United miles expiring...urgent!

[aubeasty]

Hi All,

I have 190,000 United Mileage Plus miles that are going to expire in less than a day....I would love to be able to fly myself + wife from Sydney to New Zealand or Hawaii but not sure whether I can - The United website only {seems} to allow flights between Sydney and US (mainland) destinations.

Can someone more cluey than me let me know what my options are? My default if I can't do anything else is to fly to San Francisco or Vancouver and spend some time there...

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Andrew

 

[futaris]

Mileage Expiration (UA - FlyerGuide Wiki)

If your miles are due to expire very soon...

• Donate miles through the United Mileage Plus Charity Miles program - the transaction often posts in a matter of minutes. Minimum mileage donation = 1,000 miles.

If you want to redeem for Star Alliance (*A) flights, e.g. on Air New Zealand (NZ) then you'll have to ring up United Mileage Plus.

 

[Dave Noble]

You can fly to New Zealand with no issue, but I suspect that you will have to fly via the mainland US to get to Hawaii

I would get on the phone now to UA and get something done so that you dont lose the miles; 190k is a lot to lose

Dave

 

[aubeasty]

Thanks Futaris, Dave. I took your advice and called, and all is well.

Off to NZ in Sept, using 100K, the other 91K points have a new expiry date of Dec 2010!!

Cheers!
Andrew

 

[FL360]

I am not 100% sure about this but I have read somewhere that
to keep your MP points active two cheap method is to
donate some of your points, or buy a song from apple online store......

please google for further information....

 

[dajop]

I am not 100% sure about this but I have read somewhere that
to keep your MP points active two cheap method is to
donate some of your points, or buy a song from apple online store......

Definitely have done this for several friends/relatives. 1000 pt donation to charity = 18 month extension.

 

[kamchatsky]

Thanks Futaris, Dave. I took your advice and called, and all is well.

Off to NZ in Sept, using 100K, the other 91K points have a new expiry date of Dec 2010!!

Cheers!
Andrew

Assuming that you are leaving from Australia, and my guess you booked business class, your award ticket should be able to be extended to Pacific Islands (eg Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, Tahiti) via NZ for no additional cost of points! You only need to pay additional taxes.