United makes the rules, but doesn't tell us

There is an old story:
The women make up the rules
The men must obey the rules
The women will not tell the man the rules.
This is very much what United did to me.

I accidentally let my 38,359 United miles expire at the end of last year. Upon calling their Mileage Plus customer service (in India, of course), I was told that I could pay $199 and take a United flight within 90 days and the miles would be reactivated.

I gave him my credit card info, charged the $199, went to the United website and booked a roundtrip flight to Pittsburgh, United flight 2158 returning on United 2641. Only at the airport did I find out that I had to check in at US Airways.

I waited for the miles to reappear and finally called customer service (in Manilla). They told me that the flight didn’t qualify because the carrier was actually US Airways. The original agent did not tell me of the restrictions when I signed up for the deal and there are no rules about the offer on the website.

Now I find I need to obey the rules that United didn’t tell me about and aren’t published? That is just not fair. The goal of a LOYALTY program is to create loyalty, not disenfranchise customers with unfair policies.

I booked a United flight with a United flight number on United.com, so it is a United flight. It is almost impossible to find ‘mileage’ flights that are exclusively United, especially from Philadelphia. I flew my round trip to Pittsburg, and now have fly another round trip to Sacramento (on United only).

I have been such a loyal United customer for decades I stuck by United during their troubles (including losing money on UA stock), do you think they will do right by me now?