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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
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market. It earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner
Welcome Offer
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Earn
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on gas and EV charging
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
- Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
- 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)
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x on everyday purchases
- 5x points on Lyft rides Earn 5x total points on eligible Lyft rides including ride share, bike and scooter rides and subscription and membership products through September 30, 2027.
- 5x total points on Peloton equipment Earn 5x total points on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through December 31, 2027.
Benefits and Credits
- $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- NEW: $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit Cardmembers will receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card.
- NEW: Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
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® Card is great 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: Chase Ink Business Cash® , Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and if you use the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠ you’ll wipe out that annual fee every year. It has great bonus categories and other useful statement credits to enhance your travel.
One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.
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