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Back in November there were a couple of fantastic Choice Privileges points sales that, thanks to a number of stackable promotions, effectively allowed you to buy United Miles from as little as 1.13 cents each.
That’s an incredibly low rate at which to buy United miles but, if you participated in these sales, have you checked that you have actually received all the miles due to you?
I wrote about the two sales here & here but, just as a refresher, here’s what the main promotion looked like:
- Choice Privileges was running a points sale which offered a 30%, 40% or 50% bonus when you bought Choice Points (it was a targeted promotion).
- At the same time United was offering two of its own promotions:
- Promotion 1 – Convert Choice Points to United Miles at a ratio of 5,000 : 2,500
- Promotion 2 – 30% bonus for transferring hotel points to United miles
The two United promotions could be stacked allowing you to earn 3,250 United Miles for every 5,000 Choice Privileges Points converted.
If you were targeted for the lowest Choice Privileges bonus (50%) you could buy 50,000 and net 75,000 points (after accounting for the bonus) for a cost of $550.
Transferring those points to United would get you 48,750 miles in your MileagePlus account at an effective cost of just 1.13 cents/mile….so you can see why a lot of people jumped on this deal.
I was only targeted for a 30% Choice Privileges bonus so my deal wasn’t quite so good…but it was still good enough for me to take part.
As soon as I had purchased the Choice Points I transferred them over to United….
….and they appeared in my MileagePlus account shortly thereafter:
Now here’s the issue….
Because the two United promotions were separate the bonuses were handled separately.
As soon as I moved my Choice Points to United they transferred over at a ratio of 5,000 : 2,500 (as the first promotion indicated) so I got 32,500 miles in my MileagePlus account.
The second bonus (30%) was, per the promotion rules, to be added “within 6 – 8 weeks” but I have yet to see these miles hit my account….so I’m out 9,750 miles.
In my experience promotion rules may say that the bonus can post in a few weeks time but, more often than not, they post a lot sooner.
6 -8 weeks have now definitely passed (both since the promotion ended and since I transferred the points) so I’ve emailed MileagePlus to see what’s going on.
So far I’ve just received the standard email which reads:
Thank you for contacting us.
Your request has been escalated to ensure that your bonuses are accurate.
Please allow your account to be adjusted within 15 business days, if eligible.
So it’s wait and see time for me right now.
Check Your Accounts
It’s unlikely that I’m the only person in this situation and, as some people will have been targeted for larger Choice Privileges bonuses (up to 50%), the number of miles that an individual account can be missing is as high as 16,250 – that’s not insignificant.
So, if you participated in either of the Choice Points sales in November and then converted your points over to United MileagePlus, check your accounts and make sure you’ve been credited with the correct number of miles.
If something looks wrong make sure you email United asap.
