United Just Announced a New Head of MileagePlus

United announced Luc Bondar as the new Vice President, Loyalty. He’ll take over from Praveen Sharma who will be Vice President, Digital Products and Analytics. Praveen has been doing double duty for some months.

He’ll officially start November 1, the day of the program’s next devaluation.

Bondar is an experienced loyalty marketing executive. He has been Senior Vice President for U.S. business at Aimia and a Senior Vice President with Grupe Aeroplan as well as Vice President of Loyalty for Carlson. (Most recently he was SVP of Sales for Index Systems.)

Ultimately the person in this role may be less important than that they report up to Andrew Nocella, whom Scott Kirby brought over from American. Nocella oversaw the devaluation of AAdvantage.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I already cut up my Chase Mileage Plus Visa and stopped flying United just before they started dragging passengers bloody off a flight helping to re- accommodate them
    Now they will cut your privates off in the name of devastation I mean devaluation
    same pain just no blood
    Surprise United I’ve got a cash back credit card and will never use your program or your partners again so problem solved!

  2. Well, it could be worse. They could start using awards priced like Alaska. One premium award seat per plane, if you want a second, they charge 240% more miles than they advertise. They may Delta look generous.

  3. Now it makes sense why there has been no premium Saver award space to Europe available on any routes starting 330 days out. What a bunch of wretched thieves! My question is the same as that asked by another, is any recourse in re-depositing miles from United back to Chase?

  4. @A Disconcerted Flyer – The answer is a resounding…..no….once miles are transferred there is no way to get them back.

  5. After miserable experience trying to score a Saver ticket, I’ve finally run my balance down to close to zero and stopped using my worthless Chase Explorer card. I’m done with United and their ironically named “loyalty” program. Problem solved.

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