Is This The Worst “Buy Miles” Deal United Has Ever Released?

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I haven’t been a regular flyer with United for over a decade so the headline to this post is actually a genuine question rather than an attempt at hyperbole.

Last month United offered up a flash sale in which Mileage Plus members could earn a 75% bonus if they purchase over 30,000 miles and, while a 75% bonus may sound good, the offer was actually pretty poor.

The math on last month’s promotion meant that United was effectively selling miles at a cost of 2.15 cents per mile and, if I though that was bad (which I did!), I’m left almost speechless at what United is offering as its best rate this month.

The Promotion – Buy Miles With A 40% Bonus

• The promotional is valid until 11:59 p.m. CT on 16 October 2017.
• Maximum allowable purchase (excluding bonus) is 75,000 miles.
• Bonus Miles will generally be credited to your MileagePlus account when the transaction is complete
• Maximum number of miles that can be purchased in a calendar year is 150,000 and bonus miles count towards this total.
• Miles are non-refundable.
• Purchased miles do not count toward MileagePlus Premier® status.
• GST/HST is charged to Canadian residents.

[thirstylink linkid=”25169″ linktext=”For the full T&Cs please use this link and have your MileagePlus number to hand.” class=”thirstylink” title=”For the full T&Cs please use this link and have your MileagePlus number to hand.”]

This is the promotion I see when I log in:

• Buy 5,000 – 14,000 miles and get a 20% bonus
• Buy 15,000 – 29,000 miles and get a 30% bonus
• Buy 30,000 – 107,000 miles and get a 40% bonus

The Math

To purchase miles at the best rate per mile you will need to buy between 30,000 and 107,000 miles.

In this example, if I was to purchase 107,000 miles, it would cost me $4,025.88 and I would net 149,800 miles in my account:

That works out to a staggeringly bad 2.69 cents per mile!

For most readers I probably don’t have to explain why you’d have to be nuts to buy miles at this rate but, just in case you new to all of this, here’s why this is a terrible deal.

A roundtrip Business Class award between the US and Europe costs, at best, 115,000 miles and, if you were to buy miles in this promotion to buy such an award, they would set you back approximately $3,094.

If you were to fly roundtrip Business Class on a partner airline that would cost 140,000 miles or $3,766 in this promotion.

Now here are some data points from some random searches I performed:

• In January you can fly Business Class from Chicago to Paris non-stop for $2,779

• In March you can fly Business Class from Houston to Amsterdam non-stop for $2,433

• In June you can fly Business Class from Newark to Munich non-stop for $3,002

All these fares are available on numerous dates (no need to hunt for availability) and all these fares will earn you redeemable miles (which have value), elite qualifying miles and credit towards the minimum spend criteria for status.

Yes, there are routes on which the fares are higher and, on the face of things, they may appear to be examples of when buying miles in this promotion is a good idea….except they’re not.

(a) Fares are not always high on routes such as these so, unless you’re desperate to fly on specific dates a bit of patience and flexibility will reveal better prices….or you could just fly with another airline offering a better fare.

(b) Award availability on these routes isn’t good at all. United may be better at releasing award space than American but that’s not exactly a high bar to set. On many of United’s premium routes (routes that you may wish to burn miles on) award availability is scarce and you simply won’t be able to find the flights you want on dates that work for you – miles aren’t very flexible like that as you’re at the mercy of the airlines.

Bottom Line

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a United mileage sale where the best available price has been as high as 2.69 cents/mile…at least not in recent memory.

I can’t think of a single reason why anyone would consider buying any significant quantity of miles in this promotion – you’ll be better off waiting until the next promotion comes around as it can’t get any worse! 🙂