flights operated by other carriers.
8. The offer is not valid on government fares.
9. Passenger must be a member of United's MileagePlus program for travel to qualify for this offer. Qualifying flight activities must be credited to the MileagePlus account by November 25, 2013 in order to qualify for this offer.
10. You must register and select the bonus award miles or Regional Premier Upgrades through promotion registration page by November 1, 2013 in order to qualify for the promotion.
11. This offer is not combinable with other non-combinable offers.
12. Each Regional Premier Upgrade is valid for a single one-way, one-cabin upgrade and will expire on December 31, 2014. Standard Regional Premier Upgrade terms apply. You can review the terms at https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/premier/regupgrades.aspx.
13. Bonus award miles or Regional Premier Upgrades will post to your account 6-8 weeks after the offer end date of November 15, 2013.
14. E-Ticket ® purchase required. Service charges for ticketing with a United representative in the United States and Canada are $25 by phone, $30 at a City Ticket Office and $35 in person at the airport. Ticketing charges may vary outside of the U.S. and Canada and based on MileagePlus status level. The ticketing service charge does not apply for tickets purchased on united.com. Service charges are subject to change.
15. Offer subject to change without notice. Other restrictions may apply.
16. Miles accrued, awards, and benefits issued are subject to change and are subject to the rules of the United MileagePlus program, including without limitation the Premier® program (the "MileagePlus Program"), which are expressly incorporated herein. United may change the MileagePlus Program including, but not limited to, rules, regulations, travel awards and special offers or terminate the MileagePlus Program at any time and without notice. United and its subsidiaries, affiliates and agents are not responsible for any products or services of other participating companies and partners. Taxes and fees related to award travel are the responsibility of the member. Bonus award miles, award miles and any other miles earned through non-flight activity do not count toward qualification for Premier status unless expressly stated otherwise. The accumulation of mileage or Premier status or any other status does not entitle members to any vested rights with respect to the MileagePlus Program. All calculations made in connection with the MileagePlus Program, including without limitation with respect to the accumulation of mileage and the satisfaction of the qualification requirements for Premier status, will be made by United Airlines and MileagePlus in their discretion and such calculations will be considered final. Information in this communication that relates to the MileagePlus Program does not purport to be complete or comprehensive and may not include all of the information that a member may believe is important, and is qualified in its entirety by reference to all of the information on the united.com website and the MileagePlus Program rules. United and MileagePlus are registered service marks. For complete details about the MileagePlus Program, go to www.united.com.

WSJ: Best Airline Miles Availability

The WSJ published a survey of airlines and tried to figure out which airline had the most availability to book flights with their miles.

Not surprisingly, Southwest Airlines, Jetblue and United all came very close to the top and US Airways and Delta all the way at the bottom.  This should affect the way you try to accumulate miles.  What's the point of miles if you can't use them.

United Airlines 50% Bonus Premier Qualifying Miles - Targeted

United is offering 50% more miles for flights you book and complete a roundtrip flight before May 23rd.  This is a targeted offer so go to the promo link and put in your United Mileage Plus number to see if you are elegible.

I wasn't elegible, but hopefully someone is that is planning on flying soon.



Terms and Conditions:

1. On paid qualifying flights members can earn a 50% Premier qualifying miles bonus on base miles earned for travel in United Global First, United First, United BusinessFirst, United Business, full-fare United Economy, or discount United Economy (F, A, J, C, D, Z, P, Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q and V fare classes).
2. Offer valid for roundtrip tickets purchased between April 17, 2013, and May 23, 2013, for travel between April 17, 2013, and May 23, 2013.
3. Registration required before travel at united.com.
4. Offer valid for MileagePlus members who are the original recipients of an email invitation from MileagePlus.
5. To qualify, it is required that you register on united.com before travel, then purchase and complete paid roundtrips anywhere worldwide on flights operated by United.
6. Offer is not valid on United-marketed codeshare flights operated by other carriers. 
7. Offer is not valid on government fares.
8. Roundtrip is defined as travel from an origin city to a destination city with return travel beginning in the destination city back to the origin city. Open jaw and circle trip itineraries do not qualify.
9. This offer does not apply to Premier qualifying segments, class-of-service bonus miles, class-of-service PQM, Premier bonus miles, redeemable bonus miles or other promotional PQM.
10. PQM cannot be redeemed for award travel.
11. Bonus is not combinable.
12. Bonus may be earned an unlimited number of times in accordance with these terms and conditions.
13. Bonus will be posted to the member’s MileagePlus account six to eight weeks after the end of the promotion period.
14. Electronic ticket purchase is required. Tickets purchased in the U.S. through United Reservations are subject to a $25 ticketing fee and tickets purchased at airport ticket counters are subject to a $30 ticketing fee. Fees are subject to change.
15. Offer is subject to change without notice. Other restrictions may apply.
16. Miles accrued, awards, and benefits issued are subject to change and are subject to the rules of the United MileagePlus program. United may change the MileagePlus program including, but not limited to, rules, regulations, travel awards and special offers or terminate the MileagePlus program at any time and without notice. Bonus award miles, award miles and any other miles earned through non-flight activity do not count or qualify for Premier® status unless expressly stated otherwise. United and its subsidiaries, affiliates and agents are not responsible for any products and services of other participating companies and partners. Taxes and fees related to award travel are the responsibility of the member. The accumulation of mileage or Premier status or any other status does not entitle members to any vested rights with respect to the program. United and MileagePlus are registered service marks. For complete details about the MileagePlus program, go to united.com/mileageplus.

Earning and Using Frequent Flyer Miles - Part 3

This is part 3 of a series on Frequent flyer miles, part 1 was an introduction and part 2 explained how to find more information from other sources.

Airline Alliances

Almost all major airlines in the united states that have international flights are part of an alliance of airlines that include other airlines from all over the world.  There 3 main airline alliances are: Star Alliance, OneWorld Alliance and Sky Team Alliance

• Star Alliance - This is the largest alliance with 27 members.  The most important members for most readers are United Airlines, Turkish Airlines and US Airlines (at least until it merges with American Airlines) because they all fly to Israel somewhat regularly.
• Sky Team Alliance - The second largest with 19 member airlines.  The most important are probably Delta, KLM and Air France.
• One World Alliance - The smallest with only 13 member airlines.  The most important are probably American and British Airlines

What is an Alliance?

An alliance allows individual airlines to expand their reach without having to expand their fleets. Airlines partner together and share some aspects of their business. 

• The major advantage for passengers is that frequent flyer miles from one airline can usually be used to fly on partner airlines of the same alliance.  Let's take an example:

• United Airlines and Turkish Airlines are both part of the Star Alliance.  This means that I can use United Mileage Plus miles to fly on United Airlines flights or Turkish Airlines flights or any other member of the Star Alliance.

• The second great benefit is that one can miles earned from one partner can be credited to your account from the other partner.  Once again, here is an example.  If I fly on Turkish Air and I provide my United Airlines Mileage Plus number, I will earn United miles for my Turkish Air flight even though I didn't take a United flight. 

Here is a picture from my United Airlines account: You can see that I earned United Mileage plus miles for my Turkish Air flight

The most important point to take away is that you only need to have a frequent flyer account with one member of an alliance and combine all of your miles into one account.  In fact, using multiple accounts can be detrimental as I will explain.

For instance, in our scenario let's say I had a United account and a Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles account.  If go on a United flight direct to Israel and a Turkish Airlines flight to Israel with a stop in Istambul, I would get 11,320 miles in my United account and 11,410 miles in my Turkish Airlines account.  If, however, I gave my United number for the same Turkish Airlines flight, I would earn all 22,730 miles in my United account and I am now much closer to earning my next flight through miles.  I can then use my United miles to fly on any Star Alliance partner with those miles (Booking will be explained in a later post).

Does it matter which Airline I choose within an Alliance?

We have now established that it is important to have at least one airline in each alliance that is your miles currency for that alliance.  Does it matter which airline I choose?  Big-time, and here's why.

Even though each airline is partners with the others in the alliance, they do not treat their miles equally.  Each airline has a different calculation of how many miles it "costs" to go to the destination of your choice.  

I will take flying to Israel as an example again.  (All of the following information can be found from milez.biz). Flying Economy with United miles usually costs 80,000 miles for a roundtrip ticket, while using Turkish Air miles usually costs 105,000 miles for the exact same flight.  If you goal is a free flight to Israel, you will get there 20% faster by collecting United miles than by collecting Turkish air miles.

In addition, many programs charge fuel surcharges for redeeming frequent flyer miles that can cost a few hundred extra dollars.  For example, within the One World Alliance, British Airways charges a major fuel surcharge for flying international on their Frequent flyer program, but doesn't charge a fuel surcharge for using their miles to fly within the US on American Airlines flights.  Their miles are not too valuable flying internationally, but can be quite valuable flying domestically.  American Airlines does not have a fuel surcharge for flying internationally, unless it is on a British Airlines flight.  Therefore, if you are collecting One World Alliance points and are interested in international flights, you are better off with American Airlines miles and if you are interested in domestic flights, you are better off with British Airways points.

For an example of how confusing surcharges can be and for much more detailed information, look at this dansdeals forums post.

Next week in part 4, I hope to talk about booking frequent flyer miles and to find available flights.

United Airlines - It's Worth it to Complain

Round 2 - United Airlines Finally Owes Up to their Mistakes


On June 24th, I was scheduled to leave Newark Airport at 9:25am on a United Airlines flight to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.  I was headed on a dental mission to give free dental care to underserved Dominicans.  I go to the airport at 7:15am, before the recommended 2 hours before an international flight.

The place was busier than I had ever seen it.  There must have been about 100 people waiting on line past where the line is supposed to end (after the poles and ropes end).  The line was also moving very slowly.

By the time I got to where the line normally starts, it was already 8:45, an hour and a half after I got there.  Part of the problem was that the workers would randomly choose people from the back of the line and bringing them to the checkout so that they could make their flights, but it made every one else wait longer.

I asked if I could go to the front of the line so I could make my flight and the worker asked me when my flight was and I said 9:25 and she responded, "I'm sorry you already missed your flight.  You need an hour for international flights."

Everyone around me was missing their flights and really upset at United and giving the workers a very hard time so I decided that it wasn't the time to get angry with a kipah on my head.

I rescheduled for the same flight the next day and left.

Here is where the helpful tip comes in: 

I called up United and I spoke to someone and explained the situation and I said that I wanted compensation (if you don't ask for it, they won't give it to you) otherwise I was not flying on United anymore as this wasn't my first significant problem with their airline and their customer service.  The person on the line said I should have been their earlier and it was my fault.  I was clearly not satisfied with that response.  Two hours before a flight is the airline's recommended time of arrival.

My Email to United:

After I hung up on United, I then sent their customer service the following email:

Message: I got to the airport at 7:15, over two hours before my flight.
I was going on a dental mission to Puerto Plata to provide free dental
care to under-served people.  I waited on the line until it was my turn
at 9:45 (my flight was at 9:25) in order to rebook my tickets.  I have
never seen such a level of mismanagement.  Randomly, people would be
picked off the line to make their flights while everyone else had to sit
there waiting in the regular line while the their flights left without
them.  I am not able to go back until tomorrow, I have missed my group
flight and I will miss a day of my mission.

If you know it is a peak time, you need to have more people working so
that the line moves faster

I was very disappointed that United was unable to get me on my flight
considering I left with plenty of time.  This is not the first time this
has happened to me on United and I cannot imagine flying United again.
I booked the flight on Continental hoping I would Continental service
and I was seriously mistaken.  You have lost one more United customer (a
lot of other people on line were also saying the same thing).  I hope
you are able to rectify the situation for the future.  You can't
mistreat people, give them no compensation and expect them to keep
coming back.

United's response:

After a couple of days, I got the following response from United:


Thank you again for taking time to let us know about your recent experience with United Airlines.

An Electronic Travel Certificate has been issued to Oren XXXXX (Mileage Plus xxxxxxxx) valid towards the purchase of one electronic airline ticket, where eligible, on United up to $150.00.
Redemption information - Total Value: $150.00  Promotion Code: xxxx  PIN Code: xxxxxx  Issued Date: 7/3/2012  Expiration Date: 7/3/2013  Original Ticket Number: xxxxxxxx

If you have a bad experience with a company, tell them about it, who knows what you will get.  $150 is about a third of what I paid for the ticket, but it is more than $0 and I'll bet 99% of the people on line got a big fat check of $0 and just a big headache.