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Buy United Miles with up to a 100% Bonus
United has announced their another mileage sale for 2023. Until 5/31, you can buy United Miles with up to a 100% bonus. Note that United just had a major devaluation which illustrates a big thing to keep in mind…never buy points speculatively.
Every United account will have a different offer, mine was actually 85%, but others have gotten 100% bonuses which match the all time high bonus, or 1.88 cents a piece. That’s the best we’ve ever seen, and creates a limited-time opportunity to shore up your account for that aspirational redemption.
Lemme also be clear…if you don’t have a need for the miles, I wouldn’t speculatively buy them. But, if you’re short, or you’re currently planning a trip and could use the flexibility of having a bulkier account, we haven’t seen miles priced any better. Let’s take a look at this flash sale that gets you 100% bonus on every mile you buy.
Why would you want to buy United miles?
- The first reason may be that you just need to shore up an account to get the number of miles you need for a booking you have in mind. This could be a great way to offset part of your travel cost.
- Buying miles can also represent a huge savings over the retail price of many flights. This isn’t always the case however, and you should crunch the numbers and double check availability prior to buying. But if the avail is there, and the retail cost is high, it could be a great deal.
- It may also be the case that you’re populating your account with Chase Ultimate Rewards, and you don’t have enough, or wish to use them elsewhere at a higher valuation than 1.88 cents.
Should you buy United miles?
This is a very good question and one you should heavily debate. Mileage programs devalue ALL THE TIME, and you should consider this when making a purchase. I recommend only purchasing miles when you know you have a specific flight you want to take, and buying miles makes that flight more affordable. I wouldn’t advise just buying miles to have them, you never know what may happen to award rates which almost always go up, and rarely do airlines ever reduce redemption rates.
Is this a good price for United Miles?
100% is the all time high so if you’ve been targeted for that bonus, you’re getting the best deal we’ve ever seen. If you’re getting 75% – well, it’s still a good deal, but not the best. If you’ve received the 100% bonus you’re effectively buying those miles for 1.88 cents a piece.
How many United Miles can I buy?
You can buy a max of 175k miles. This includes the bonus.
The offer is tiered with the 75-100% bonus given on purchases over 40k miles
- Buy 5k-14k get a 30-40%% bonus
- Buy 15k to 39k miles get a 50-60% bonus
- Buy 40k+ get a 75-100% bonus
If you purchase the maximum miles ( per account) you’ll end up paying 1.88 cents a mile.
Note…if you’re looking to fly multiple people, each account could purchase miles to reach your goal. The 175k is capped per account number and bonus miles count toward that max
- Promotional offer valid between 8:00 a.m. CT on May 10, 2023, and 11:59 p.m. CT on May 31, 2023.
- Promotional offer not applicable to past transactions.
- Bonus miles count toward the 175,000-mile annual limit per account.
- You may purchase up to 175,000 miles per account per calendar year.
- Miles will generally be credited to the recipient’s MileagePlus account when the transaction is complete; provided that certain transactions may take up to 72 hours.
- Bonuses will be calculated on a per transaction basis only.
- The bonus amount applicable to a transaction is shown in the chart.
- Transactions may not be aggregated to calculate the bonus.
- The credit card used in the transaction will be billed immediately upon purchase.
- Mileage rates and other fees and offer terms are subject to change.
- Miles purchased are nonrefundable.
- Purchased miles do not count toward MileagePlus Premier® status.
- See here for all Terms and Conditions applicable to this transaction, which include United’s Privacy Policy and the MileagePlus Program Rules.
- GST/HST is charged to Canadian residents. QST is charged to Quebec residents.
- If you use Powered by Points to purchase United MileagePlus miles. Transaction will appear as ‘Points United Miles’.
- Buying miles counts as a United® purchase when made with your United MileagePlus card. You’ll get the miles you buy, plus miles for every $1 spent.
- Pricing is only available for purchases made through buymiles.mileageplus.com.
One fantastic use is flying from the States to South America.
United prices these flights at 60k each way, or roughly $1200 if you were to buy the points needed. I got really lucky and was able to fly on a 777-200 that had been retrofit with United’s new premiere product, Polaris. It’s head and shoulders above anything else United offers ( Barring their old first class which Elites occasionally have access to in business class ). You can read that review here.
Note…we haven’t seen South American routes devalue yet, but
Some of the other best redemptions are on their partners flying to Europe and Asia.
United just devalued their European routes and killed a nice redemption. With that being said…Swiss business, is a great ride across the pond. It’ll cost you nearly 100k miles now to do it…
EVA at 88k to Asia. A First Class product at business class rates.
Or you can redeem 110k United Miles and avoid all taxes and fees that Lufthansa usually levies and fly First Class from North America to Europe. A truly special experience
I’d imagine this deal will go away since business can now be over 100k.
Interested? You can Buy Here
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
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