Strategically buying miles & points can represent a great deal, especially for luxury travel. United Airlines MileagePlus has just launched its latest sale on purchased miles. As usual, different members may be targeted for different offers.
While I’ll cover the details of this offer, let me state that I almost certainly wouldn’t recommend taking advantage of this, in light of the recent United MileagePlus devaluation. You’re much better off buying rewards with another program, like Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased United MileagePlus miles
Through 11:59PM CT on Sunday, September 17, 2023, United MileagePlus is offering a sale on purchased miles. Different members may be eligible for different offers — some members may be targeted for bonus offers, while other members may be targeted for discount offers. You’ll want to log into your account and see what you’re eligible for.
The accounts I manage all show a bonus of up to 100%, which is in line with the best offers we see from the program.
How much does it cost to purchase United MileagePlus miles?
United MileagePlus ordinarily charges 3.5 cents per purchased mile, plus a 7.5% federal excise tax. That’s before any discounts or bonuses. If you’re eligible for a 100% bonus and maxed out this promotion, you’d receive a total of 225,000 miles at a cost of $4,232.81, which is a rate of 1.88 cents per MileagePlus mile.
How many United MileagePlus miles can you purchase?
United MileagePlus ordinarily limits members to purchasing 175,000 MileagePlus miles per account per calendar year. Note that this limit applies after factoring in any bonuses, so even when United offers a bonus on purchased miles, you can still only purchase a maximum of 175,000 miles.
However, during this promotion the cap on how many miles you can purchase has been increased to 225,000.
If you do buy United miles, it can take up to 48 hours for them to post to your account.
Which credit card should you buy United MileagePlus miles with?
United MileagePlus mileage purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending.
Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach a minimum spending requirement, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending, like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review), Citi® Double Cash Card (review), or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees).
- Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
- $0
- Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
- Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
- Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
- $0
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
Is buying United MileagePlus miles worth it?
United MileagePlus doesn’t publish an award chart, neither for travel on United, nor for travel on partner airlines. Therefore there’s some variability in terms of award costs. On top of that, we’ve seen several MileagePlus devaluations over the years, including one recently. With the latest devaluation, MileagePlus really isn’t very competitive with other programs anymore, in my opinion.
My general hesitation with buying MileagePlus miles is that I think there are other Star Alliance programs with better redemption rates and/or program policies, including Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles. Both programs often sell miles at a lower cost, and Air Canada Aeroplan also has a lucrative stopover policy.
On what airlines can you redeem United MileagePlus miles?
United Airlines belongs to the Star Alliance, so you can redeem MileagePlus miles on all Star Alliance airlines.
On top of that, you can redeem miles on some of United’s other partner airlines, including Aer Lingus, Azul, Eurowings Discover, Vistara, and more.
How much are United MileagePlus miles worth?
Everyone will value mileage currencies differently, but personally I value United MileagePlus miles at ~1.1 cents each. I tend to value points pretty conservatively, and there are many ways to get more value from MileagePlus miles than that.
Do United MileagePlus miles expire?
United MileagePlus miles don’t expire. There’s no activity required to keep your account mileage balance alive, but rather you can keep your miles no matter what.
What other ways can you earn United MileagePlus miles?
If you’re looking to earn United miles, MileagePlus is a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, so you can convert Ultimate Rewards points into United miles at a 1:1 ratio.
See this post for the best credit cards for earning United miles.
Bottom line
United MileagePlus is offering a promotion on purchased miles, and different members may be targeted for different offers. The best offer is for up to a 100% bonus, which is an opportunity to buy miles for 1.88 cents each.
This could be a chance to acquire MileagePlus miles at a reasonable cost. However, in general I’d personally prefer to buy miles with Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles, especially in light of the recent devaluations.
Do you plan on buying United miles with this offer?
Didn't the last 100% bonus sale just end a few weeks ago? Seems.. odd.
Value aside, United generally has the best website for navigating around quickly to search for availability of partner airline flights.
This is in stark contrast to Aeroplan these days where it takes forever to search even one line of 7 days flights. They seem also to have been throttled back on many good partner flights; e.g. Etihad, while showing an abundance of second-rate, or third -rate airlines like AirIndia, Vistara et al.
Speaking of Aeroplan, are there any whispers when their next points discount will occur?
Historically, they've always released the start of bonus discounts no more than 2 months apart. Given that the last one began 6/07. The absolute latest would be 6/09. Any date beyond this is unknown territory since it no longer follows this trend. Afaik, the bonus isn't very enticing if the top partner airlines aren't showing availability. Of course, you can always hold the points until availability does come back but that's a risk most would...
Historically, they've always released the start of bonus discounts no more than 2 months apart. Given that the last one began 6/07. The absolute latest would be 6/09. Any date beyond this is unknown territory since it no longer follows this trend. Afaik, the bonus isn't very enticing if the top partner airlines aren't showing availability. Of course, you can always hold the points until availability does come back but that's a risk most would not dare to take in fear of devaluation etc.
For $3400 spend I will get 200,000 United miles and 70,000 air france miles. Between cap 1 100,000 pts and ult rewards 100,000 pts I am ready for firstclass to europe and back.Thank you for your smart advice
Contrary to what most bloggers say, I've found MileagePlus to be a better option than most other programs, including Aeroplan. Despite very very rarely having outsized redemption opportunities where you can get 5+ cents per point, as you sometime do with programs like Aeroplan. The reasons are: 1) lots of availability of "reasonable" business class redemptions, where you get around 2 cents per point and minimal connections - for example, I need SFO-LIS on a...
Contrary to what most bloggers say, I've found MileagePlus to be a better option than most other programs, including Aeroplan. Despite very very rarely having outsized redemption opportunities where you can get 5+ cents per point, as you sometime do with programs like Aeroplan. The reasons are: 1) lots of availability of "reasonable" business class redemptions, where you get around 2 cents per point and minimal connections - for example, I need SFO-LIS on a specific date in February, and cash price is $4,900 vs 245k point, and 2) you get PQP's - around 2,400 for the above flight. Of course, in this particular case, it'll be a much better proposition to take TAP for $3,500 cash instead of purchasing points with United, and get a direct flight to boot. But for people with fixed schedules that don't align with the whims of availability, MileagePlus may actually be a better suited program.
The redemption Miles for international flight are crazy stupid. However so is Aeroplan. The only somewhere reasonable ones are Alaska (if you find it) and American for international flights.
you're kidding this damn company is still selling miles
You couldn't pay me to buy United Miles. Dynamic awards have killed all value in this program.