Unfortunately, I learned this lesson the hard way. I recently let my boys’ United MileagePlus miles expire and I did pay to have them reinstated. So the answer is yes. For a fee, you too can have your expired United miles reinstated. When I decided to pay to reinstate the miles, I did a cost/value analysis and used a value of 1.5 cents per United mile which was a recent published valuation. For me, I decided it was worth it to pay the fee.
The following is the cost to reinstate:
5,000 : $50.00
5,001 – 20,000 : $100.00
20,001 – 35,000 : $150.00
35,001 – 50,000 : $200.00
50,001 – 75,000 : $250.00
75,001 – 100,000 : $300.00
100,001 – 150,000 : $400.00
150,001 – 200,000 : $500.00
200,001 – 500,000 : $600.00
500,001 – 750,000 : $700.00
You can reinstate up to 750,000 expired miles and only miles that expired in the last 18 months are eligible. Note that reactivation of only a portion of the expired miles will result in a forfeiture of the remaining expired miles.