United MileagePlus Program: Everything You Need to Know

Operating more than 4,500 daily flights to more than 300 cities on five continents, United Airlines is one of the largest carriers in the United States and the world. United has hubs in Chicago, Denver, Guam, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco and Washington, meaning that they operate flights in nearly every major region of the United States.

United is also a member of Star Alliance, which consists of 26 members. Thus, United MileagePlus miles can be earned and redeemed when flying with any member of Star Alliance, making it easy to rack up miles within the MileagePlus program and find worthwhile redemptions for your points. Additionally, United has partnerships with 14 other airlines with which you can earn and spend MileagePlus points.

If you live in the United States (especially if you live in one of United’s hub cities), you’ll definitely want to be a member of the United MileagePlus program. And if you fly with United frequently enough, you may even be able to earn elite status within the United MileagePlus program, which will significantly increase your ability to rack up MileagePlus miles. Unfortunately, United’s elite status program is rather difficult to understand as the prerequisites for elite status are based on two separate metrics.

Still, signing up for United MileagePlus doesn’t cost a dime, so you might as well enroll in the program and start working your way toward free flights or other awards. If you fly with United frequently, this program can be amazingly valuable.

Let’s dive into everything you need to know about the United MileagePlus program.

United MileagePlus Overview

When it comes to earning and redeeming points, the United MileagePlus program is fairly straightforward. However, as previously mentioned, the elite status program can be a bit of a doozy. However, earning elite status could significantly increase your points-earning potential and improve your flying experience, both on United and with partner airlines.

United Airlines is a member of Star Alliance, which means that you can earn and redeem MileagePlus miles with any of the following 25 member airlines:

In addition to its Star Alliance partners, United Airlines has formed partnerships with 15 other carriers, bringing their total number of airline partners to 40. Here are United’s non-alliance partners:

Between United’s expansive network and the networks of their 40 partners, you can earn MileagePlus miles pretty much anywhere in the world.

United MileagePlus Elite Status

United MileagePlus has four elite status tiers, all of which have different qualifications and benefits. Unfortunately, the qualifications for United elite status can get a little complicated as they’re based on two metrics: Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) and Premier Qualifying Flights (PQFs).

PQPs are earned on the base fare, carrier surcharges, Economy Plus seats or subscriptions, preferred seat purchases, upgrade award co-pays, paid upgrades and flights ticketed and operated by Star Alliance partners.

PQFs are earned every time you fly a segment in any fare class except basic economy. Any flight segment flown in basic economy won’t earn PQFs. For example, if you take a flight from Portland, Oregon, to Los Angeles with a layover in Las Vegas in economy, premium economy or business class, you will earn 2 PQFs. If you take the same flights in basic economy classes, you won’t earn any PQFs.

To earn elite status with United, you need to accumulate either a certain number of PQPs or a certain number of PQPs and PQFs. You also need to fly a minimum of four flights operated by United to qualify for any premier status. Here are the prerequisites for each elite status tier:

Fortunately, you don’t need to keep track of all of these metrics on your own. Every time you earn any PQPs or PQFs, United will automatically credit them to your account. All PQPs and PQFs are credited to the account of the person who is flying, not the person who paid for the ticket.

You can also earn PQPs and PQFs on flights with partner airlines. To earn PQFs, the fare class of your ticket must be eligible for award mileage accrual. When it comes to earning PQPs with partner airlines, things get a little more complicated. Here’s what you need to know:

• For ticket numbers beginning with 016, the number of PQPs you earn will be equal to the base fare. If your base fare was $500, you will earn 500 PQPs.
• If your ticket number begins with anything other than 016, the number of PQPs you earn will depend on whether that partner airline is considered a “MileagePlus” partner or a “Preferred” partner. Here’s how you calculate the PQPs you’ll earn with both types of partners:
  • MileagePlus partners: PQPs earned = award miles earned divided by 6
  • Preferred partners: PQPs earned= award miles earned divided by 5

There are also caps on how many PQPs you can earn on partner flights, which are as follows:

Once you accumulate enough PQPs (or a combination of PQPs and PQFs) to achieve an elite status tier, you’ll have that status through the end of the following program year (which ends Jan. 31). Because of this rule, it’s far better to earn elite status toward the beginning of the program year.

Elite Status Benefits

Now that we’ve covered the complicated process of earning elite status with United, let’s take a look at the benefits you’ll receive at each elite status tier.

The following chart outlines the benefits of each elite status tier:

One of the most valuable perks with any status tier is the ability to earn extra miles on flights operated by United, United Express or certain partner airlines. Entry-level MileagePlus members earn 5X miles per dollar spent on base fare. However, elite status members may earn up to 11X miles per dollar.

You’ll receive 40 PlusPoints when you reach Premier Platinum status and another 280 PlusPoints when you reach Premier 1K status (for a total of 320 PlusPoints). Each PlusPoint allows you to upgrade from any seat to any available cabin, including United Premium Plus or United Polaris business class.

Related: How to Score an Upgrade on Your United Airlines Flight

After you earn Premier 1K status, for every 2,000 PQPs you earn beyond 15,000, you’ll earn 20 more PlusPoints. Although Complimentary Premier Upgrades aren’t quite as flexible as PlusPoints, they’re also a great perk available at all status tier levels.

The complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status that comes with Premier Gold, Premier Platinum and Premier 1K is a great benefit as well. Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite members earn 25% more bonus points on eligible stays at Marriott properties, receive enhanced room upgrades, late checkout and a welcome gift of points upon arrival.

Complimentary elite status with Avis, which is available at all elite status tiers within the MileagePlus program, also allows you to earn more points on qualifying rentals as well as receive valuable benefits from Avis.

How to Earn MileagePlus Miles

Of course, the most straightforward way to earn United MileagePlus miles is to book flights with United. However, that’s far from the only way to earn MileagePlus. In fact, you can earn MileagePlus miles even without ever stepping on a plane by dining at your favorite restaurants, shopping online, getting a mortgage loan or even signing up for a cybersecurity system.

Another fantastic way to rack up a big balance of MileagePlus is by signing up for one of United’s several co-branded credit cards, all of which offer welcome bonuses that you can earn by signing up and then spending a certain amount of money in an allotted period of time.

Let’s take a look at all of the different ways that you can earn United MileagePlus miles.

Flying with United Airlines

By flying on United Airlines, you can earn between 5X miles and 11X miles on the fare of your flight, depending on your elite status. Here’s how many miles per dollar you’ll earn at each elite status tier:

• General member: 5X miles
• Premier Silver: 7X miles
• Premier Gold: 8X miles
• Premier Platinum: 9X miles
• Premier 1K: 11X miles

To earn MileagePlus miles, you’ll have to sign up for a free MileagePlus account. Then, when you’re booking your flight through United’s website, simply make sure that you’re logged in, and your award miles will be credited to your account automatically.

While you won’t earn any PQPs on United flights in basic economy class, you will earn award miles on basic economy United flights. Some specialty flights (such as flights purchased as part of a group tour) may earn miles based on distance instead of fare. Certain flights purchased through third-party travel agencies (such as Expedia or Hotwire) at “unpublished or opaque” rates may not earn award miles at all.

Flying with Partner Airlines

You can also earn United MileagePlus miles on flights with any of United’s 40 partner airlines. If you book your ticket through United’s website (as United markets their partners’ flights through their website), you will earn miles based on the amount of money you spend on your fare.

On the other hand, you can also earn United MileagePlus miles on flights booked through partners’ websites if you enter your MileagePlus membership number during the booking process. However, in this case, the number of miles you’ll earn will be based on the distance flown and your fare class.

For example, if you were to book a 2,000-mile flight in “N” class on Lufthansa through Lufthansa’s website and enter your MileagePlus membership number, you would earn 2,000 United MileagePlus miles, according to the chart below.

If you were to have flown in “F” class instead, you would earn 4,000 redeemable miles.

Each of United’s partners will have similar earnings charts, which you can find on United’s website.

Spending with United MileagePlus Co-Branded Credit Cards

Apart from booking flights with United and its partner airlines, one of the best ways to rack up United miles is to sign up for one of United’s six co-branded credit cards. United Airlines offers four personal cards and two business cards, all of which are issued by Chase.

The annual fees on these cards range from $0 to $525, so there’s a United credit card for everyone whether you’re a casual traveler or a full-time globetrotter. These cards also come with a wide range of different spending bonuses and other benefits.

However, before you sign up for a United credit card, you’re going to want to check your status with Chase’s 5/24 rule, which states that you can sign up for no more than five credit cards in a 24-month period to be approved for a new Chase credit card (with some exceptions).

If you’re under the 5/24 limit and you frequently fly with United, you may want to consider signing up for one of these United credit cards. Here’s a basic overview of the cards and their main benefits.

On top of the aforementioned benefits, each of these cards also offers a welcome bonus for spending a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time after opening the account. Which particular card is going to be best for you depends on your spending habits. However, if you frequently fly with United, then signing up for a co-branded credit card might be a good idea.

If you’re a small business owner, signing up for one of United’s business cards and then taking advantage of their free employee cards feature is a great way to boost your miles earnings. With this feature, there’s no limit on how many employee cards you can get, meaning that you could potentially have hundreds of employees earning miles for you.

Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to United MileagePlus Miles

If you already have a card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points or you’re looking for a new credit card to add to your wallet, you should know that you can convert Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United MileagePlus miles at a 1:1 ratio.

If you want to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to the United MileagePlus program, you’ll have to have one of the following Chase cards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

You also can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to 13 other airline and hotel partners, meaning that Chase Ultimate Rewards points are a far more flexible rewards currency than United MileagePlus miles.

There are other programs that allow you to convert your points or miles to United MileagePlus miles. However, very few of them offer favorable transfer ratios. For instance, Marriott Bonvoy points transfer to MileagePlus miles at a 3:1 ratio, which is poor.

United MileagePlus Shopping

Like many other airline rewards programs, United MileagePlus has its own shopping portal that allows you to earn miles for making purchases with partnered vendors through the portal. All you need to do is sign up and enter your membership number. Then, you can earn miles at different rates by shopping online with more than 1,100 different merchants.

You can also add the United MileagePlus Shopping button to your Google Chrome browser. Once the button is installed, you’ll receive a notification every time you visit a participating vendor’s website. You’ll see the miles-earning rate, and then all you need to do is click the “Activate” button before making your purchase to claim the offer.

Alternatively, you can also earn MileagePlus miles by shopping in-store by selecting the “In-store offers” option from the drop-down menu at the top of the MileagePlus Shopping homepage. Once you find an offer near you, you can link your credit card, add that offer to your card and then earn miles for shopping in-person.

United MileagePlus Dining

Like most other airline rewards programs, United MileagePlus has its own dining program that allows you to earn miles for purchases from restaurants in your area. To do so, you simply need to sign up on the MileagePlus Dining website and then link a credit card or debit card. Then, every time you spend money at a participating restaurant, bar or club, you’ll earn MileagePlus miles.

The MileagePlus Dining website allows you to search for participating restaurants in your area. You also can search for participating restaurants in other areas if you plan on traveling somewhere and want to earn some miles while on the go.

The number of miles you’ll earn depends on your status level within the MileagePlus Dining program. Basic members will receive 1X mile per $2 spent at participating businesses. However, by simply opting in to receive emails from MileagePlus Dining and you’ll instantly be boosted to a Select membership and earn 3X miles per dollar spent. Finally, by opting in for emails from MileagePlus Dining and dining at participating restaurants 11 times per calendar year, you’ll earn VIP status and earn 5X miles per dollar.

It’s also worth noting that any points you earn through United MileagePlus dining will be in addition to the points that you earn from your credit card. So, you should link whichever one of your cards has the best dining rewards to your MileagePlus Dining account.

United MileagePlus X App

The United MileagePlus X App allows you to see all of your shopping and dining miles-earning opportunities in one easy-to-use mobile app. Essentially, this app is a way to see your MileagePlus Dining account, MileagePlus Shopping account, MileagePlus gift card offers and featured store apps all in one place.

One of the best features of this app is that it allows you to find stores near you that offer MileagePlus miles earnings for in-store purchases. In some cases, these merchants may offer as many as 10X miles per dollar. With this feature, you can go about your normal daily routine and earn MileagePlus miles while you’re spending at stores like Starbucks or Forever 21.

Additionally, if you link a co-branded United credit card to your MileagePlus X app, you’ll earn a 25% bonus on all miles that you earn on gift card purchases through the app.

To utilize the United MileagePlus X app, simply search for it in the App Store or the Google Play Store and download the app. Then link your MileagePlus account and start earning miles on the go.

Booking Hotels and Vacation Rentals

United Airlines also has partnerships with several hotel chains that allow you to earn United miles for booking qualifying stays at their locations. Unfortunately, by electing to earn United miles, you’ll be forfeiting your ability to earn hotel points. So, you’ll have to make a decision as to which rewards currency is more valuable to you. In most cases, the hotel points you’d earn for a stay would be more valuable than the United miles you’d earn.

Still, if you have no use for hotel points and you’d rather earn United miles, here is a list of the hotels at which you can earn United miles and their earnings rates:

In addition to earning miles for stays with the aforementioned hotel chains, you can earn miles for stays with hotels by booking through the United Hotels portal. This portal offers 2X miles per dollar spent on any booking made through the portal. There are many hotels available on United Hotels that aren’t among the partner hotels listed above, which means that this is a great way to broaden your miles-earning opportunities.

Another option is to book hotels through Rocketmiles, which allows you to earn between 1,000 and 10,000 United miles per night, depending on the hotel. In general, more expensive bookings will earn more United miles. Unfortunately, booking through Rocketmiles is usually more expensive than booking the same reservation through a different booking engine.

Booking Accommodation with Vrbo

If you’re looking into booking a vacation rental, you should know that you can earn 3X miles per dollar spent when booking stays through Vrbo (a booking platform for vacation rentals, similar to Airbnb). Vrbo allows you to book stays in houses, condos, cabins, yurts, trailers and other types of accommodations. With Vrbo, you’ll earn points only on the rental fare, excluding the cleaning fees, taxes and other fees. Make sure to book through a special link for your miles to be awarded.

Booking Rental Cars

United Airlines has a partnership with Avis and Budget, which means you can earn up to 1,250 United miles by booking rental cars. However, the number of miles you’ll earn depends on whether you have a co-branded United card and if you have United elite status.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Basic MileagePlus members earn 500 miles per rental.
• MileagePlus Chase cardmembers earn 750 miles per rental.
• MileagePlus Premier Silver and Premier Gold members earn 1,000 miles per rental.
• MileagePlus Premier Platinum and Premier 1K members earn 1,250 miles per rental.

Also, as was previously mentioned, some MileagePlus Chase cardmembers and MileagePlus elite status members are also entitled to elite status with Avis, which comes with great perks like discounts and preferential treatment.

Booking Cruises

United has its own cruise-booking platform that allows you to earn up to 45,000 miles per booking. This platform has cruises to destinations all over the world, including Alaska, Bermuda, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.

Basic MileagePlus members earn 2X miles per dollar spent on interior or oceanview staterooms and 4X miles on balcony staterooms or suites, up to 25,000 miles per cruise.

MileagePlus Chase cardmembers earn 4X miles per dollar spent on interior or oceanview staterooms and 7X miles on balcony staterooms or suites, up to 45,000 miles per cruise, when you book with your card.

United Cruises also occasionally offers bonuses of miles for booking certain cruise lines, so you should check to see if you’re eligible to receive any bonuses before booking.

United Vacations and United Packages

If you want to book your flight, hotel, rental car and activities all in one place, you might want to check out the United Packages and United Vacations portals. While the United Packages portal allows you to bundle and save on hotels, rental cars and flights through United’s partnership with Priceline, the United Vacations portal is more geared toward booking curated all-inclusive vacation experiences through partnered travel agencies.

Regardless of which portal sounds more suited to your needs, you can earn United miles by making bookings through either portal. You’ll earn even more when you pay using a co-branded United card. Plus, both of these sites often offer bonuses for booking certain packages or booking at certain times.

Other Partners

United Airlines has a ton of other partnerships that allow you to earn miles on everything from home security systems to flowers to Broadway tickets. Here are some of the partnerships you should be aware of:

As you can see, there are quite a few different ways to earn United miles. Although most of the merchants mentioned above don’t offer large quantities of miles, if you can take advantage of several of these partnerships, it can add up to a significant sum of miles.

Purchasing Miles

At the moment, United miles cost 3.5 cents apiece ($35 for 1,000 miles). Buying miles is rarely a good deal. Keep in mind that the only reason to buy miles is if you need just a few more points for a specific redemption and you have no other way to earn those points.

How to Redeem MileagePlus Miles

By utilizing some of the miles-earning methods that we mentioned in the section above, you can rack up a large balance of miles quickly. However, when it comes time to redeem your hard-earned rewards, you want to make sure that you’re getting the most value possible out of your redemptions.

Let’s look at the ways that you can redeem United MileagePlus miles and which redemption methods offer the best value.

Flying with United Airlines

United Airlines operates one of the largest domestic and international flight networks of any airline in the world with hundreds of destinations to choose from, and that’s not even including its partner flights. Thus, when it comes to booking award flights on United metal, you have a ton of options to choose from, and some of those options offer a ton of value.

United has done away with its award chart and moved to a dynamic pricing model for its award flights. This means that award flight redemption rates are now tied more closely to cash rates and it’s more difficult to find sweet spots within the MileagePlus program. Still, with a bit of due diligence, you can definitely still find some high-value redemptions.

If you want to search for award flights with United, you can simply go to the United website and enter your flight credentials like you normally would. Then, you need to check the “Book with miles” box. Finally, click the “Find flights” button to run the search and see all of your options and their redemption rates.

If you have elite status in the MileagePlus program or you’re a MileagePlus Chase cardmember, you’ll want to log in before searching for your flights. Cardmembers and elite status members get access to additional award inventory for United-operated flights.

When looking for award flights on United metal, the best value is typically in short-haul domestic flights. For instance, here’s a flight from Chicago (ORD) to Orlando, Florida (MCO), for just 7,800 miles.

Sometimes, you can even find short-haul domestic flights for as few as 6,000 miles (or possibly even fewer).

Another redemption that offers solid value is United’s nonstop route from San Francisco (SFO) to Papeete, Tahiti (PPT), which you can fly for as few as 35,000 miles per direction.

This redemption is especially valuable considering that Bora Bora is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world, and you can get there only by routing through Tahiti.

Flying with Partner Airlines

In addition to redeeming your miles for United-operated award flights, you can redeem MileagePlus miles for flights with partner airlines as well. As mentioned before, United has 40 partner airlines, and you can find award flight availability from all of them.

One of the best things about purchasing partner awards through United is that the MileagePlus program doesn’t impose fuel surcharges on partner awards, which can save you a ton of money in some cases.

In other cases, the lack of fuel surcharges is offset by other surcharges that United adds on to partner awards. For example, United might add on a 10,000-mile surcharge for any Star Alliance partner award, which would completely negate any savings you’d get by avoiding the fuel surcharge from that partner airline.

Unfortunately, when United shifted from a fixed award chart to a dynamic pricing model, partner award tickets increased in price across the board. Still, you can find some great value when redeeming your MileagePlus miles for partner awards.

For example, you can often book one-way business-class tickets (and sometimes first-class tickets) with Lufthansa at great rates. We found an award availability in business class from London (LHR) to Munich (MUC) for 27,500 miles plus $59.30 in taxes and fees. That’s a stellar price compared to the cash rate you’d pay for the same flight.

As you can see, you also have the option to fly from London to Munich for just 8,800 in economy class, which is quite affordable.

United Airlines Excursionist Perk

One feature that sets the United Airlines MileagePlus program apart from other airline loyalty programs is their Excursionist Perk. This feature essentially gives you the option to add a stopover to a round-trip award itinerary for zero additional miles (although you may have to pay some additional taxes and fees).

Of course, there are rules about which stopovers you’re allowed to add to your travel itinerary. Here are the basics.

• United MileagePlus has 17 defined award regions that can be found on their website. To qualify for the Excursionist Perk, you must book a round-trip award itinerary with MileagePlus miles that goes between two different regions. For instance, you wouldn’t be eligible if you booked a round-trip ticket between New York City and Boston because they’re in the same award region. However, if you booked a round-trip ticket between New York City and Paris , you would qualify because they’re in different award regions.
• The Excursionist Perk stopover must be confined to a single award region. For instance, on your itinerary from New York City to Paris, you could make a stopover in Barcelona because Paris and Barcelona are in the same award region. However, you can’t make a stopover in Panama City, Panama, because France and Panama are in different award regions.
• Your stopover flight can’t be in a higher class of service than your original itinerary. So, if you booked your original round-trip itinerary in economy class, then your one-way stopover flight can’t be in a class higher than economy.
  Your return airport must be in the same award region as the origin of your itinerary. For instance, if your itinerary originated in New York City, then the last flight of your itinerary must land in the mainland U.S., Alaska or Canada.

While those rules restrict the freedom you have to use your Excursionist Perk, there are still plenty of fun stopovers you can make using this feature. And how can you complain when you’re essentially getting a free one-way flight? Here are some ideas for valuable ways to use the Excursionist Perk.

• Book a round-trip itinerary from your home airport to Lima, Peru (LIM), and add a stopover in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (GPS), for free. Then, fly from the Galapagos Islands back to your home airport.
• Book a round-trip itinerary from your home airport to Sydney (SYD) and add a stopover in Auckland, New Zealand (AKL), for free. Then, fly from Auckland back to your home airport.
• Book a round-trip itinerary from your home airport to Bangkok (BKK) and add a stopover in Bali, Indonesia (DPS), for free. Then, fly from Bali back to your home airport.

There are so many other incredible ways to use the Excursionist Perk, and it’s one of the most valuable features offered by any frequent-flyer program.

To use the Excursionist Perk, click the “Advanced search” button and then choose the “Multi-city” tab. As long as the flights you enter adhere to the rules of the Excursionist Perk, the discount should be applied automatically.

United Hotels

In addition to booking flights, United also has its own hotel booking portal called United Hotels. This portal gives you the option to pay for hotels using United miles. Unfortunately, redeeming your miles this way is usually a bad deal.

We did a quick search and found that a night at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas cost 35,730 miles or $207 in cash for the same night, both excluding taxes and fees. This would yield a value per point of about 0.58 cent, which is generally lower than what you can typically expect to redeem United miles for.

In some cases, redeeming your points through United Hotels may yield and even lower value. In general, you’re much better off purchasing your hotel stays with cash and saving your United miles to redeem for flights.

Transfer United Miles to Marriott Bonvoy

While you can’t transfer your United MileagePlus miles to any other airline loyalty program, United does give you the option to convert your miles to Marriott Bonvoy points at a 1:1 ratio. This usually isn’t a good deal either considering Marriott Bonvoy points are typically valued lower than United miles.

Still, this feature may come in handy if you just need a few points for a certain redemption through Marriott Bonvoy and you have some extra points sitting in your United MileagePlus account. This is pretty much the only time you should transfer United miles, though.

Buy In-Flight Wi-Fi

United gives you the option to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi on domestic United flights using miles. The cost for a one-time Wi-Fi pass varies by the length of the flight. United also offers a monthly Wi-Fi pass that’s good for all United flights that can be purchased for $49 or 7,500 miles. This would yield a value of about 0.65 cent per mile.

Pay for TSA PreCheck

It’s also possible to cover the $85 application fee for TSA PreCheck with 11,000 miles. This would give you a value of 0.77 cent per mile.

You’d be much better off signing up for one of the many credit cards that offer TSA PreCheck or Global Entry application fee reimbursement as a perk, such as the United℠ Explorer Card, which comes with a handsome sign-up bonus.

United MileagePlus Merchandise Awards

In addition to earning United miles by making purchases through the United MileagePlus Shopping portal, United also has another portal that allows you to spend your miles on merchandise called MileagePlus Merchandise Awards. Unfortunately, spending your miles this way usually isn’t a good idea.

For instance, a pair of Bose QuietComfort 45 Headphones is going for 48,700 United miles.

These same headphones retail on Bose’s website for $249, meaning this redemption would yield a value of about 0.51 cent per mile.

Purchase Gift Cards Through the United MileagePlus X App

While using the MileagePlus X app is a great way to earn United miles on everyday purchases, we wouldn’t recommend redeeming your miles through the app. You do have the option to redeem your miles through the MileagePlus X app for gift cards that are immediately available for use, but miles are worth about 0.3 cent apiece when redeemed this way, which is an exceptionally low value.

Purchase Newspaper and Magazine Subscriptions

Like many other frequent-flyer programs, United MileagePlus has a partnership with the third-party company MagsforMiles, which allows you to redeem your United miles for subscriptions to popular magazines and newspapers.

This actually can be a great way to get a lot of value out of your United miles, depending on which magazine subscription you choose. For example, MagsforMiles is currently offering a 44-issue subscription to Washington Examiner for 1,500 miles.

This same 44-issue subscription is currently available on the Washington Examiner website for $49, meaning that your miles would have a value of over 3.2 cents apiece when you redeem them this way.

Miles on a Mission

If you want to use your miles to make a difference in the world, you can donate them to charity through the United MileagePlus Miles on a Mission program. This program partners with more than 100 nonprofit organizations in their hub cities that you can donate to. Here are a few of the charities that they’re working with right now:

These are just a few of the many charities that you can donate your miles to through Miles on a Mission. There is a minimum donation of 1,000 miles and a maximum donation of 999,999 miles for all charities. Other than that, you can donate however many miles you see fit.

The Bottom Line

Considering United operates 4,500 daily flights and is one of the largest airlines in the United States, United MileagePlus is definitely a frequent-flyer program worth paying attention to. You can sign up free of charge and start earning miles for booking flights with United, signing up for a co-branded United credit card and a ton of other ways.

Plus, United Airlines is a member of Star Alliance and has 15 other non-Star Alliance partners (for a total of 40 partner airlines), meaning that you can earn and redeem United miles on flights with any of their partner airlines.

Booking partner flights with United miles can offer great value due to the fact that United doesn’t impose fuel surcharges on partner award flights. When you couple that with the heralded Excursionist Perk, which allows you to add a free stopover to a round-trip award itinerary (restrictions apply), you find some amazing value with the United MileagePlus program.

If you already have a large balance of Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you can transfer them to United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio and start unlocking valuable award flights immediately.