No travelers like airline fees, but some of them are more aggravating than others. My least favorite is ANY fee where you have to opt-out, i.e. un-check a box not to pay it.
United Airlines is trying to sell you extra miles with each trip. When checking in online (and at airport kiosks), this is an opt-out offer.
The program is called “Award Accelerator,” and it allows travelers to double or triple their miles, for a little over 3 cents a mile. While this is slightly less than buying miles directly from United, it’s still a significant amount of money.
If you’re looking to buy miles for a domestic coach ticket, it’s also hardly a deal, as buying enough miles for a saver award, 25,000, would cost $750. Very few supersaver tickets in the U.S. cost more than that.
Admittedly, cashing in miles for business and first class tickets has more value, and one client who likes to buy the “Award Accelerator” miles saves them to bring his spouse on international business trips.
The point of this post isn’t whether the miles are worth it, it’s that the default shouldn’t be to buy them. In fact, not only do you now have to make the effort to “skip and continue” when you check-in online, the system has lately been asking “Are you sure?”
Of course, the United site is in plain English, so it’s not that hard to opt-out, but I’ve still had clients complain, because it’s a relatively easy mistake to make when checking-in in a hurry. (And “in a hurry” seems to be a constant state for many people these days.)
Another issue with this bonus miles charge is that it can be very difficult to trace after the fact, as anyone who’s ever looked at a credit card bill with all sorts of charges from a given airline can attest — they don’t exactly spell things out clearly.
(I would expect every travel agent reading this routinely gets phone calls from clients trying to figure out their airline charges. Those conversations at our office usually start out “Well, it wasn’t from us, but could you have paid anything extra on your last trip?”)
In any case, I would like to think that the “Award Accelerator” is just a single aberration, and that United Airlines will keep most of their fee choices as “opt-ins.” But if selling miles in this backhanded way is profitable, no doubt other charges will be next.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
