Check out the MileagePlus rewards program
The most treasured reward for your loyalty to the Mileage PlusŪ program is the ability to redeem miles for award travel. Find out how to redeem miles for United award travel and upgrades here.
For most Frequent Flyer programs, and United Mileage Plus in particular, the best use of miles is to use them for flights.
United’s cost of flights in miles is based on region (with one exception, distance is based on flights under 700 miles), so there are certainly some flights that are better value than others.
First of all, there are 2 levels of flights Saver and Standard. Economy rewards are half the cost of standard rewards, but availability is limited, where standard rewards are available on all flights where seats are available for sale. Obviously, this makes Saver Rewards a better option, but if you are looking to book a ticket on a nearly full flight, a Standard Rewards might still be a good option over buying a very expensive paid ticket.
Then there is the ticket class. You can book Economy, Business, or First Class tickets with miles – with Business or First being an incredibly good deal, especially for International. Business class tickets cost only about 60% more than economy class tickets, and the former are only double the price in economy class. If you compare that to paying in cash, where the business will normally cost 3-10 times the cost of saving, and even more, this is a great use of miles.
With the exception of flights under 700 miles, all flights are priced in terms of regions. For example, anywhere in the United States to anywhere else in the United States is 25,000 miles returned as a savings reward. If you were to pay in cash, it could cost you between (say) $ 150 and $ 1,500 – obviously the best use of miles is when the flight sells for a much higher price.
International flights are when things can get of great value. For example, a return trip to Australia from anywhere in the United States is only 80,000 miles in economy – only about 3 times the cost of a round trip to the United States.
The regional pricing, as well as the possibility of making a stopover during a round trip, allow you to make very good trips. For example, you flew from San Francisco to Sydney, then Brisbane to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, then San Francisco – all in Business class, on 4 different airlines, for only 135,000 miles. That’s the same number of miles it would have taken to fly to Sydney on your own, but due to the concept of region, you came back via Asia for the same price as the direct return.
You can also book one-way awards, which are especially useful if the flights are expensive in one direction, but cheap in the other. Most people work miles worth around 2-3 cents each – if it’s cheaper than that just pay cash, otherwise consider using miles. For example, if a flight will cost you 12,500 miles (one-way economy award) and you can buy it for $ 125, then pay in cash! However, if the same flight costs $ 400 (or 3.2 cents / mile), this is a good opportunity to use miles.
A few months ago, United changed the prices of some of its award flights. The biggest change has been that some awards given to partner airlines, especially business / first class, now cost more than US equivalents. Most of the above are still valid, but in terms of better value for points, premium cabin flights on United Airlines now operate cheaper than premium cabin flights on other partner / Star Alliance airlines.
For those passengers who used United miles for airline tickets and felt that there was no better alternative to spending miles. It is very easy to use the miles, you just need to book a ticket and choose award miles. In addition, they can link their hotel awards to their United Miles and this allows them to earn a lot more miles quickly.
How many miles can you earn by booking a plane ticket with United Airlines?
For example, booking two months, a return economy class ticket from Seattle to Hawaii is $ 540, and the lowest first class is $ 1,650.
The cost per kilometer is as follows (round trip) Super Saver: 45,000 miles (83 points per dollar) Standard economy: 90,000 miles (160 points per dollar) First class: 180,000 miles (109 points per dollar).
This is based on the cheapest ticket you could find and the cheapest miles you could find for the next flight, which may not be the same for more expensive flights.
By looking at the redeeem miles table, you can get a $ 25 gift certificate for 500 miles, or a $ 100 gift certificate for 2,000 miles, which equates to 20 points per $, which is much better than the flights.
United’s regional pricing means shorter flights within a region are often not a good buy-back option. For example, it’s the same number of miles for Seattle in Hawaii as for New York in Hawaii, although the latter is almost double the distance and almost always more expensive for paid tickets.
United Airlines offers its customers the benefits of PerksPlus
It is a free corporate program designed to reward small and medium-sized businesses for their business travel within the airline’s vast global network.
PerksPlus is in effect in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela) and in the Caribbean (Antigua and Barbuda , Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Virgin Islands (British and American), as well as other countries.
While passengers can continue to earn miles on MileagePlus, United is offering companies the opportunity to earn points through business trips taken by their employees, with PerksPlus. They can be redeemed for tickets and other United prizes. Points will be awarded on the basis of 1 point for each eligible dollar (income from flights performed; excluding all taxes, fees, surcharges and refunds) multiplied by the value indicated in the associated booking class.
In order to participate in United’s PerksPlus program, the company must have at least five employees, and they cannot be enrolled in any other United corporate discount program.
Among the prizes that can be obtained:
– Business class and economy class tickets
– United Club pass
– Premier MileagePlus category
Program details are subject to change. For more information, you can contact United Airlines customer service.