United Airlines' MileagePlus frequent flyer program is one of the oldest loyalty programs out there, boasting extensive Star Alliance partnerships with airlines around the world.
While United's program is definitely better than Delta's, I still wouldn't necessarily rank it as a top frequent flyer program in terms of redemption opportunities. United miles have been progressively devalued over the past few years and can still provide value where necessary, but is capped in terms of potential.
In this article, we will talk about the various ways to earn United Airline miles, expiration policies, pricing methodologies, sweet spots, refundability, and more.
How To Earn United Airlines Miles
Flying On United / Partner Airlines
The most common way to earn United Airlines miles is by flying on United flights. Without getting too deep into the weeds, on a high level, here's how earning structures work for United Airlines status:
Earning miles is based on the base fare (less any taxes/fees). Additionally, you will earn miles when flying on United Airlines partners (e.g. Air Canada, Lufthansa, etc) when you provide your MileagePlus number, but the calculations can vary wildly from airline to airline.
Credit Card Transfer Partners
United Airlines miles are not as common to get through credit card transfer partners, but you can get them through two major issuers:
Given United is a major Chase transfer partner, if you have a Chase card, then it's super easy to accumulate United miles. If not, you're going to have to start thinking about Star Alliance partner redemptions.
Additionally, we have never seen a transfer bonus to United Airlines in recent history. So, don't count on anything like that ever happening in the future...
Buy United Miles
Unsurprisingly, you can purchase United Airline miles. However, buying miles without a sale or promotional discount can be extraordinarily expensive and not worth it for any reason.
Leveraging discounts/bonuses, you can buy United Airline miles at a more reasonable price. For example, in a April 2024 promotion, you can buy United miles for as low as 1.88 cents per mile. If you have a specific redemption in mind, this can be a pretty reasonable way to quickly accumulate more miles.
Spend On United Airlines Cobranded Credit Cards
United Airlines cobrands all of its credit cards with Chase. Spending on these cards allows you to accumulate United Airlines miles. However, it's important to recognize that there is a significant opportunity cost associated with spending UA miles—they're typically worth less than transferable points.
Do United Airlines Miles Expire?
This one is really simple—United Airlines miles do not expire.
United Airlines Partners
As a part of the Star Alliance and as one of the oldest airlines in the world, United Airlines has a long list of partners. With the appropriate status, you can enjoy a wide variety of perks like lounge access, priority boarding/check-in, and extra checked bags.
United also has a list of other partners that are still important to consider, but aren't necessarily as closely tied to as the Star Alliance member airlines are:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Dolomiti
- Airlink
- Azul
- Boutique Air
- Cape Air
- Discover Airlines
- Edelweiss
- Emirates
- Eurowings
- Flydubai
- Hawaiian Airlines
- JSX
- Olympic Air
- Silver Airways
- Virgin Australia
- Vistara
How To Earn United Airlines Status
Earning United Airlines status is mostly driven by your spend with the airline. There are two ways you can get United Status, determined by the following two factors:
- Premier Qualifying Points (PQP): Based on the base fare and carrier-imposed surcharge of flight purchases, along with seating purchases and paid upgrades. This is essentially a metric tracking how much $ you spend directly on United Airlines and its partners. You can earn PQP on award tickets and on flights operated by a Star Alliance member (the calculations here get a little weird, but there can be some sweet spots)
- Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF): Based on the number of flight segments flown on United or partner airlines. You must fly at least 4 segments on United or United Express to qualify through this metric.
Right now, you can get status either purely through PQP or a combination of PQPs and PQFs.
For instance, you can get Premier Silver status by spending $5,000 USD on base fares (earning 5,000 PQPs) with United. Some United credit cards also earn PQPs when you spend, so it can be a potentially helpful way to speed up your PQP journey.
Up to 1,000 PQP in a calendar year
Why we like this card ▼
Up to 6,000 PQP in a calendar year
Why we like this card ▼
Up to 10,000 PQP in a calendar year
Why we like this card ▼
What Are The Benefits Of United Airlines Status?
Each status tier differs in its exact benefits, but at a high level, you'll get access to checked bags, early boarding, upgrades, and more. The higher your status, the better the perks get.
- Premier Qualifying Points (PQP): Based on the base fare and carrier-imposed surcharge of flight purchases, along with seating purchases and paid upgrades. This is essentially a metric tracking how much $ you spend directly on United Airlines and its partners. You can earn PQP on award tickets and on flights operated by a Star Alliance member (the calculations here get a little weird, but there can be some sweet spots)
- Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF): Based on the number of flight segments flown on United or partner airlines. You must fly at least 4 segments on United or United Express to qualify through this metric.
Right now, you can get status either purely through PQP or a combination of PQPs and PQFs. For the sake of this comparison, we will solely focus on earning status via PQPs, as it makes our comparisons more 1:1 in nature.
How United Prices Its Award Flights
United Airlines prices its award flights on a dynamic system. That means for any flight, you might see a whole wide range of miles prices. However, what makes this interesting is that the lowest price possible for these award flights is explicitly defined by United—these are called "saver fares."
Generally, we are interested in saver fares because they represent the lowest possible price for an award flight. In the case of United: there are two major "saver fares" to be aware of:
- Economy saver (fare class X)
- Economy expanded saver for MileagePlus cardmembers + elite status members (fare class XN)
- Business saver (fare class I)
In the next section, we'll talk through several popular United Airlines sweet spots that are based on saver fare rates.
United Airlines Sweet Spots
Even with devaluations, United Airlines still has several strong saver rate offerings for its economy & business class flights. Note that these are the lowest rates you'll be able to see using United miles (they only go up from here) and won't account for the fact that you might be able to book the same flight using Star Alliance partners' miles.
USA Airports <> Europe: United Airlines Business Class 80k Miles One Way
United charges just 80,000 miles one way on business class flying to/from Europe one way via all major US airports. So that means the cost is the same, regardless if you're departing from SFO, ORD, IAD, DEN, BOS, etc.
The only thing is that this redemption becomes harder to find the longer the flight is; it is an especially fantastic deal from the West Coast.
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USA Airports <> Oceania: Business Class Starting At Just 100k Miles One Way
Flights to/from Oceania are very long, running just about 14–16 hours in most cases. However, United pricing here starts at just 100,000 miles one way with minimal taxes and fees. This can be an incredible way to use your miles, especially given the excursionist perk (we'll talk about this later!) and refundability.
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Additionally, you could also book this route via partner airlines like Air New Zealand for 110k miles. What makes this find particularly interesting is that you could also book it via Virgin Atlantic for just 62.5k miles! You would use United Airlines as a starting point to find the availability and then would confirm the award over the phone with Virgin Atlantic.
Partner bookings on United can be expensive, but leveraging other partners can be an incredible way to save miles and get even more value out of your redemptions.
Europe <> Asia: Partner Business Class Starting At Just 82.5k Miles One Way
United Airlines partner redemptions can also be highly valuable. Flying between Europe and Asia typically starts at just 82,500 miles one way in business class, which is a completely fair amount to pay for the length and experience of the flight.
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USA Airports <> Africa: Business Class Starting At Just 88k Miles One Way
Flying to Africa via Star Alliance partners can be a very solid way to get good value out of your points and miles. especially considering United only charges 88,000 miles one way for these flights.
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United Airlines Excursionist Perk
The Excursionist perk in theory is quite simple: it is a free one-way award within certain multi-city itineraries. Here are the key criteria as outlined by United:
- Excursionist Perk cannot be in the MileagePlus defined region where your travel originates
- Travel must end in the same MileagePlus defined region where travel originates
- The origin and destination of the Excursionist Perk are within a single MileagePlus defined region
- The cabin of service and award inventory of the free one-way award is the same or lower than the one-way award preceding it
- If two or more one-way awards qualify for this benefit, only the first occurrence will be free
Here's an example of an award itinerary that would qualify under the Excursionist Perk while giving the free stopover:
- ORD - LHR: 30,000 miles
- LHR - CDG: 0 miles
- CDG - ORD: 30,000 miles
MileagePlus Miles Pooling
United now offers the ability for friends and families to pool their miles together, without any transfer fees, to book award tickets. To do it, follow these steps:
- A MileagePlus member 18 years or older can start a miles pool and take on the role of the pool leader
- The pool leader can then invite MileagePlus members to join their pool (a maximum of 5 members can be in a miles pool)
- Every pool member can then contribute their miles to the shared pool
- The pool leader manages the pool and can authorize members to redeem miles accordingly
- Members can only be in one miles pool at a time
To read the FAQs, check out United's website for more guidance.
Cancellation and Change Policies
United's MileagePlus program offers tremendous flexibility in managing award bookings. Members can cancel and redeposit miles with no fees, just before departure at latest. This includes partner bookings, which is an incredible amount of flexibility when considering this in the grand scheme of things. Some may be inclined to pay a few thousand extra miles just for the award flexibility that United provides.
Cancellations can be processed easily online, with little to no difficulty.
Conclusion
United Airlines' MileagePlus program remains a compelling option for frequent travelers. While I wouldn't consider United's award pricing to be incredibly competitive, the Excursionist perk and the complete flexibility of award tickets may be enough for some frequent flyers to consider earning/using United miles for their travels.
