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United Mileage Plus is running a new promotion in which its offering a bonus of up to 85% to anyone willing to purchase miles by the close of business next Wednesday. The cost per mile isn’t the lowest we’ve seen this year but some may find it low enough to make a purchase worthwhile.
Headline Terms & Conditions
- The promotional offer valid until 11:59 p.m. CT on July 11, 2018.
- Miles are available in increments of 1,000 up to a maximum of 81,000 miles.
- Bonus Miles will generally be credited to the recipient’s MileagePlus account when the transaction is complete; provided that certain transactions may take up to 48 hours.
- Purchase up to 150,000 miles per account per calendar year.
- Bonus miles count towards the 150,000 mile annual limit per account.
- Pricing is only available for purchases made through buymiles.mileageplus.com
- Miles are nonrefundable.
- Purchased miles do not count toward MileagePlus Premier® status.
- All MileagePlus Program Rules and terms and conditions apply.
- GST/HST is charged to Canadian residents.
Note: United sells its miles via Points.com so there’s nom opportunity to earn a credit card category bonus here – use whatever credit card earns you the points you value highest (or a credit card on which you have a minimum spend target to hit).
Full Terms & Conditions can be found on the promotion page (HERE)
The Promotion Structure
- Buy 5,000 – 14,000 miles and get a 30% bonus
- Buy 15,000 – 29,000 miles and get a 60% bonus
- Buy 30,000 – 81,000 miles and get a 85% bonus
Here’s what that looks like in terms of cost/mile
If you buy…
- 5,000 – 14,000 miles the cost is ~2.89 cents/mile
- 15,000 – 29,000 miles the cost is ~2.35 cents/mile
- 30,000 – 81,000 miles the cost is ~2.03 cents/mile
If you want to buy the maximum number of miles available it will set you back over $3,000:
Is This Promotion Worth It?
At 2.03 cents/mile a round trip Business Class saver award between the 48 contiguous states and Europe (on United Airlines) would cost around $2,436 and that’s a reasonable price for a Business Class fare (they can be a lot more expensive than that).
On top of the cost of the miles you’ll have to account for taxes as well but, as long as you avoid flying back to the US out of high tax cities like London, they shouldn’t be too bad.
How you intend to use the miles will determine just how good (or bad) this promotion actually is.
If you’re not sure if you should buy miles here’s what I recommend you do:
- Decide where you would like to fly
- Decide which Star Alliance airline(s) you’d like to use to fly to your destination
- Check award availability and, if awards are available for dates that work for you, check the full cost of the award (including taxes)
- Compare the cost of the award to the cash fares available on the same dates
- If the award is cheaper than the cash fare then it’s probably safe to buy miles in this promotion otherwise you should pass and move on.
Make sure you remember that if the cost of the award and the cost of the cash fare are close then there will be other things to consider:
- By booking an award you’re passing up on the redeemable miles you would earn if you paid cash for your ticket – they have a value
- By booking an award you’re passing up on the miles that contribute to Elite qualification – they have a value
- By booking an award you’re passing up on the Premier Qualifying Dollars that contribute to Elite qualification – they have a value
If you add up the value of the miles and elite qualifying dollars you’re passing up just to book the award then, if the cost of the award and the cost of the cash fare are similar, it’s almost certainly going to be a better deal to pay cash….and that makes buying miles uneconomical.
Bottom Line
There probably value to be had here….especially if you’re looking to book a flight in the not too distant future (the closer you are to your departure date the higher the cash fare is likely to be).
The important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t be buying miles in the hope of being able to use them down the line – miles can devalue when you least expect them too so buying them as an investment for the future is a bad idea.
Always check award availability, do the math and only consider buying miles if it looks like you’ll be saving some money.
