Summary
- Spend miles soon after earning them to avoid devaluations.
- United flights use dynamic pricing, so the mileage required for each flight varies. No fixed rates are used or published for United flights or partners.
- Look for fixed pricing on partner flights for potential better value.
United MileagePlus is United Airlines' miles and loyalty program; once miles have been earned, there are many ways to spend them. Using miles for flights is the most obvious (and best value) choice. With the shift to less transparent pricing, partner flights tend to offer better value now. There are other uses as well, including some good value upgrading options. This guide takes a look at the main ways to spend miles and where the best value lies.
As we always recommend, you should spend miles soon after accruing them. Airlines frequently devalue flight redemptions by increasing the miles needed or reducing earning rates. This has happened before with United Airlines and will likely happen again.
Using miles for United flights
United MileagePlus switched to dynamic pricing for mileage redemption several years ago. Most US airlines now operate this way and do not have fixed rates for routes (as was common in the past). All United Airlines flights are priced this way.
With dynamic pricing, you can expect the number of miles required to increase as the cash price of tickets rises. There is no set formula for this. You need to search for the flights and check the pricing. Be aware that flexibility in departure times and routes can make a big difference to the mileage required.
The carrier uses fare classes to group tickets into Saver and Everyday Awards, which vary significantly in price.
United controls the minimum price for these redemptions as well, so there's a baseline if the cash fare isn't too high. The carrier devalued all miles in April and May 2023 by increasing the minimum miles needed by 33% to 75% on all its international routes. Europe went up by 33% while, while travel to Japan went up by 57%, and partner carrier awards went up, too. Book more than 30 days out to avoid an additional 10% miles for bookings.
Domestic flights within the US, Canada, Mexico, and Central American routes have been less affected by changes, so these are good options to spend miles with. Awards start at 5,000 miles for short-haul trips, 15,000 miles for longer journeys within the US in economy, and 30,000 miles for first class. These also tend to have less Saver availability, so book early.
Love learning about points and miles? Read more of our loyalty news and guides here.
MileagePlus also offers the option of using 'Money + Miles.' Redemptions this way are much more fixed to the cash price, where you partly pay the available cash ticket with miles at a rate of one cent per mile. This is usually a lower-value use of miles and should only be used if no award tickets are available and the cash price is exceptionally high.
Using miles for partner airline flights
Award pricing for all partner flights (including both Star Alliance partners and other airline partners) now operates using dynamic pricing as well. There are no longer fixed rates guaranteed for specific routes, nor are there any tables of award pricing published.
To check rates, you need to use the MileagePlus search tool just as you do for United Airlines flights. However, there is more uniform and fixed pricing in use with partners. United Airlines does not have the same ability to offer additional award seats for partners as it can with its own flights, so for many partner flights, you will either find them available at a fixed rate or sold out.
Although fixed-price awards are not published or guaranteed, in practice, many routes are still priced this way. On routes flown by United, you would expect the airline's own flights to be lower priced. This is often the case, especially when booked well in advance. However, as partner awards are not priced dynamically, they can be cheaper on some routes.
Make use of Execurtionist Perk
In general, awards are priced per flight. However, MileagePlus has an excellent benefit that allows you to add an additional flight within the same region for free in some cases. This is known as the Excursionist Perk. It enables you to add one flight for no extra miles on an international round-trip ticket.
This is the first connecting flight taken after the first international flight (the connecting flight cannot be in your region of origin). This can either be an immediate connection or with a stopover added – a valuable and unusual perk.
As an example, consider taking a flight from New York to Paris. The flights could be booked directly on both legs. Alternatively (using the Excursionist Perk benefit), you could fly from New York to London, stopover in London, continue on another flight to Paris, and then return directly to the US. There would be no extra mileage charge for the London to Paris flight. This booking and pricing are all built into the excellent MileagePlus flight search engine – the best way to explore options is to try different routes there.
Using miles to upgrade flights
Using miles to upgrade flights can be a good value use within MileagePlus. Cash tickets can be upgraded by one cabin for a fixed amount of miles.
On United Airlines flights, the amount to pay depends on the original booking class of the ticket. This varies widely, and for all but the highest booking classes (of Y, B, and O), you will also have to make an additional cash co-pay. For flights within the US, upgrades start at 7,500 miles (for O and Y class tickets) and head up to 20,000 miles with a $250 co-pay (from the lowest S, T, L, K, and G classes on transcontinental flights).
There are full pricing tables on the United website. The example below is for United Airlines flights between North America and Europe. Rates range from 10,000 miles with no additional co-pay up to 20,000 miles with a $550 co-pay. Co-pays can be waived with certain United status as well.
Upgrades are more straightforward and often better value with Star Alliance partner airlines. Most partner airlines can be upgraded as long as the airline offers availability. Upgrade possibilities depend on each airline and what it makes available. The highest booking class (Y and B for economy class and C and D for business class) can be upgraded with all participating airlines. With many airlines, lower classes can also be upgraded.
For example, between the US and Europe, upgrades are a fixed 25,000 miles each way for economy to business class and 40,000 miles for business to first class. This price will be the same for all eligible airlines and booking classes. On these routes, Lufthansa allows upgrades from J, E, G, M, and U class; SWISS from J, M, and U class; and Austrian from G, E, M, and U class.
Other ways to spend miles
With the switch to revenue-based redeeming, other methods of using miles have become more important. These include:
Hotel stays and car hire. United MileagePlus has a booking portal for domestic and international hotel stays and car booking. Hotels can be booked with most of the major chains, as well as independent hotels. Car hire is offered with Avis and Budget. The rates vary, and you should always check against the cash prices available. Experience shows a typical rate of around 0.6 cents per mile – you can guarantee one cent per mile by using miles for cash flight tickets.
Use miles to buy a United Club membership. As with other US airline loyalty programs, elite status does not generally offer lounge access in the US. For frequent US flyers, a United Club membership can be purchased for 85,000 miles.
Retail and gift cards. There are several options to use miles for retail stores, gift cards, or purchases through the MileagePlus X app. This usually represents the lowest value of miles (typically around 0.3 cents per mile) but could be helpful if you can't use miles for flights or other travel options.
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Feel free to discuss the ways you use miles and the value you have found in the comments section below. How have you recently used your miles?