A word of wisdom: don’t sell your United Airlines PlusPoints (upgrades). Don’t buy them either. It’s one of the quickest ways to ensure your MileagePlus account will be shut down and your status and miles forfeited. One chef may be about to learn this the hard way.
The Lunacy Of Selling (And Buying) United Airlines Upgrades On eBay
I search for travel-related items on eBay from time to time and a few days ago a sponsored listing popped up in my feed: $440 for 40 Plus Points.
With some amusement, I clicked through. I’ve seen listings like this for years: its always the same: a 1K or Global Services members selling “advice” on upgrades then giving you the upgrade for “free.” He’s even willing to cut his “consulting fee” in half for domestic flights, where half the number of PlusPoints are required in order to upgrade a flight.
Not that ignorance is a defense when it comes to United Airlines shutting down accounts for bartering or selling upgrades, but when sellers play this “advice” game it means they know that it is against MileagePlus program rules to sell upgrades.
And yet they do it.
But this particular listing takes it a step even further. The seller even includes his own website on the eBay listing and invites you to text him with questions.
Chef J, you look like a nice guy, but you’re making a huge mistake…
And so are you, reader, if you even think about buying upgrades from him or any other seller on eBay or Craigslist.
Chef J warns you, “When dealing with United, if they ask, you can say that you are getting an upgrade from a friend.”
(emphasis his)
But if United determines that a Premier member is selling miles or upgrades, it will not only cancel the account of the seller, it might very well close yours too and void your open ticket(s). At the very least, it will take away your upgrades.
So be wise: don’t buy upgrades on eBay.
And it shocks me this guy has not been caught. It’s so blatant and it has obviously gone on for years, since the guy refers to these as “GPUs” in one part of his listing (United switched from Global Premier Upgrades to PlusPoints in 2019).
CONCLUSION
Poor Chef J is setting himself up to be spliced and diced by the bean counters at MileagePlus. But while we can shed crocodile tears for his loss after blatantly violating program rules, just remember that there are generally no innocent parties in these types of transactions and that if you choose to buy upgrades in this matter, you set yourself up for tremendous disappointment and financial cost.
Finally, note that MileagePlus members are free to gift upgrades to others…but it must be a gift.
There was a guy trying to sell his 1K status yesterday.
Way to rat the guy out, are you the mileage police
Back in the RPU/GPU days, I would frequently buy RPUs in January that were about to expire from less self-promoting eBayers (or Craigslisters) for $50-100 a pop and redeem them for exceptional value. As a DL loyalist, I travel United infrequently enough and have a low mileage balance with them that the risk/reward profile was well within my tolerance.
Okay narc… let him learn the hard way. No need to put his name and photo in the article. Jeez.
Matthew Klint is a snitch. It’s one thing to write a blog post about a certain subject but it is on a different level to zoom in on one individual and expose them like that.
I bet in his younger years little Matt used to report little kids for selling lemonade and once write an expose in his high school blog about his babysitter not reporting her part time income to IRS. He wrote a big post in which he exposed her name with the hopes it could be seen by someone at IRS. In college he published expose about his dorm roommate removing mattress tag and as it was indexed in Google it resulted that roommate not getting a job at Mattress Firm after graduation
Using the word “snitch” is offensive and quite unfair and perhaps a reflection of your own lack of values and ethics. When a person joins a Mileage program, he or she agrees to abide by the rules of the program. If I saw someone breaking into your car and called the police I suppose that would make me a snitch too.
Wasn’t that the reason why Ben of OMAAT got banned from United for some time? Because he was selling his GPUs?
No it’s not. Not even close.
I once sold my DL drink coupons on eBay. 5 dollars per piece. I had 8, so the total value was $40.
Someone bought it, and payed through paypal. He was an Atlanta resident. Looked after the email, and found his linkedin profile. He was a lawyer working for Delta. I quickly refunded his money, and deleted the listing. Hopefully I use different email address for eBay, PayPal and Delta. I was not cought. Don’t do it ever since.
I wonder how United discerns honest gifts to friends from transactions like these? I recently scored a BCE-EWR upgrade for a close college buddy of mine (right before they extended the expiration date on those points I gifted!), but there’s really not any obvious way I can think of that United could have been confident that something fishy wasn’t going on.
They usually go after brokers and work backwards. If it’s an individual selling to another individual as a one-off, there’s really no way to know.
Ive booked miles and given upgrades to 20+ different family and friends (on AA, not UA but their policies are similar) and never had an issue. Not expecting to.
Now, I’m not selling them and not planning to, but if someone in a similar case chose to sell a few, they’d probably get away with it. But the risk is too big for most of us and the benefit minimal; I don’t want to lose my account for a few hundred dollars.
The big brokers who repeatedly flaunt the rules are probably the ones in the crosshairs first.
Sliced and diced! LOL
This was a amateurish attempt by him to sell. He needs up his game. Our politicans sell their influence, services and loyalty and call it lobbying. The supreme court has made it legal for rich to buy laws. There is no limit to lobbying dollars. So when someone breaks laws he is breaking the version of laws that rich white men have thought should be the laws.
When done openly there is plausible deniability, as politicians like to do. That works when you have to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. But doesn’t work for private companies that need not go through “due process”.
Liberal politicians sold out the average American citizen to illegals and China. Rich liberal Jewish/White/Asian/Indian/Black men and women did this. They selectively enforce laws against conservatives and get to build massive empires because they don’t play by the same rules. The government literally releases illegals with tens of thousands of dollars of benefits every year to live in the U.S. instead of enforce immigration law.
Reply to amy Fisher
Let’s hope the administration follows the laws.
The natives are given their lands back. The descendants of freed slaves are given 40 acres and a mule with interest. Snowflakes don’t try to cancel discussion of critical race theory in schools.
Oh Jesus. Turn off the Fox News Karen. It’s eating your brain cells.
You are aware the sell out to China began when Republicans kicked Taiwan out of the UN and welcomed China?
You are aware the largest importing of cheap Chinese goods are large retailers like Amazon and Walmart which are as right leaning and union busting as it gets?
You are aware it is the conservative business owners and farm owners who laugh about not paying their employees and hire illegal labor precisely because it’s illegal?
When Sam Walton was alive, Walmart’s ads always emphasized on how they only bought American goods. Too bad he is no longer around.
Florida enters the conversation. For a party that was founded on small government, our Republicans passed 664 laws. Laws that include voter suppression, book banning, eliminating mask mandates, anti LGBQT rights, gun laws, the right to drive over protesters in the street without consequences, the list goes on and on. I can’t even remember the most of the stupid laws our Florida “government” has passed and proposed. Just look at our new Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s next surgeon general. Watch his answers on video of him answering questions about his views before he was confirmed by the Republican idiots that run this state
Perhaps you would like to use one of these upgrades the next time that you fly somewhere to attend a Donald Trump rally. Other than Trump and white supremacists, is there anyone in America that you don’t hate?
Thanks for self identifying to us all here your mental condition. Brave of you to do this in public.
Back to the original post, I’m sure you don’t mind breaking any laws supporting that fool who has been playing you for 6+ years.
“Rich white men”
You know you’re a racist when you can’t leave race out of a conversation.
Newsflash. The guy in the story is a “rich white man”
Although I agree that this is obviously immensely stupid, and you should never do this if you value your status with United, I think you come across here as a mean spirited, virtue signaler.
Quite frankly, I think it is egregious of you to “out” him publicly. You could easily have written this story using names that are blacked out and still made your point.
I thought the same thing, thanks. Even though the guy is basically already pulling down his pants at Times Square, doing such a piece on him that we know airline professionals read seems kind of sad. On various forums I read that pick apart all kinds of amusing personal ads, the person’s details are blurred out just to not sully oneself with possibly being the karmic source of their demise.
I disagree. He is showing an example of wrongdoing. People that don’t go by the rules lead to the failure of these perks.
You haven’t done anything wrong, Matthew
In 2012 I traded some of my AA eVIPs and AA miles for UR or Hyatt points, these trades involved my calling AA to upgrade or ticket existing reservations (for strangers). I stopped when I learned (how much) it was against program rules. To this day I still occasionally think about AAdvantage coming after me, I hope there’s a statute of limitations for that sort of thing and/or AAdvantage has other things to worry about these days.
I don’t think you should name him in the article.
I bought upgrades for my family from a global services member years ago. Can’t see personally why it’s that big a deal. It’s a chattel like anything else. She had a ton of them and I had none. $300 to upgrade from hnl to ord was pretty sweet.
If I gifted you one would it be fine? Or donated one to someone in need? Why does receiving money for it make it so bad?
Or are you not worried morally about it but more so worried about the repercussions?
What if I said to a mate that I have 2m aa miles from a recent promotion. I’ll shout you a ticket to auston but I want $100?
I wrote this article not to get to Chef John in trouble but to protect those he may have sold upgrades to.
What a tool you are for snitching on someone else. This has nothing to do with you. You must have gotten beaten up daily in school for being a tattle tale.
While I personally believe I should have the ability and right to do what I want with rewards I have personally earned, there’s not even a remote possibility that I would ever risk losing any part of my hard earned United Million Miler, 1K, Gold For Life status! Not a chance!!!
In the event United hadn’t noticed, you’ve now certainly brought attention to the fact since they read your blog. That was wrong. You’re not in the employ of United. It’s not your job to police the web for them.
I think it’s wrong that I cannot sell the points/‘vouchers’ I earned, especially if they expire.
It’s like UL giving me a gift, but adding in the fine print (that nobody reads): Don’t you dare to sell your gift or we will take away all prior gifts.
In other industries, this was regulated away (like Groupons where the cash value must remain)
Too often in America we reward stupidity. Stupid enough NOT to wear seat belt, get into a car crash with significant injuries (that would not have occurred if wearing a seat belt), you get to sue (successfully) the other driver. Stick your hand into a jammed lawn mower and lose all your fingers, you get to sue (successfully) the manufacturer. Get a cup of hot coffee at a MickyD’s drive-thru while driving (and probably at the same time doing 3 other things you shouldn’t have been doing while driving), spill the coffee all over yourself and burn yourself, you get to sue (successfully).
Sorry gang, if this chef is stupid enough to do this so openly, he deserves to be ratted out. This chef ruins things for all us “law abiding” folks. It’s also like reporting a crime, it’s our civic duty. Thank you Matthew.
Isn’t “Doxing” also a crime. You might like to consider that whilst thinking about how long you keep this article up!
You come across as nothing more but a virtue signalling Karen. Write the article, fine. Post information that makes the person identifiable to all and sundry – both petulant and a crime in of itself.
No one likes a rat. It would be one thing to do a generic piece on why this is a bad idea to do, but another completely to out this person. I am assuming you wrote it right after you emailed someone at United to prove what a loyal little lap dog you are. I have no doubt this is just you showing united what a good little company boy you are. I truly hope you cross a line some day so that someone can perform a little karma payback on you.
You’re wrong, Jack. This is to protect unsuspecting customers. Not curry favor with United. What prompted this story was also a thread on Flyertalk detailing account closures of those who engaged in selling miles. I want to protect readers and discourage others 1Ks from forfeiting their hard-earned status.
If United didn’t make it impossible to use Plus Points people wouldn’t have a need to sell them.
I myself have 700 Plus points and 1K status. And most times the Plus points upgrade does not go thru. And these points also have a expiration date.
So IMHO if i earned the points I should be able to sell them if I can’t use them.
I can’t believe you not only named this person but posted their professional website as well. Did this person hurt you in some way and you’re looking for revenge? You specifically state that people having been doing this for years, yet you choose to single out this one specific individual. You should remove this post. You are going to lose the respect of your readers.
Great article, thanks! I’ve always wondered about this. For those criticising his article, it is an independent article showing a real world scenario. I don’t see the problem here. He is not found directly to the airline.
What an idiot. He deletes his website but doesn’t not realize you can go to archive.org and still view it.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention! I have shut down my ebay listings and refunded people. I had no idea that this was against United’s policy. During the pandemic, not traveling as much, I ran across listings on ebay, and thought it was ok, since there are over 50 listings in the United area alone (not to mention the many in other airlines). I have been a 1k for over ten years, and I have upgraded buddies over that time, but until seeing the ebay listings never did this in the past. For Matthew Klint to point me out in the way that he did is a gut punch that I had no idea was coming. Cheese Chef John
Chef, you didn’t deserve this. I understand your actions taken after learning about this ridiculous post, but you should not have been identified in the first place. Author reminds me of my little sister growing up, gleefully jumping on any opportunity to expose my other sisters and me for any perceived infractions to my parents, who really didn’t care, so long as they weren’t forced to notice. Now evolved into a normal adult, she says she was simply unhappy and tattling made her feel important when she wasn’t. Author is still stuck.
I congratulate you for doing the right thing, Chef John. All the best.
I have to laugh at people accusing the author of being a virtue signaler, mean spirited and calling him names such ‘rat,’ ‘snitch,’ and ’tool,’
Yeah, reminds me of the good old days of middle school name callers and the rules don’t apply to me kids.
What the author did was equivalent to ‘doxing’ which is a crime in many jurisdictions. You’re not allowed to post personally identifiable information of private citizens so it’s a bit more than ‘name calling’ in this case.
The seller chose to place his personal info on the public listing. A very different situation.
You called the guy out for doing something stupid that was against the terms and turns out he didn’t even know about it, I’m not saying you should have reached out to him first, but now that he deleted his listing and corrected his wrongdoing there’s no need to continue shaming him in public, you should definitely block out his name.
FYI if you really cared about the buyers so much it would make a difference who the seller was, not sure what the purpose of putting his name out there was, there’s plenty of these seller’s and no matter who is selling them nobody should be buying them
Correction, no reason to post his name, if you really care about the buyer (and that’s why you claim to have written this post) the name of the seller won’t matter
First, I already removed his name before your comment.
But, while I commend Chef John for taking down the listing, it strikes me as a stretch to voice ignorance that it was wrong when the listing was framed as selling advice rather than the upgrade itself. Wouldn’t you agree?
First off – thanks to all of you that are coming to my defense. My mistake was finding others on ebay, by chance, and simply doing a copy and paste of their info into my post thinking I was doing nothing wrong. While I did change some of the words, and thought the advice part was odd – I thought that was what ebay wanted it to be, because EVERY other post had it as well. Having sold one other item on ebay during the past months – I am clearly a newbie to the site. The pandemic took away most all of my work for the last two years and I would not have even been on there if I was still busy traveling. As stated before; I am glad to have someone tell me that this was wrong, but Matthew, you could have gotten ahold of me for an interview first – instead you had to make me a spectacle. Have you contacted all the others on ebay about their posts?
Hi John, your listing came up in my feed because it appears you paid for a sponsored listing.
Well, Matthew, I was just informed United has shut down my account. Yes I was and idiot as you say, but an unknowing idiot. I ask you this – why would anyone that is a million miler, 1K , and been loyal to only flying United for over 25 years knowingly jeopardize all that by putting his WEBSITE in the ad if he knew it was against policy? You said I had a sponsored listing, but I literally have no idea what that means. I had over 1,000,000 miles in my account that are now gone. My status is gone. Seems a harsh punishment for one idiotic error in judgment. I will try to appeal with them, but meanwhile I am completely devastated. If you have a contact at United who would be willing to hear me out, I hope you will tell them to contact me.
Hi John, I’ll send you a note.
Matthew – If you did send a note to me, I did not get anything yet. I also have not heard back from United yet after the email I sent back to them (there was no phone number). I’m amazed that I do not even give my side of the story after being a great customer for more than 25 years. This is like getting a DUI and getting put in jail for life without a jury. I made a mistake that I did not know I was making. I have a flight on Thursday and do not even know if that is still happening?
there is exactly zero chance that somebody would sell upgrades on ebay not knowing it was wrong. Anyone who has been a 1k for 10 years would know this. And yes, doing the whole trick that you’re just selling the “advice” and giving the points for free proves that he knew it was wrong.
I’ve traded upgrades before, which is a gray area — got 1 global upgrade from a friend once in return for owing them a favor (which later turned out to be some marriott points they needed). And of course I’ve upgraded friends before when I knew I couldn’t use expiring upgrades. Everyone does that eventually if they’re 1k long enough. But to outright sell upgrades, it’s pretty obvious that’s not allowed.
It would have been better to leave his name out of it in this article and write a generic article warning potential customers. Nevertheless, it is probably for the best, since the seller saw it and took the listing down. If he is lucky, he’ll keep is 1k status and United account this way — otherwise he would likely eventually have been caught and been banned by Mileageplus, Ben Schlappig-style.
Reading Chef J’s responses, honestly I could see doing the same thing. I have not read all the fine print with MileagePlus, and I did not know these types of upgrades could not be sold. They are transferable, so it’s not a stretch to think that selling them might be okay, especially after seeing all the other listings widely available. The whole point of writing this blog post was to inform people of this because they DON’T KNOW. You really hung this guy out to dry and now he lost his entire account, all his status, all his miles, which took a long time to earn. He’s not a big fish with these sales so he totally got screwed. I can’t believe you didn’t just shoot him a quick message asking about this and telling him it was against policy. It sounds like he would have taken his listings down right away. Have you never made a mistake that looks ridiculous in hindsight? And MileagePlus didn’t even give him a chance to make his case after all those years of flying? There are so many things wrong with this I don’t even know where to start.
If this is indeed an honest mistake, I will ask United on his behalf to reinstate his account. But I do fear that a proliferation of listings like this may spell the end of making upgrades transferable, which would be a huge loss to 1K and GS members who play by the rules. That’s why this issue is so important to me (not to mention the victims who might show up to the airport and find their trip cancelled)—and remember, this sponsored listing popped up for me on eBay, I did not even search for it.
Mathew – While I have had an eBay account for some time, buying random things, this last November was the first time that I ever tried to sell anything. Anyone can click on the feedback I’ve received on eBay. You’ll see almost all of it is from purchases, not sold items. I was still confused about your comment about the sponsored listing, so I just read about that. I see that a person needs to pay extra for that. I definitely did not. I don’t know why it appeared that way. I did not even know that existed. My eBay account transactions can prove this. Also, in the screenshot you posted, it shows that I sold 10 of these and that is not correct either. While I now realize it was wrong and I admit to selling two upgrades, all the others were refunded or canceled, and I can prove all that as well. Part of the reason that there is 10 sold is that some guy was confused on his end and hit the button 5 times. Again, I have documentation. I know you do not believe me, but it sincerely was an ignorant mistake. I appreciate you possibly going to bat for me. There has been no response from United and I feel I deserve to get a chance to show this information. Of course I expect to pay a fine or perform some other restitution, but I feel I do not deserve the death sentence I received. I put my other email in this response just in case, since I haven’t yet received the note mentioned in your previous comment.
Chef J made all valid points. You said if it was an honest mistake you would talk to United on his behalf, so did you? If he’s lying then so be it, but if he’s not he should at least get a chance to present his case. Chef J, keep us posted on what happens.
This has been going on for decades. I remember buying “free” tickets for $300 in the 1980s and being provided with a fake ID by the seller.
You sound like a huge party pooper.
sore loser. you’re upset because people are able to sell/buy upgrades? you’re upset because you’re having to earn miles the hard way and smart people are getting them the easy way? Unless you’re an attorney working for United, mind your business and stop trying to police the world.