Here’s a cool opportunity to earn 1,150+ United MileagePlus miles for booking a $300+ ticket on virtually any airline.
I’ve often in the past written about online shopping portals, which let you earn bonus points for online purchases you’d make anyway.
One thing that makes United MileagePlus Shopping unique is that they partner with Expedia (the only other US airline to have an online travel agency in their shopping portal is Spirit, and you don’t want Spirit miles), meaning you can earn bonus miles for booking airline tickets.
There are two parts to this promotion:
Earn 0.5 United miles per dollar with Expedia
You can earn 0.5 MileagePlus miles per dollar spent with Expedia just by going through United MileagePlus Shopping.
Here are the terms associated with that:
Please note these terms & conditions: Eligible when travel is completed and reservation has been fulfilled. Not eligible on any rental car transaction exceeding a purchase price of $5,000 USD. Itinerary changes may void eligibility. Not eligible on Port Charges for Cruises or on Travel Insurance. Not eligible on event tickets. Not eligible on 3PP vacation packages or cruises sold through Expedia.ca. Not eligible on purchase of Expedia.ca pre-packaged vacations. Not eligible on Groupon Getaways purchases. Not eligible on taxes and fees. Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site.
So as you can see, even flights are eligible for earning bonus miles, which is pretty awesome. But it gets better than earning 0.5 United miles per dollar spent.
Earn 1,000 bonus United miles for a $300+ purchase
Through May 19, 2019, MileagePlus Shopping is offering 500 bonus miles after spending $150, or 1,000 bonus miles after spending $300.
What this means is that buying a $300 airline ticket through Expedia would earn you 1,150 bonus United miles (1,000 bonus miles through this promotion, plus 150 miles at the rate of 0.5 cents per dollar on $300).
Reader Brian (who made me aware of this promotion — thanks!) notes that taxes and fees on airline tickets don’t qualify towards this, so only the base fare (and carrier imposed surcharges, if there are any) would count towards this minimum.
Bottom line
If you’re booking an airline ticket in the coming days, it could pay to go through the MileagePlus Shopping portal for Expedia to earn 0.5 United miles per dollar spent, plus 1,000 bonus miles if you spend $300 pre-tax.
Just a word of warning about using the UA portal. Be sure to compare prices going through the portal and going directly to whichever site you're buying from. I have seen higher prices on occasion when going through the portal compared with going directly to the site. For example, I noticed that the lodging tax was double on a VRBO rental when going through the portal. Made it absolutely not worth the extra miles to...
Just a word of warning about using the UA portal. Be sure to compare prices going through the portal and going directly to whichever site you're buying from. I have seen higher prices on occasion when going through the portal compared with going directly to the site. For example, I noticed that the lodging tax was double on a VRBO rental when going through the portal. Made it absolutely not worth the extra miles to pay an extra $50 to $100, and the fact that the difference in price was hidden in something like lodging tax seemed very sneaky to me.
You can get 2x with when using priceline through the UA portal.
Despite the fact UA is the worst American legacy carrier (and That is saying something) this is an interesting and worthwhile endeavor.
My thought process is use the miles to go on ANA, Austrian or Singapore Airlines flights where customers are not treated as an irritant to be ignored.
Despite the fact UA is the worst American legacy carrier (and Thanh is saying something) this is an interesting and worthwhile endeavor.
My thought process is use the miles to go on ANA, Austrian or Singapore Airlines flights where customers are not treated as an irritant to be ignored.
I was recently trying to exchange United miles for flights but after taxes and fees, the large cache of miles it would take to secure a decent flight wasn't proving worth it. I think UA miles are more hassle than they're worth. I've switched to ANA for Star Alliance points since I fly to Japan occasionally and love that airline. And domestically I'm avoiding UA altogether now.
Also doesn't booking through Expedia prevent you...
I was recently trying to exchange United miles for flights but after taxes and fees, the large cache of miles it would take to secure a decent flight wasn't proving worth it. I think UA miles are more hassle than they're worth. I've switched to ANA for Star Alliance points since I fly to Japan occasionally and love that airline. And domestically I'm avoiding UA altogether now.
Also doesn't booking through Expedia prevent you from claiming those actual flight miles with the airline you fly? Overall nothing really appeals about this..
How does this compare with using the Chase UA Explorer card where you and 1 companion can check a bag for free each way and get priority boarding?
AA's portal has 5 miles/$ with Apple today, but I cannot seem to get the "confirmed to earn miles" window to pop-up when I click the link.
Note, however, that if you book this flight directly with the airline, you could get 5X points on the AmEx platinum for 1500 points. The second best option is booking this with Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3x points through Expedia. Therefore, you are calculating whether 1500 AmEx points are worth more to you than 1150 United points + 900 Chase points.
Does anyone else think that it is strange that there is a United Mileage Plus promotion with Expedia while United is feuding with Expedia and making it known that there is a possibility that one may no longer be able to use Expedia to purchase United flights?
Whoopee. !500 nearly worthless United miles to add to my existing horde of UA miles I'm trying to burn.
Sorry not interested
Is this valid if one books 2 pax on same reservation to reach the $300 before tax?
This also means that if you run into an issue with your ticket you will be forced to deal with Expedia.... Not sure if its worth the the 1000-1300 United miles.
My offer shows that you'd also earn one mile per $1 spend plus the bonus which brings it to 1300 UA miles for $300 spend.
I guess it may be better than nothing but I doubt many people are going to worry about 1,000 points ($10-20) unless it is something they are getting multiple times.
Interesting!