United Airlines MileagePlus has just launched its latest promotion on purchased miles.
Buy United miles with a bonus
Through 11:59PM CT on Friday, November 27, 2020, United MileagePlus is offering a sale on purchased miles. Different accounts may be eligible for different bonuses, so you’ll want to log into your account and see what you’re targeted for. The accounts I manage show a bonus of up to 100%.
The 100% bonus is tiered, as follows:
- Buy 3,000-14,000 miles, get a 30% bonus
- Buy 15,000-34,000 miles, get a 60% bonus
- Buy 35,000+ miles, get a 100% bonus
Not only that, but with this promotion United has increased the cap on how many miles you can purchase per calendar year, from 175,000 to 225,000.
With the 100% bonus you can purchase a total of 224,000 miles for $3,920, which is a cost of 1.75 cents per MileagePlus mile. The reason that maximum amount is weird is because you can purchase at most 225,000 MileagePlus miles per year including any bonus, and you can only purchase miles in increments of 1,000.
Other accounts may very well see different bonuses, so you’ll want to see what you’re eligible for.
United offers bonuses on purchased miles with some frequency, and when these promotions happen, the bonuses typically range between 50% and 100%. A 100% bonus is in line with the best offers we see from the program.
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, though there are ways to get more value out of them than that.
Keep in mind that a lot of negative changes have been made to MileagePlus recently:
- United introduced dynamic award pricing as of late 2019, and that’s bad news for members, as it means that many awards on United have gotten more expensive
- United started charging more for last-minute award tickets as of late 2019, for both United and Star Alliance partner flights
- United increased many redemption rates on Star Alliance partners a few months ago, typically by 10%
Nonetheless, with a specific use in mind, it could make sense to buy miles, either for redemptions on United or 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 spending.
Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach minimum spending, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending, like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review), Citi® Double Cash Card (review), or The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (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.
Bottom line
United MileagePlus is offering up to a 100% bonus on purchased miles. This is a way to acquire MileagePlus miles for 1.75 cents each — while there are circumstances where that could represent a good deal, I most definitely wouldn’t be speculatively picking up miles at that cost. Still, it’s as good of a price as you’ll see on purchased MileagePlus miles.
Do you plan on buying United miles with this offer?
Nope. Not going to do it. United loves to stab you in the back by jacking up rates. They can not be trusted. Don’t fall for it.
MileagePlus had an opportunity to set themselves apart but they chose NOT to do that. Their program was once a go-to for me and many others. I was happy to purchase miles at 100% bonus. This all changed with their new pricing. I used to spend 70k on EVA nonstop IAH-TPE for Business class but now? Try +100k for that seat nowadays. I just did an extensive search for space to Asia, and while there is space, it’s like what Delta charges, all over 100k miles. Absolutely absurd and will no longer utilize this program. For StarAlliance, look to KrisFlyer, LifeMiles (while they’re still afloat), ANA, and possibly Air Canada’s new program although I know little about it. Forget MileagePlus
ANA for star alliance is my go to at this point. Unless booking ANA, then use Virgin Atlantic. United is the worst.
So, buy points and play “spin the bottle” to to find value in using them? No thanks. I don’t care how low the cost goes. You’re just spending good money chasing bad choices.
No thanks! They are more expensive to redeem and if I need more, I can pop some Chase INK points into my UA account..
I usually purchase our family vacation tickets on Cyber Monday with United using their Cyber Monday Mileage Plus deals. But I can’t find them this year. Does anyone know if they’re not doing it this year?