United Airlines MileagePlus has just launched their latest promotion on purchased miles, which is only valid for two days.
Buy United Miles With Up To A 100% Bonus
Through 11:59PM CT on Thursday, December 19, 2019, United is offering a targeted bonus on purchased miles. While you have to log into your account to see the offer, best I can tell just about everyone is receiving an offer for a 100% bonus.
The 100% bonus offer is tiered, as follows:
- Buy 5,000-14,000 miles, get a 30% bonus
- Buy 15,000-39,000 miles, get a 50% bonus
- Buy 40,000-87,500 miles, get a 100% bonus
If you max out the 100% 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 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?
Buy the miles. Get hosed when you try to redeem them. Their fools gold.
Partner flight does not change though. Found a ANA first class from IAH to NRT couple days ago but Ireally need to ask myself why not to transfer from UR.
Devalued program, dynamic award structure, cannot find award seat.. 100% bonus is not enough. Spending the cash for revenue ticket of the carrier of choice is a much better option.
Now that I can never find award redemptions @ 90k unless it’s a 22 hour layover I think i’ll pass. Use to be 90k saver and 180k standard – now i’m seeing a lot in the 272k range for longhaul business that i used to snag at 90k.
Just another end of the year rush to raise revenue it seems. After the LifeMiles 150% sale earlier there’s not much star alliance award space left for early next year.
Is this promotion still active? I cannot see it on the United website…
I appreciate when you add “Buy x miles it will cost x dollars .” Saves me from logging in and going through the process to see the bottom line. Thanks!
“Dynamic award pricing” — it kills any incentive to buy miles. I was considering an economy round trip MSY to Capetown a couple month ago — 40k OW on UA and partners (even for the return on UA nonstop CPT-EWR). Today the price is 41.5k OW on partner airlines — but for UA it’s 122k OW! In economy — the good days are definitely gone. Even for a lifetime gold.
Everything I see is pushing me towards Air China in the mix with UA awards. Never gonna happen, when LifeMiles is showing much better *A carriers on better routes for less miles at better purchase price.
Not a buyer at even 100% bonus. Must do better UA, if you want my dollars!
i didn’t get the 100% offer I’ve checked my account all day and called united they’re saying that is only for selected accounts
any advice ?? any help