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A great opportunity to shore up your United account
United is matching their all-time biggest bonus on purchased miles, 100%, which effectively allows you to purchase miles for just 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. Keep in mind that United has removed its award chart and replaced it with a fully dynamic pricing scheme.
What does this mean?
It means that we can no longer reference a chart that prices United’s own award flights between zones and a new system is in place that prices award flights based on price, load, etc.
It also seems that partner pricing has stayed relatively the same, but who knows what will happen in the future.
Price out your flights prior to purchasing
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, 100% is the max bonus we’ve seen. Let’s take a look at this flash sale that gets you 100% bonus on every mile you buy.
The Rules. You can buy a max of 175k miles per year. This includes the bonus.
United varies the max purchase amount, we’ve seen in the past a 150k cap, but for this specific promotion it’s set at 175k
The Offer: Tired. 100% bonus given on purchases over 50k miles.
The price. Purchase max miles ( per account) and 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.
Some of the best redemptions are on their partners flying to Europe and Asia. These prices reflect United’s old award chart, but are still valid. They could change, so double check.
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
Terms and Conditions: Run until 11:59pm April 12th, 2019 Central Time ZoneYou can go here to buy
*feature image of United’s New Polaris Business Class which we’ve flown on the 772 ( pictured ) and the 77 EWR to Tel Aviv
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 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℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
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.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
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.
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