Darn! Even experienced miles and points travelers can make a rookie mistake. I had 8,923 United miles in my account and I let them expire. Ouch.
The good news is that United.com now offers a way to reinstate your miles. The bad news is it may not help.
You can pay $50 for up to 5,000 miles and $100 for up to 20,000 miles OR pay $100 and then buy a flight. That might make sense if you had let a lot of miles expire.
United gives you up to 18 months after the miles expire to reinstate them.
Nice offer, but Delta miles never expire.
I will probably let these miles go instead of paying to get them back. But now I will be updating my spreadsheets with a new column. By the way, the easiest way to reset your expiration date without flying is to use the shopping portal. Just one purchase will reset the expiration date.