United Airlines MileagePlus has just launched their latest promotion on purchased miles.
Buy United Miles With Up To A 100% Bonus
Through 11:59PM CT on Friday, November 15, 2019, United is offering a tiered bonus on purchased miles, of up to 100%, as follows:
- Buy 5,000-14,000 miles, get a 30% bonus
- Buy 15,000-29,000 miles, get a 70% bonus
- Buy 30,000-87,500 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 the 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.
Should You Buy United Miles?
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.
Which Credit Card Should You Buy United Miles With?
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® (review) or Citi® Double Cash Card (review).
See this post for more on which credit cards are best for buying points.
Other Ways To Earn 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.
Do you plan on buying United miles with this offer?
What are they trying to bait on us with? Beware buyers, big change with the mileage program is coming on November 15th – just few days away.
Nope. Just another Bait and Switch.
Please show a little class Lucky, and stop pumping these ripoff “sales” of rapidly devaluing currencies.
You might as well be pitching Venezuelan Bolivars.
@Kacee I might rather have Venezuelan Bolivars than Mileage Plus Miles. At least when they get devalued down to zero, they’re colorful, and you could wallpaper your bathroom with them.
I don’t understand when people post negatively about the reports. Lucky was informing people about the bonus opportunity. If I needed the miles, I would appreciate the heads up. He mentions that the value is decreasing. How is that bait and switch?
I think people want Lucky to do this for free, he needs to make a living.
Is this offer targeted to only US members? I am based in Canada and cannot see the offer on the Buy Miles page…
Is this offer targeted to only certain members (perhaps only US-based members)? I can’t see it anywhere when I go onto the Buy Miles site from Canada.