In August 2021, United Airlines announced the concept of Money + Miles awards, giving members a new way to redeem MileagePlus miles. This redemption option has now been rolled out on a widespread basis, so I wanted to take a look at the value proposition.
Continue reading: United Airlines “Money + Miles” Awards: Worth It?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
“The ticket cost $594.40, including a base fare of $593.52, and taxes & fees of $54.87”
Ben, It looks like you have a typo here.
@ Jimmy’s Travel Report -- Fixed, thanks for the heads up! Got a couple of numbers backwards.
This really is a dog bites man issue.
Can you name another instance where it is a good deal? I think Lifemiles probably comes close.
If it’s anything like Delta’s program right now a typical fare will cost 75% off the cash price + 75% of the award cost ☠️
Seems to me to be aimed at people who don't fly frequently and/or don't pay attention to valuations the way your readers do and/or have some United miles but not a lot. A way to get folks to burn low mileage balances. I know people who might only have a few thousand miles, not enough for even a one-way domestic economy flight, who'd be happy to reduce their flight cost somewhat.
You, I, and the majority of your readers would never use this (outside of MAYBE to offset a cheap sale flight).
Not sure I know of any programs where cash +miles/points is a good value. Usually this appeals to folks who are just trying to save money overall as a one off on their trip and not necessarily the person who saves for a proper award fare. The airlines and hotels offer this as there is a decent market for this out there.
Truly another awful change.
Hmmm...This is not a "CHANGE". It is an option that affects no one except those that choose to use the option, which won't be savvy mile/point players, but occasional points collectors who would use the option to save real cash...and it makes perfect sense to do that.
The comment about the value increasing as more miles are redeemed indicates to me that this is a similar to Delta's Miles + Cash redemption option, where the pricing keys off the mileage price and the cash component is essentially buying the miles needed to make up for the difference between the award price and the number of miles you're using. Because the miles are being purchased for far more than they're customarily worth (I think I've seen that DL effectively sells the miles for 2.5 or 3 cents per mile), the less cash you use, the better the value gets. The added wrinkle here is that United lets you select the number of miles to redeem.
Delta Miles + Cash is treated as an award ticket, though at this point award tickets are basically equivalent to cash tickets on Delta (same upgradability and earn elite credit).
In the flight I'm looking for right now, it's exchanging 100 miles per dollar (1 cent/mile). Purchasing the tickets completely with miles is being offered at .915 cents/mile ($390 or 42.6k miles), so it seems on par with typical reward travel, at least in the flights I'm seeing.
Money + miles is a SCAM. One does not learn if this payment option is available until the payment page comes up.
After an hour on the phone with United did I learn this.
Spent over an hour on a text with an agent only to find it is a "limited time offer" and only pops up for certain (meaning never one I'm searching for) flights. What a scam. I hate that I was loyal to United and cannot use the miles as I see fit.
what would a better use of miles be? Miles held over time loses value, I read somewhere. The good thing with United is that you can earn pqps redeeming miles, even miles and cash. With American you don't earn loyalty points redeeming any miles. I gained EO status just by charging on the credit card and booking hotels through Aadvantage hotels where you can bump up loyalty points exponentially