United Airlines giving even more life to extended PlusPoints

Hands down, the most valuable benefit of United's top-tier Premier 1K status is its PlusPoints perk. It gives customers the opportunity to book economy or Premium Plus and confirm an upgrade to a higher cabin several times each year.

PlusPoints expire at the end of January after one full year of validity — points earned based on travel in 2018 were due to expire on Jan. 31, 2020. As it's done in the past, however, the carrier extended the expiration of up to 80 PlusPoints upon request, making them valid through April 30, 2020.

As part of its coronavirus response, United confirmed that the carrier would automatically extend PlusPoints due to expire on Jan. 31, 2021, by six months, with a new expiration date of July 31, 2021.

Those 80 PlusPoints United already extended were still due to expire on April 30, but, as confirmed by multiple telephone agents, the carrier will be extending those by six months as well. The expiration date will be updated to Oct. 31, 2020, hopefully giving elites grounded by coronavirus an opportunity to redeem them for upgrades later this year.

As of now, the expiration date is expected to be updated automatically, but if April 29 rolls around and your PlusPoints are still scheduled to expire on April 30, I'd give the MileagePlus Service Center a call at 800-421-4655 just to ensure your points aren't overlooked.

For more on United PlusPoints, see:

• How to upgrade flights with United PlusPoints
• United Airlines’ PlusPoints conversion is now complete
• United changes upgrades for the better