In an unexpected, official announcement on August 28, 2019, United Airlines declared that effective immediately, accrued MileagePlus rewards miles will never expire. This means that its rewards-program members now have, literally, a lifetime in which to use their accumulated miles on United flights, travel experiences, hotel stays and more.
In 2019, United has committed to focusing its business on the customer experience than ever before, and the carrier is continuing to examine every aspect of its service to re-center its business practices and policies around the best interests of its clientele.
"We want to demonstrate to our members that we are committing to them for the long-haul and giving customers a lifetime to use miles is an exceptionally meaningful benefit," said Luc Bondar, vice president of loyalty and president of MileagePlus at United. "Our MileagePlus program provides customers more ways to earn and use miles than any other U.S. airline. More customers used miles to book award trips in 2018 than in any year before, and we expect with today's announcement that even more will use miles to travel the world in the years to come."
Ongoing enhancements to United's award-winning MileagePlus rewards program include:
- Its partnership with secure identity company CLEAR to offer discounted, or even free, CLEAR membership pricing for U.S.-based MileagePlus members
- The most low-priced, economy award-travel availability offered by any global U.S. airline
- Award travel to more destinations offered than that of any other U.S. airline, with service to over 1,300 destinations through United and Star Alliance partners
- The ability to book award travel on United, as well as all of its Star Alliance partners, using United Airlines' mobile app
- Opportunities to use rewards miles towards everyday items, such as eGift cards, starting as low as 1,000 miles when purchasing through the MileagePlusX app.
Today's MileagePlus awards announcement follows several other, recent, customer-focused improvements that United has made to its service:
- In January 2019, United made 100 live DIRECTV channels free for passengers flying aboard 211 of its Boeing 737 aircraft equipped with seatback screens
- Also, earlier this year, United released a revamped version of its mobile app (the most downloaded app in the airline industry) for Apple and Android phones, to make managing trips easier than even
- In June 2019, United launched its new ConnectionSaver tool to make connecting from one United flight to another a more seamless experience for its customers
- In July, United announced that passengers on all domestic flights would be given a choice among three complimentary, inflight snack items: pretzels, maple wafers or stroopwafel
- The airline also partnered with luxury skincare line Sunday Riley to manufacture products exclusively for United passengers' onboard amenity kits
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
