Many of us took a flyer in the fall on a promotion for 5,000 United MileagePlus miles for spend on MileagePlus Explorer credit cards. After many of us registered, United changed the offer to specify it was only only to cardholders in certain Central American countries. The miles appeared for many in December and it was chalked up as a pleasant score.
Reader James just wrote me that his miles were taken back, and I see mine are gone is well, with a negative 5,000 entry listed as “”Reversal of incorrect bonus miles.”
James had prophetically commented:
I hear you. FYI I had emailed CS at United about two weeks ago with a screenshot of the offer and the promo code, and the rep emailed me back that I’d get the miles 8-10 weeks after the promo ends. They never said anything about not qualifying etc, which surprised me at the time!
I agree though that not pushing it is probably best. They could take back that 5k miles if they really wanted to, so I’ll be happy with what I have received.
I am not going to fight over this one, I only have the vim for a battle or two a month. Good luck to others to hold on to them or get them back!
Mine disappeared as well. Also not going to fight about it.
When the 5,000 miles were deposited on or around Dec 1. what was the description showing on the statement of all the accounts for which the 5,000 miles were ultimately reversed ?
@christo – “Chase Bonus” and I believe everyone was backdated to 12/01/2012 even though posted mid-December.
5k bonus points reversed here as well. Bummer!
I just noticed that I had 5k points deducted from my balance and I didn’t even participate in the spending back in December! I wonder if they just unilaterally and accidentally added, and now subtracted, the 5k points for everyone with a Chase card?
@Chris – really? If you never got the 5k in the first place, that is really odd and that would rile me up enough to fight. Keep us posted, please.
This is a CO practice, right? The old UA gave away miles and compensation like candy…I don’t know of another loyalty program that claws back miles like this iteration of UA.
@David – I have to confess limited experience of either, though this was my first ever mileage claw back, and without even a courtesy notification.
[...] Back in October United offered bonus miles for very modest spending on a co-branded United Visa. Then they changed the terms and conditions of the offer to restrict it to residents of certain Central American countries. And then they added even more bonus restrictions. And yet lots of people got the miles posted anyway. Now, apparently, United is taking those miles away. [...]
Same situation as Chris.
Never applied for the bonus miles. (Late to the party before T & C change).
Bonus miles posted and now reversed.
[...] had 5,000 miles and now I don’t. Many of us in the same boat. View from the Wing links to several of his posts on this sordid [...]
Not a good day for me with CHASE or UA. Had these 5K miles reversed, then got no retention offer on the VISA for the annual fee and cancelled it.
@Larry – they really are scraping the bottom with their handling of the 5k offer.