Reminder: United Offering Miles At 1.88 Cents Each

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.

Somehow I managed to miss this bit of news and that’s a little embarrassing considering how long it has been around (sorry!). Still, there’s still time to buy United MileagePlus Miles from 1.88 cents each as long as you buy before the end of the day on 15 August 2016. As an added incentive United will enter all those who purchase miles in this promotion into a draw to win a share of 500,000 MileagePlus Miles (but you don’t actually have to purchase miles to enter the draw).

Buy United MileagePlus Miles With A 100% Bonus

This United Airlines miles promotion is tiered so you’ll have to purchase a minimum of 30,000 miles if you’re to buy miles at their lowest unit cost:

Buy 5,000 – 14,000 miles – Get a 25% bonus
Buy 15,000 – 29,000 miles – Get a 50% bonus
Buy 30,000 – 75,000 miles –  Get a 100% bonus

The math works out as follows:

• Buy 5,000 – 14,000 miles at 3.01 cents/mile
• Buy 15,000 – 29,000 miles at 2.51 cents/mile
• Buy 30,000 – 75,000 miles at 1.88 cents/mile

The minimum expenditure required to purchase miles at 1.88 cents is $1,128.75:

And, if you wanted to purchase the maximum allowed in this promotion (75,000), you’d end up with 150,000 MileagePlus miles at a cost of $2,821.88:

Should You Buy United MileagePlus Miles?

I tend to value airline miles pretty conservatively nowadays (airlines keep tweaking the system in their favor so I’m a lot more cautions with my valuations) so I consider United Miles to be worth somewhere around 1.3 cents each…and that doesn’t make the headline cost of 1.88 cents too tempting for me.

The United Airlines Award charts have taken a few hits over the past few years (no more so than American or Delta however) and that has left the better value redemptions on United’s own aircraft:

• USA – Europe Business Class – 57,500 miles
• USA – Japan Business Class – 65,000 miles
• USA – Asia Business Class – 70,000 miles

Compare to partner awards:

• USA – Europe Business Class – 70,000 miles
• USA – Japan Business Class – 75,000 miles
• USA – Asia Business Class – 80,000 miles

You could argue that the Business Class cabins on partner airlines are worth the extra mileage (and there’s not much wrong with arguing that) but, if your aim is solely to get to your destination in considerably more comfort than you would in Economy Class, United Business Class works just fine…..plus we’ll soon have the new United Polaris Business Class coming online which looks pretty impressive.

The new United Polaris Business Class cabin

The math is pretty simple to work out.

Purchasing enough miles for a USA – Europe – USA Business Class trip, for example, will cost you $2,162 (57,500 x 2 x $0.0188) and you’ll have to pay some taxes on your award redemption.

Is that less than you can get a paid Business Class fare for? If yes, then this promotion could be a good way of saving you some money and you should probably jump on it…. but otherwise you should probably stay away.

Note:

MileagePlus members can purchase a maximum of 150,000 miles is a calendar year and bonus miles will count towards that maximum.

United outsources all points transactions to Points.com so you won’t hit any credit card travel or airline category bonuses with a miles purchase here.

United Airlines Sweepstake

Everyone buying miles by 15 August will be entered into a draw to win a share of 500,000 MileagePlus miles. The prizes breakdown as follows:

• 1x grand prize of 250,000 MileagePlus Miles valued at $8,750
• 1x secondary prize of 100,000 MileagePlus miles valued at $3,500
• 3 x tertiary prizes of  50,000 MileagePlus miles valued at $1,750

Full T&Cs here – must be a legal resident of the US and over 21.

Bottom Line

Do your own math and you’ll soon know if you should be buying miles or not. Don’t forget to factor in the fact that you don’t earn award miles, Premier qualifying miles or Premier qualifying dollars when flying on an award ticket.

For me, personally, this deal would only be worth it if I needed to top up an account to purchase a Business Class award – I wouldn’t be buying miles to buy an award outright. But, having said that, United has shown no inclination to discount its miles any lower than this so, if you really need the miles, this is probably as cheap as they’re going to get – just make sure you think things through before you buy.