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United has been quietly running a 10 day flash sale offers up their points with an 85% bonus. That equates to roughly 2 cents per point, and while that’s not their best ever ( 100% bonus is best ever ), it is very competitive and highly worth your consideration if you’re planning a trip.
Why? It creates a limited-time opportunity to shore up your account for that aspirational redemption you’ve had your eye on, or use points to buy a flight at a savings compared to the cash rate.
Lemme also be clear…if you don’t have a need for the miles, I wouldn’t speculatively buy them.
Here’s the deal:
What does that break down to in terms of price? 2.03 cents a point. Best I can recall is 1.88
Terms and Conditions:
- Must buy by 11:59pm CT on 3/1/19
- Total miles purchased in a year is capped at 175k
- May take up to 48 hours for miles to populate ( typically its been instant in my experience )
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 ).
Some of the other best redemptions are on their partners flying to Europe and Asia.
Partner Business Class to Europe for 70k, like Swiss, are both great redemptions
EVA at 80k 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
Interested? You can Buy Here
*feature image is Lufthansa Business Class upstairs on the 747-8i
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
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
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
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. 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.