United MileagePlus Offering up to a 100% Bonus When Purchasing Miles [Targeted]

United Airlines MileagePlus members can take advantage of a new promotion when buying miles. Offers vary depending on the amount of miles you purchase, but you can purchase them with up to a 100% bonus.

This promotion is valid through November 21, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. CT.

Let’s take a closer look at the offer.

United’s MileagePlus Buy Miles Bonus Promotion

First, you’ll need to log in to your account with your MileagePlus credentials. Then, you can determine whether you will get value from buying miles with this promotional offer.

You may be targeted to score a bonus of up to 100% on purchased miles:

• Buy 5,000 to 19,000 miles, receive a 30% bonus
• Buy 20,000 to 39,000 miles, receive a 65% bonus
• Buy 40,000 to 100,000 miles, receive a 100% bonus (~1.88 cents per mile)

If you’re targeted for this United offer with the maximum 100% bonus, you can receive 250,000 miles for a total of $4,703.13 after taxes.

There’s plenty you can do with that many United miles. For example, a round-trip business class flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo (HND) starts at 140,000 miles.

Is Buying United Miles Worth It?

Let’s do the math.

If you were to max out this promotion with the best offer, you’d end up snagging the 100% bonus on the purchase of miles. Instead of purchasing miles for the usual 3.5 cents per mile, you’d get them for 1.88 cents apiece.

However, note that this price is still significantly more expensive than what we value United MileagePlus miles at: 1.2 cents apiece.

Take, for example, a one-way flight in business class with United from Washington-Dulles (IAD) to Los Angeles (LAX) using miles. This would set you back 58,200 MileagePlus miles in business class.

With the promotion, buying the necessary miles would cost you about $1,260. But, the cash cost of the trip is only $729, meaning purchasing the miles is not a good use case in this scenario.

So, if you had a zero balance in your MileagePlus account, you’d still want to pay cash for this flight rather than spend far more to purchase miles.

However, there are other times when buying miles can make sense. Consider award flights to Europe that typically cost 80,000-88,000 miles per person in business class. You could buy those miles for $1,400-$1,540, yet the cash cost of these flights is typically over $3,000 per person. You’d save a lot buying miles instead of buying the flight outright.

It’s usually not a great idea to buy miles just for the sake of it, though if you think it makes sense for you, check out our current round-up of monthly purchase point promotions.

If you decide to buy, know that United sells miles through Points.com. That means this won’t count as an airfare or travel purchase on your credit card. That means you should use a credit card with bonus earnings on everyday spending or a card offering a nice sign-up bonus.

Final Thoughts

United is targeting MileagePlus members with promotional rates on buying miles. While there are savings to be had, it’s not always a good idea to purchase miles unless you have a specific trip in mind and the cost of buying miles is less than the cash price of the flight you want to book.