40,000 points gone - Issue with Visa Card
 

I ran into a strange situation when I went to book award travel using my account and booking a ticket for my wife using her account. When I signed into my wifes account there were zero miles available. United deleleted her miles because of "inactivity". When I informed my wife of this she said she thought she got a notice last year about inactivity and the possibility of losing the miles and she asked me what to do. I told her to use her Mileage Plus Visa card and that would act as activity. And UA said on their website that as look as we had a Mileage Plus Visa card in good standing we were ok. That turned out to not be the case when I called the UA help desk and they informed me that the Mileage Plus Visa card was only for the primary card holder (me) and that any charges made by my wife on her card did not get credited to her account but to my account. This was news to me. I tried to get them to give me the miles back because my wife had acted in good faith in using the card and we have been good customers of United for almost 40 years. They played hardball with me and started getting hostile about it being my responsibility to monitor the account, blah, blah, blah, and of course they had the fine print on their side. They did offer me three options none of which I could completely understand but one of them was to pay a 100 dollar fee and use the miles within 90 days and I would be ok. I told them no and I was going to call the UA HQ in Chicago. They told me to go ahead and they would stay on the line while I placed the call. Of course they already knew that HQ will disconnect the call unless you know the extension of the party. First time in my life I came across a corporate headquarters afraid to take a call from a customer. I called Chase bank and they confirmed United's story and told me my wife would have to get a card in her own name and not be just a secondary card holder on my account. But now I really don't want to do business with United anymore, so will see if Virgina America or Jet Blue could me our domestic flying needs. United Airlines is not the friendly skies anymore. Hard to believe that a company with such a bad customer service track record still stays in business but I guess their major competitors aren't any better. :(

They don't stay in business Bob. They went bankrupt... a sure sign that their passengers don't think much of them... however, they pay millions of dollars in political donations to ensure that airlines are protected. They can file chapter 11 and emerge stronger than ever, with anti-trust immunity to purchase their competitors (Continental), operate monopoly size hubs and be protected from competition. The US airline industry is a mess... they should either be re-regulated or open to true competition, including reciprocal foreign competition on domestic routes.

Ok. Even if you change airlines, the rules will be very similar. I don't think any airline will offer what you asked in this post!
Btw, this is not really fine print. If you look at their site carefully, they have explained that the miles are collected only on the primary account holders' account. In fact, your wife would have the the credit card printed with YOUR mileage plus number.

I'm not saying that service standards at united (and many other airlines) have not dropped. They are pathetic. But on this issue, they are clearly right!