United Airlines is one of the largest carriers in the United States in terms of passenger volume and fleet size. It’s also a member of Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance in the world, which gives you access to even more flights worldwide. If you’re a frequent traveler – either domestically or globally – you’ll want to consider joining MileagePlus, regarded as one of the best frequent flyer programs for earning & redeeming points/miles.
Let’s take a closer look at United Airlines MileagePlus below.
See the best credit card sign-up bonuses here
| Domestic hubs | Chicago, Denver, Guam, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, Washington D.C. |
| Personal credit cards | United Club℠ Infinite Card United℠ Explorer Card |
| Business credit cards | United Club℠ Business Card United℠ Business Card |
| Redemption options | Award flights, seat upgrades, hotel stays, rental cars, cruise vacations, TSA Precheck, United WiFi, United Club, merchandise, dining, gift cards, experiences, magazines, newspapers, transfer & donate miles. |
| Average mile value | $0.014 |
MileagePlus Premier Status
When you sign up for MileagePlus®, you’ll get a basic membership with a frequent flyer number. This allows you to rack up on miles. If you want to enjoy more valuable VIP perks, you’ll have to earn Premier status.
To get Premier status, you need to earn a certain amount of Premier Qualifying Flight (PQF) and a certain amount of Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) within a calendar year.
PQF are earned based on the number of flight segments flown with United or its partners.
PQP are earned based on the base fare and carrier-imposed surcharge of flight purchases, along with seating purchases and upgrades. Note: You can earn PQP with eligible MileagePlus credit cards.
The information here is the requirement during normal times. Due to the global travel situation in 2020, United has made several temporary changes to the Premier status program, including reducing the PQF and PQP requirement by half and extending status to January 31, 2022. Please go there for up-to-date information.
| Premier Status | Requirements |
| Premier Silver | 12 PQF + 4,000 PQP or 5,000 PQP* |
| Premier Gold | 24 PQF + 8,000 PQP or 10,000 PQP* |
| Premier Platinum | 36 PQF + 12,000 PQP or 15,000 PQP* |
| Premier 1K | 54K PQF + 18,000 PQP or 24,000 PQP* |
*Must also have a minimum of 4 PQF flown on United or United Express.
** Source: United Airlines MileagePlus homepage
In normal times, you’ll have Premier status once you qualify until the end of the following calendar year.
With Premier status, you’ll enjoy:
- Mileage bonuses
- Seat upgrades
- Priority check-in
- Free checked baggage
- Better award seat availability
- Discounted or waived fees
- And more!
Premier Gold status and higher have lounge access when traveling internationally. For more reading on the worth of United Premier Elite status, click here.
Earning MileagePlus Miles With Co-Branded Credit Cards
UNITED CLUB℠ INFINITE CARD
The United Club℠ Infinite Card from Chase is offering 80,000 bonus miles offer after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months of account opening. We value these miles at around $1,120. Additionally, this premium card offers complimentary United Club membership, worth up to $650 a year.
Cardholders earn 4X miles on United® purchases including tickets, Economy Plus, inflight food, beverages and Wi-Fi, and other United charges; 2X on all other travel; and 2X on dining including eligible delivery services.
You’ll earn 1 MileagePlus mile per $1 spent on all other purchases.
Other valuable benefits offered by this card include free checked bags, priority airport service and 25% discount on United® purchases.
This is a card designed for the loyal United flyer.
CHASE UNITED℠ EXPLORER CARD
The Chase United℠ Explorer Card from Chase has an offer for up to 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 total in the first 3 months. We value these 50k miles at around $700.
The card earns 2X miles on dining and eligible delivery services, hotel stays and United® purchases. United purchases include:
- Tickets
- Economy Plus
- Inflight food, beverages, Wi-Fi
- Other United charges
You’ll earn 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases.
Other benefits include up to $100 as a statement credit for the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck™ application fee every 4 years. You and a traveling companion on the same reservation will each receive the first standard checked bag free. This card provides priority boarding privileges and 2 one-time passes each year to United Clubs.
The Chase United Explorer Card has a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95 thereafter.
Co-branded business cards include United Club℠ Business Card and United℠ Business Card cards.
Earning MileagePlus Miles With Partners and Buying Miles
Earn MileagePlus miles when you fly with United Airlines. The number of miles you’ll get depends on how much you spend and your MileagePlus status level.
| Status Level | Status Bonus | Miles Earned |
| Basic | 0% | 5x miles |
| Premier Silver | 40% | 7x miles |
| Premier Gold | 60% | 8x miles |
| Premier Platinum | 80% | 9x miles |
| Premier 1K | 120% | 11x miles |
Keep in mind, you don’t earn miles on government taxes and fees.
*Source: United Airlines Earning Miles page
Earn MileagePlus miles when you fly with one of United’s 35 partner airlines. The amount of miles you’ll get depends on price, fare class and flight distance.
Star Alliance partners include:
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Air
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
Other airline partners include:
- Aer Lingus
- AEROMAR
- Air Dolomiti
- Azul
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Olympic Air
- Silver Airlines
Source: UAL Airline partners and global alliances page.
You can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy points to MileagePlus miles.
Chase Ultimate Rewards. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve® or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card credit card, transfer your points to miles at a 1:1 ratio in 1,000-point increments.
Marriott Bonvoy. Thanks to MileagePlus’s special partnership with Marriott Bonvoy, you get 10% more miles when you convert your points to miles. Plus, get a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points you transfer. Minimum to convert is 3,000 points with a maximum of 240,000 points per day.
Hotels. Book your stay directly at 15,000+ partner hotels worldwide or via a partner booking service and earn MileagePlus miles. For a complete list of participating hotels and booking sites, click here.
Transportation. Rack up on MileagePlus miles when you take a cruise, rent a car or use a partner ground transportation service. For more details, click here.
You’ll also earn MileagePlus miles in the following ways:
We generally don’t recommend it, but you can purchase additional miles if you’re short of an award. Usually the price you’d pay is far more than what they’re worth at redemption.
Redeeming MileagePlus Miles
Good news! Recently, United Airlines got rid of the 18-month expiration date on their miles. That means the rewards you earn will remain in your account and available for redemption indefinitely.
Use your MileagePlus miles for award flights with United Airlines. Choose from two different levels of award seats:
Saver Awards are cheaper. However, there are a limited number available.
Everyday Awards are more plentiful, but they also require more miles. Premier status and MileagePlus credit card members are able to book any seat – down to the last one – at the Everyday Awards level.
MileagePlus used to publish an award chart, up until November 15, 2019. The frequent flyer program has since done away with it, pricing award flights based on demand instead.
Take advantage of the Excursionist Perk, a free one-way award within select multi-city itineraries. For more information, click here.
Use your MileagePlus miles to fly on any Star Alliance network airline. Choose from over 1,000 destinations worldwide and more than 20,000 daily flights across 28 carriers:
- ADRIA Airways
- Aegean Airlines
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- ANA
- Asiana
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca
- Brussels Airlines
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- EgyptAir
- Ethiopian Airlines
- EVA Airways
- Juneyao Airlines
- LOT Polish Airlines
- Lufthansa
- SAS
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airways
- SWISS
- TAP Portugal
- Thai Airways
- Turkish Airlines
For the most up-to-date list of UAL’s airline partners, click here.
Use your MileagePlus miles to upgrade a paid or award ticket on United Airlines, or a paid ticket on select Star Alliance partners. Upgrade award pricing depends on region of travel, seat type requested, fare class and your Premier status (if applicable).
For more information, click here.
Use your MileagePlus miles for hotel awards, car awards, cruise awards and to enhance your travel with United Airlines. The latter includes the TSA Precheck application fee, a United WiFi subscription and United Club membership.
Other ways you can use your MileagePlus miles include:
| Shopping & Dining | Merchandise awards Apple products FTD flowers & gifts Airport dining |
| Gift Cards | MileagePlus X gift cards MileagePlus eGift cards |
| Subscriptions | Magazines Newspapers |
| Other | Transfer or give miles Donate miles |
MileagePlus Tips & Tricks
Award flights. As long as you’re getting at least $0.01 for each MileagePlus miles, we’d say it’s a decent redemption. If you can get more for your miles, even better.
Seat upgrades. Upgrading to a better seat can be another good use for your miles, as long as you’re getting more than $0.01 each mile. In general, upgrading from a cheaper fare class will cost more. Keep in mind, some upgrades to business or first class requires a combination of miles and cash.
Stay away from any redemption that will yield a value lower than $0.01 each mile. That includes hotel stays, car rentals, cruises, gift cards and United Club membership fees.
Open a Chase card that earns transferable Ultimate Rewards points, and you’ll be able to rack up on loads of rewards you can convert into MileagePlus miles at a 1:1 ratio.
CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED® CARD
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card currently has an offer for 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Redeeming the 60,000 bonus points through the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, which is praised by users, will get you $750 in value towards travel. The 60K bonus points are worth $750 because you get 25% more value whenever you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Even better, strategize with Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer partners to potentially get even more value. Each point can be worth up to 2 cents apiece (60k points = ~$1,200). Read more on this here.
CHASE SAPPHIRE RESERVE®
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® card is offering 80,000 bonus points (worth up to $1,600 in travel per our valuations). You’ll need to spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening to qualify for the bonus. These 80k points are redeemable for $1,200 toward travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
This is a premium travel card with a premium annual fee of $550. But, you’ll receive premium benefits such as 5X points on air travel, 10x points spent on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards® immediately after earning your $300 annual travel credit, 3X points on all other travel and dining, and 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.
The card also features an application fee credit (up to $100) for Global Entry or TSA Pre✓®, access to 1,300+ airport lounges with Priority Pass Select, and 50% more in travel redemption through Chase Ultimate Rewards. With Pay Yourself BackSM, your points are worth 50% more for existing purchases in select, rotating categories.
INK BUSINESS PREFERRED® CREDIT CARD
The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card from Chase has a new cardmember offer for 100,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after opening.
These bonus points are worth $1,250 towards travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Or, transfer points over to Ultimate Rewards travel partners to potentially get even more value – up to an average $2,000 for 100k points. Read more about this here.
This card earns 3 points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable and phone services, and on advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year. You’ll earn unlimited 1 Point Per $1 spent on all other purchases.
The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card earns Ultimate Rewards points. This makes it a great choice for pairing with the non-business Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve®. You’ll be able to pool points together for faster rewards.
This card has a $95 annual fee.
If you have Marriott Bonvoy Titanium elite status, you have free, automatic MileagePlus Premier Silver status – without ever having flown United Airlines.
To obtain Titanium Elite status, you’ll need to earn 75 qualifying nights via Marriott Bonvoy.
Bottom Line
If you live near a United Airlines hub, or you can take advantage of the carrier’s many airline partnerships, then joining MileagePlus will be worth your while. There are a variety of ways to earn miles and plenty of ways to burn them. The average MileagePlus mile holds good value. Plus, award booking is easy with no fuel surcharges.
READ MORE: SEE THE BEST BANK BONUSES HERE AND THE BEST INVESTING BONUSES HERE.
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