Lee and I have racked up some United miles from flights and our credit card purchases in the last couple of years. In reviewing some gift options for the Monetorium, I looked up the option on United’s website to transfer miles to someone else’s account. Wow – what a scam!
They charge a $35 processing fee and then 1 cent per mile transferred. It doesn’t sound like a lot at first, but add up 60,000 miles transferred, and you’re paying $635 to give away your miles. When a domestic flight can cost 50,000 miles, it’s almost the same as paying twice for a ticket.
Why wouldn’t you just give them the cash to buy a ticket? Then use your miles to meet them for free! (If you can find a precious available seat)
Thanks for sharing this… you’re basically paying for the miles again for the privilege of transferring them. Perhaps the only use would be … if a friend or family member needed to “top off” their account in order to claim an award. They could probably buy the miles directly from United for 1 cent a mile and a service fee. The only winner here (short-term) is United. Long-term, they’re making disgruntled customers buying bad karma.
Thanks, David. Yes, you make a great point about the long term effects of a program structured like this. In an already extremely competitive industry, they should be trying to draw customers to their travel community. Mileage programs, especially this one, are known to be very profitable parts of their business, where so many people and businesses in essence purchase or acquire miles and never use them. I have seen more than a few airline executives chuckle and glow about the perks of the program. They should use it to their advantage to create extremely loyal customers, not shun them by making it difficult to transfer and redeem miles.