Last month United Airlines Pick Your Path promotion ended on May 13, 2021, supposedly at midnight but several members have complained that the registration was not accessible anymore as early as mid day.
Members who were unable to select their option and who decided to contact Mileage Plus customer service (like myself) finally found their account adjusted with the respective amount of PQP.
The campaign allowed MileagePlus Premier members to choose one of three displayed offers to accelerate their elite qualifying process or earn more miles for select transactions.
Members had until 11:59pm Central Time on May 13th to register for this promotion according to the terms listed on the promotional website.
Unfortunately it appeared someone programmed the website incorrectly as beginning midday of May 13th the registration returned an error message. Some readers notified us about this as well and I decided to send a complaint to United about my own account as well.
On June 3rd I chased the complaint as United had still not added my PQP as per my intial email, receiving the following reply:
Dear Sebastian:
Thanks for your follow up.
I have escalated this back up to determine why you didn’t receive a bonus.
We appreciate your patience.
Regards,
Tammy D. , MileagePlus® LeadRepresentative
I wasn’t too happy in my email, telling them it can’t be the responsibility of the customer to chase this due to United’s inability to properly run the registration. The next follow up would be directly to the Executive Offices.
Now a week later I checked the account again and the 700 PQP had been added to the total without any further communication from United:
In February United already added 1,750 PQP to the account (Premier Gold) as part of a general policy to make re-qualification easier for their Mileage Plus members.
Now with the new credits United added another bonus leaving a bit more than half of the PQP requirement.
I’m not convinced that this is the last we see of United concerning status extensions, especially for international members. These PQP bonuses won’t do anything to help tier members who reside in countries that are still completely isolated through strict quarantine regimes. United will have to make a decision if they want to let these customers go and have the status drop or if there will be another general extension.
Conclusion
I finally got my 700 PQP from the Pick Your Path promotion added after filing a complaint with United Mileage Plus, following the registration error.
Strange that United didn’t set this properly as it’s a rather standard thing, an everyday promotion so why wouldn’t it work until the time designated in the t&c?
I had recommended the readers who contacted us to contact United and make sure there is time stamped record for when this contact was established. Thankfully an email to Mileage Plus through the web form comes with a detailed stamp that shows when the request was submitted. Of course making such a complaint retroactively won’t yield in any result.
12 pm is 12 “post meridian”
“post means “after”
“Meridian” means “Noon”
12 Midnight is today. A moment later is tomorrow.
If there were a 12 pm, it would be midnight as 12 Noon is the Meridian and the only “12” that is after noon is Midnight.
There is no 12 am. There is only a 12 Noon.
This is a perennial confusion that shows up in all kinds of stupid clocks, especially on car rental sites.
No matter the need, I will never check 12 am or 12 pm as I cannot be sure what it might mean.
I am confident that sloppiness related to this problem led to the United clock problem.
Glad it worked out for those that cared.