United MileagePlus has just launched a one day sale on purchased miles, which is also as good as their offers get.
Through 11:59PM CT today (Monday, September 9, 2019), United is offering a tiered bonus on purchased miles, of up to 100%, as follows:
- Buy 5,000-19,000 miles, get a 25% bonus
- Buy 20,000-49,000 miles, get a 50% bonus
- Buy 50,000-87,500 miles, get a 100% bonus
If you max out this bonus you can purchase a total of 175,000 miles for $3,292.19, which is a cost of 1.88 cents per MileagePlus mile.
United offers bonuses on purchased miles with some frequency, and when they do, the bonuses typically range between 50% and 100%. So a 100% bonus is as good as it gets.
United lets you buy up to 175,000 MileagePlus miles per year including any bonuses.
With this promotion, it can take up to 48 hours for purchased miles to post to your account. Personally, I value MileagePlus miles at ~1.4 cents each (maybe a little less with the recent changes), though there are ways to get more value out of them than that.
Keep in mind that a while back United introduced dynamic award pricing for travel as of November 15, and this is bad news for members. It means that many awards on United flights will be more expensive. So the value proposition of buying United miles has gotten worse, in my opinion.
With these changes, United has also eliminated award charts for partner airlines, though they have said that they’re not increasing award costs on partners for now. The main reason I’d consider buying United miles to begin with is for partner awards, and those prices haven’t gone up yet.
So with an immediate use in mind, it could make sense to buy United miles for redemptions on partners.
United mileage purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spend.
Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach minimum spend, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spend, like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® or Citi® Double Cash Card.
See this post for more on which credit cards are best for buying points.
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.
Do you plan on buying United miles with this offer?
“United mileage purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spend.”
They sort of do if you use a non-United card. I buy United miles with my Hawaiian Airlines Barclay Card and they do count as a purchase, getting me as many miles on Hawaiian as I buy on United, one mile per dollar spent. So, one can get the discounted miles on United and earn miles for another carrier using their card and essentially double dip.
Works for me!
Hello, does anyone know if we can use UA miles for SQ flights now? there was an issue with SQ redemption before. thanks!
With the reward redemption for EVA Royal Laurel or ANA First this is easy for me. 90,000 miles for one way EVA Royal Laurel trans pacific and i think 125,000 for ANA First from IAD>NRT. so by my math it’s Royal Laurel to ANA First from $1700-2300.
No bonus showing up during my purchase… I’ve tried 2 different accounts… One EU based, another USA based.
Terrible deal, not seeing much of any good inventory for mileage resumptions on UA!!
@lucky
I get confused by the choice of showing LX First with this campaign?
Can we book it with the united miles 😉 ?
Thought that was Miles and More Senator restricted?
@ Eric — That’s Swiss Business 🙂
Anyone who buys miles at this point just feeds right into the United/AA/Delta SCAM of dynamic pricing. They actually think anyone is idiotic enough these days to buy miles in hopes of using original program mileage for Business or First?
People need to stop this insanity to send them a message that 300K miles for a r/t to GRU (as an example) is highway robbery (600K on Delta). Screw it, fly Copa cheap as an example and just pay the fare.
I honestly think the bloggers should stop promoting these buy promotions…even with caveats. In the case of AA these mileage buy scams and Credit Cards are the only way they make money now…hit them where it hurts and make them learn to actually appreciate those who fly and earn.
NOT TRUE !!!! I am on the phone w/MileagePlus at this very minute and they know nothing about it !
No offer on miles for me either. Just standard pricing.
Hello, my name is Kannis Ho. I’ve lived in Auckland New Zealand for 13 years and I was from Hong Kong. I’m a newbie to MileagePlus and AAdvantage. But I have been doing a lot of research and watching premium class travel YouTube videos for last 12 months. (I’d try to write about my miserable story here later perhaps) Anyway, I’ve been longing to treat myself and my parents to Europe this winter in premium class. I have purchased 250,000 AA miles with maximum discount 6 weeks ago and I’m trying to do the same with United. Sadly, the flash sale offer is not showing up at all in my MileagePlus account. I’d like to act quickly and purchase the maximum miles with United as well. So far, I’ve chatted with them by online messaging… and called their NZ support number… Yet with no success. 🙁
1. Typical at UA: NOT TRUE !!!! I am on the phone w/MileagePlus at this very minute and they know nothing about it
2. Don’t by miles for upgrades, you will never get the upgrade.
No bonus for my account as well.
Anyone has any idea if UA partner awards are no longer searchable? Asia/Pacific awards search comes up with 0 results. A while back SQ & TG were available for booking…
@lattegoy: Is that like a non-Jewish premium coffee- drinker name?