United Airlines Mileage Plus - United Airlines is among the largest airlines in the U.S. and the world, with domestic hubs in Chicago, Houston, Newark, Denver, San Francisco, Washington-Dulles, Los Angeles and Guam. United Airlines Mileage Plus is the name of the airline’s loyalty program.
The airline operates 4,500 daily flights to more than 300 cities across five continents. In addition, United has partnerships with 18 airlines and is also a member of Star Alliance, which has 26 member airlines. These relationships mean you can earn and redeem miles on 44 airlines, and travel to a great many destinations.
If your home airport is a United stronghold, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with its frequent flyer program so you can start reaping the benefits of the airline’s vast reach.
Follow along as we discuss ways to earn and redeem Mileage Plus miles. You can always get in touch with Airlines Ticket Policy at +1-888-474-0163 for more details.
MileagePlus is United Airlines' frequent flyer loyalty program. When you fly on paid tickets on United Airlines, its airline partners and its Star Alliance partners, you can earn MileagePlus miles. You can also earn miles in many other ways, including using a United credit card, transferring from Chase Ultimate Rewards®, dining, shopping and much more.
Once you’ve accumulated enough miles, you can redeem them for free flights in first, business class and economy seats on United and its partner airlines. You can also redeem miles for flight upgrades.
Moreover, you can contact Airlines Ticket Policy customer support at +1-888-474-0163.
Based on our most recent analysis, Airlines Ticket Policy values United Mileage Plus miles at 1.2 cents apiece. To determine the value of reward miles, we compared cash prices and reward redemptions for economy round-trip routes across several destinations and dates. We divided the cost of the cash ticket by the cost of the reward ticket to determine a “cent per mile” value for each flight, then averaged this value across several flights and dates. Read more about how we arrived at these figures.
Therefore, this is a baseline value for United miles, based on real-world data collected from hundreds of economy routes, not a maximized value. In other words, you should aim for award redemptions that offer 1.2 cents or more in value from your United miles.
To determine the value of your miles for specific flights, divide the cash value of the ticket (less any applicable taxes/fees if you redeem miles) by the number of miles required for the flight. So if the ticket costs either $100, or 15,000 miles + $10 in taxes/fees, the math would be as follows:
($100 – $10) / 15,000 = 0.006, or 0.6 cents per mile.
You can earn miles when you fly on United or its partner airlines, by using a United Airlines credit card and by shopping and dining with partners.
Mileage Plus miles can be redeemed for award flights and many other uses, though none of which are as fruitful.
The miles total you'll earn for a flight depends on how much you spent on the ticket and your status level within the Mileage plus program. All statuses above basic membership earn mile bonuses.
For example, the basic member rewards rate is 5 miles per dollar. But at Premier Silver level, you earn a 40% bonus, which turns your rate into 7 miles per dollar. We'll have more on status levels below — or you can jump ahead to that part now.
Status level |
Miles earned |
Status bonus |
MileagePlus
member (basic) |
5
miles per $1 spent. |
None. |
Premier
Silver |
7
miles per $1 spent. |
40%
bonus compared with basic. |
Premier
Gold |
8
miles per $1 spent. |
60%
bonus compared with basic. |
Premier
Platinum |
9
miles per $1 spent. |
80%
bonus compared with basic. |
Premier
1K |
11
miles per $1 spent. |
120%
bonus compared with basic. |
Earning on other airlines: When the ticket is issued by United (ticket number starting with 016), you’ll earn miles based on the cost of the fare. But if your ticket is booked through one of United’s partners, miles are awarded based on a calculation involving the price and class of the ticket and the flight distance.
Hotels |
You can earn additional
Mileage Plus miles at most major hotel chains. In some cases, you earn 1 or 2
miles per dollar spent; in others, you earn a flat number of miles per stay.
See partner hotels and the earning rules here. |
Dining |
Register a credit card with
Mileage Plus Dining, and every time you use that card at a participating
restaurant, club or bar, you'll earn up to 5 miles per dollar spent. There
are more than 11,000 participating locations. |
Auto rentals and other
transportation |
Hertz-owned rental
agencies, including Dollar and Thrifty, offer the option to earn MileagePlus
miles. Amtrak rail service and select shuttles and car services are also
partners. |
Shopping |
When you shop online
through the MileagePlus Shopping mall, you earn miles for every dollar you spend
at more than 850 retailers. |
Financial partners |
Earn miles when doing
business with lending and insurance partners, among others. |
United Airlines offers co-branded credit cards through Chase. Bonuses between cards vary, so if you’re considering a credit card, take a look at its bonus history to take advantage of a high welcome offer.
Our preferred credit card for the Mileage Plus program is the United℠ Explorer Card. It gives you 2 miles per dollar spent at restaurants, on hotel stays and on purchases from United, and 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases. You also get a great sign-up bonus to start. There's an annual fee, but the checked bag benefit on this card can make up for it quickly.
If you want to buy United miles, you can do so on the Mileage Plus website, but this is generally not a good idea. You'll pay far more than the 1.2 cents per mile at which we value Mileage Plus miles. However, if you need a few thousand miles to top up your account for a valuable award, it could make sense.
Mileage Plus miles are redeemable for flights on United Airlines, on Star Alliance airlines and on United’s independent airline partners. Star Alliance has 26 member airlines and United has partnerships with 14 airlines. All of this means that you can use United miles to fly on 39 airlines, creating many opportunities for traveling the world.
United has a user-friendly search engine, which means that in most cases, you can redeem miles directly on United’s website. Choose a flight, and you'll see what the price is in cash as well as miles.
As one of the world’s largest airlines, United can get you to just about anywhere in the world, whether on their own fleet or via one of their many partners. Being able to do so by using Mileage Plus miles instead of cash just sweetens the deal. Airlines Ticket Policy is here to help you 24*7. They are available on call at their toll-free customer support number +1-888-474-0163.