United Airlines is offering a bonus when you pay now for future travel, but is it worth it? This is the third time that United is offering a promotion on funding your TravelBank since the start of the pandemic.
In this post:
United Airlines’ 10% bonus TravelBank promo
United Airlines is offering up to a 10% bonus when you add funds to your TravelBank account. For those of you not familiar with TravelBank, this is a way to keep a cash balance attached to your MileagePlus account, which you can redeem towards travel.
The bonus you get depends on how much you fund your account:
- If you add $50 or $100 to your TravelBank, you’ll get a 5% bonus deposit
- If you add $250, $500, $750, or $1,000, to your TravelBank, you’ll get a 10% bonus deposit
There are some restrictions to be aware of with this promotion, though:
- This promotion is valid through 11:59PM CT on Wednesday, December 9, 2020
- The TravelBank balance purchased is valid for five years from the date it’s deposited in your account
- The TravelBank bonus (5-10%) expires 120 days after it’s deposited in your account
- Purchases are non-refundable, and are limited to $1,000 per promotion per MileagePlus account
- TravelBank funds can only be spent for United Airlines flights, and not for flights that include travel on Star Alliance partner airlines
United is offering a bonus when you add TravelBank funds
Is this promotion worth it?
This is the third promotion we’ve seen in recent months for adding a balance to your United TravelBank account. The first promotion offered bonus funds, the second promotion offered bonus MileagePlus miles, and now this is offering bonus funds again.
So, is this promotion worth it? The way I view it, if you have plans to book a United ticket in the next 120 days (so you can use the 5-10% bonus credit before it expires), then it could be a great deal.
I’d say it’s definitely worth going for the 10% bonus over the 5% bonus. At the same time, I wouldn’t necessarily be fronting a whole lot of cash here if I didn’t have plans to travel on United in the coming months, since a 10% return isn’t that great if you’re essentially loaning money to United for years.
This promotion could be well worth it if you fly United often
Bottom line
United is offering up to a 10% bonus on funding your TravelBank. In other words, if you add $1,000 to your TravelBank, you could get a $100 bonus to use within 120 days. I’d say this could be worth it if you think you’ll be booking a paid flight on United in the coming months.
Does anyone plan on taking advantage of this TravelBank promo?
How do you add funds to your travel bank account? Everything on United says that you can no longer add funds?
Can you use this for award ticket fees?
Dhiraj & Lucky, I was just able to successfully convert my Amex account (1 Amex Business Platinum with no usage of the airline credit yet) and my dad's accounts (1 Amex Platinum w partial usage & 1 Amex gold w/ no fee credit usage) to have a fee credit w/ United!
Dhiraj I was thinking the same thing! I also have heard reports of cases where Amex has been willing to change airlines much later than typical, including a report of September. I'm going to see about shifting now.
this isnt that interesting but if Dhiraj is right (which Flyertalk seems to confirm) than I am very interested in using amex credits that are about to expire.
I have Delta and American selected on my two Amex cards so not sure if the change would kick in before the promotion ends but even without the promotion I'd rather have $300 in United credit than waste my travel fee credits.
Will it trigger the airline credit on the BOA premium rewards credit card ?
Not worth it. United makes it hard to use TravelBank and, you can only use it on UA metal, no codeshares. From United.com, "TravelBank Cash is valid for air travel purchases on United and United Express® flights and as otherwise permitted by United. After a TravelBank Award is issued, a service charge may be imposed for each change or cancellation requested by the Member."
Ben - Just as a reminder, TravelBank funding triggers AMEX Airline Fee Credit, so if you have unused credits from any AMEX cards (and chose United as your airline at the beginning of the year), then now would be a good time to use those funds. I used my AMEX Gold card last week to fund TravelBank and received my credit in 2 days after transaction posted.
Lucky do you know if the travel bank balance and/or bonuses can be used for someone else?