United Airlines MileagePlus Pros and Cons
No fuel surcharges on award tickets
Miles are easy to amass thanks to plenty of credit card options, particularly those which earn Ultimate Rewards points (which can be transferred 1:1 to United MileagePlus)
Premier Platinum and Premier 1K members earn PlusPoints that offer some flexibility in how a member chooses to distribute confirmed upgrades (for example, a Premier Platinum member could use their 40 PlusPoints to upgrade a round trip short-haul flight within the US from economy to business class or choose to upgrade a one-way international flight from economy to business class)
No award charts: this makes it hard to plan for future award travel.
Close-in booking penalty: Partner flights booked close to departure cost additional miles, which can be especially irksome for those partners (like Lufthansa) that do not release premium cabin space to partners until close to departure
Elite status benefits are generally weaker in comparison to Delta
Premier-qualifying points are limited when flying with partner airlines
Earn Miles Mileage earnings depend on both your MileagePlus status and whether you hold a United credit card.
General members
With a United card: 6 miles per dollar
Without a United card: 3 miles per dollar
United MileagePlus® Debit Rewards Card and United Gateway℠ Card unlock the increased cardmember earn rates after spending $10,000 on the card within a calendar year.
Elite members earn higher rates based on status:
Premier Silver: 8 (with card) / 5 (without)
Premier Gold: 9 (with card) / 6 (without)
Premier Platinum: 10 (with card) / 7 (without)
Premier 1K: 12 (with card) / 9 (without)
Exceptions:
Certain unpublished, consolidator/bulk, group, tour and opaque tickets where the fare you paid is not provided to United (like with vacation packages, cruise packages, consolidator fares, etc.) are considered “exception fares”. With these flights, you’ll earn miles based on the distance flown and fare class. Details can be found here .
Partner flights that are not marketed by United earn miles based on the distance flown. Details vary by partner. Details can be found here .
Miles can be earned from credit card welcome bonuses and from credit card spend. In general, while earning lots of miles through new-card welcome bonuses, earning from spend is not usually a good idea with this card. There are many other cards on the market that offer much better rewards for everyday spend. More information about the United credit cards can be found in the credit card section later in this post.
Chase Ultimate Rewards
Chase offers a number of credit cards where you earn Ultimate Reward points instead, and with these cards you’ll actually earn more points on category bonus purchases than you would per dollar versus using your United credit card where you’ll earn in MileagePlus miles.
This is particularly interesting here because Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer 1 to 1 to United. Even if your main goal is to earn United miles through spend, you would most likely be better off earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points first. Then, you’d also have the great benefit of being able to use points for other purposes besides United.
For more details, see: Chase Ultimate Rewards Guide .
Marriott Bonvoy®
Marriott points can be transferred to most airline partners at a rate of 3-to-1, where for every three Marriott Bonvoy® points, you’ll receive one mile in your partner airline of choice. And, when you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy® points at a time, you earn 5,000 extra miles (in other words, 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points converts to 25,000 airline miles in most cases).
However, Marriott has a special partnership with United where you’ll receive 10,000 miles for every 60,000 transferred points (instead of the 5,000 mile bonus).
For more, see: Marriott Bonvoy Complete Guide .
Online Shopping
United operates a shopping portal: United MileagePlus shopping . Start your online shopping at their portal and click through to your favorite retailers to earn miles per dollar spent. Keep an eye out for shopping portal promos for chances to earn additional bonus miles for shopping.
In-person shopping
United also offers card-linked offers for in-store shopping where you can earn bonus United miles at some stores when shopping in-store with a credit card linked to the program (this can be any linked card, it is not limited to being a United credit card).
Gift Cards via MileagePlus X (MPX app)
United’s MileagePlus X app (called MPX for short) offers the ability to buy gift cards instantly and earn bonus miles. The idea here is that you could presumably use this app to buy gift cards for in-store purchases while standing in the checkout lane (in many cases you are able to buy an exact dollar amount to cover your purchase to the penny), but this also works for buying gift cards to use for online purchases. Miles per dollar earned varies by retailer and Chase United credit card holders get a 25% mileage bonus no matter what credit card they use for checkout. It’s important to note that credit cards with bonus categories often (but not always) award bonuses based on the gift card bought. For example, if you buy a restaurant gift card then it is best pay with a credit card that offers a bonus for restaurant purchases.
Marriott Vacation Club
Marriott vacation club owners can exchange points for miles, starting at 500 Vacation Club Points for 8,000 miles. See more at this page .
United MileagePlus Dining
Like many airlines, United offers a dining program (called United MileagePlus Dining ) to allow you to earn miles when you dine at a restaurant and pay with a card linked to the dining program. This works like other in-store card-linked offers and is stackable with any card category bonuses and may be even be stackable with other card-linked programs.
Other partners including hotels, cruises, etc
United has a number of other partnerships that allow for the opportunity to earn miles with partners on cruises, rental cars, hotel stays, and more. See more details here .
Spend Miles Booking flights with United miles is easy. On United.com, simply check the box to “Book with miles” when searching for flights. United defaults to showing results for a week at a time, but you can also select “Flexible Dates” on the home page search to see a calendar view of 2 months at a time.
Award booking tips Award bookings are quite easily done online via United.com for both United flights and its many Star Alliance and non-alliance partners. Here are a few tips:
United cardholders have an advantage when it comes to unlocking Saver Award discounts, with opportunities to save at least 10% on flights, and up to 15% for those with Premier status.
United Cardholders, as well as loyalty members with Platinum and 1K status, get access to Saver Awards in United Polaris® Business Class.
United no longer has an award chart. Prices can be especially variable for flights operated by United, but partner awards are more predictable.No fuel surcharges means that there is typically no monetary advantage of one partner over another.
Best uses of miles The value of United miles has quite a bit of variance, but one can reasonably expect to get around 1.3 cents per mile for domestic US flights. For international flights, particularly in premium cabins with partner airlines, the value one can get per mile can be substantially more.
United no longer has an award chart and rarely has the lowest award price for any given region pair, but the lack of fuel surcharges and the ease of amassing United miles (especially via 1:1 Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers) can make them an easy choice for partner premium cabin redemptions.
Note: United eliminated the Excursionist Perk on August 21, 2025. Previously, this benefit allowed members to add a free one-way flight within a foreign region as part of a qualifying round-trip award. With the perk gone, United miles are best valued for one-way and round-trip awards, particularly long-haul premium cabin flights on Star Alliance partners where the lack of fuel surcharges shines.
Award partners United has many partners via the Star Alliance as well as additional non-alliance partners. All should be bookable online via United.com:
Aegean
Air Canada
Air China
Air India
Air New Zealand
ANA
Asiana Airlines
Austrian
Avianca
Brussels Airlines
Copa Airlines
Croatia Airlines
Egyptair
Ethiopian
EVA Air
LOT Polish Airlines
Lufthansa
SAS
Shenzhen Airlines
Singapore Airlines
South African Airways
Swiss
TAP Air Portugal
Thai Airways
Turkish Airlines
Juneyao Air
Aer Lingus
Air Dolomiti
Airlink
Azul
Cape Air
Discover
Edelweiss
Emirates
Europwings
Flydubai
JSX
Lufthansa City Air
Olympic Air
Silver Airways
Virgin Australia
Award Change & Cancellation Fees At the time of writing this article, United charges no change or redeposit fees on award tickets, regardless of origin or destination. The one exception is no-shows: if you fail to cancel before departure, United charges a $125 fee to redeposit your miles. It’s always best to review the current cancellation and change terms before booking your award flight. You can review United’s current terms here.
United Elite Status
Most airlines offer extra benefits to their most valuable customers. This is usually handled through elite status. If you fly enough with an airline, you can become “elite.” Of course, not all elites are equal. Most airlines have multiple elite tiers to differentiate their valuable customers from their really valuable customers. And, of course, airlines offer the best perks to their highest tier elites.
United does the same. They offer elite tiers ranging from Premier Silver status to Premier 1K status. Silver status perks are only slightly better than those you get from holding a United branded credit card. Premier 1K perks can be quite nice.
Premier Silver: 15 PQF and 5,000 PQP or 6,000 PQP
Premier Gold: 30 PQF and 10,000 PQP or 12,000 PQP
Premier Platinum: 45 PQF and 15,000 PQP or 18,000 PQP
Premier 1K: 60 PQF and 22,000 PQP or 28,000 PQP
Definitions:
PQFs: Premier-qualifying flights. Essentially, this means flight segments. At least 4 must be flown on United or United Express.
PQPs: Premier-qualifying points. Essentially, these are points awarded based on how much you spend on United flights. PQPs are earned based on the base fare and carrier-imposed surcharge of flight purchases, along with seating purchases and paid upgrades.
Explanation : United allows you to earn elite status based on either a minimum number of segments and money spent with the airline or by spending enough money alone regardless of how many times or how much distance you have flown. Those who buy expensive flights may be able to reach United elite status without having flown very many segments at all, but on the other hand the amount you need to spend is reduced slightly if you fly United and its partners often.
Premier-qualifying points are essentially awarded as 1 point per dollar spent on base fare with United.
PQPs are calculated differently for partner-operated flights depending on whether you fly a “preferred partner” or another MileagePlus partner. In either case, the number of PQPs is calculated by dividing the number of award miles earned on that flight by either 5 or 6:
Preferred partner PQPs: Award miles divided by 5
MileagePlus partner PQPs: Award miles divided by 6
In other words, if you take a paid flight with a partner that would ordinarily earn 1,000 United miles, you’ll earn 200 PQPs if they are a preferred partner or 166.66 PQPs if they are not a preferred partner.
Note that you can earn a maximum of the following number of PQPs per flight for trips operated by partners:
Preferred partner:
Max of 1,500 PQPs for first/business
Max of 750 PQPs for economy/premium economy
MileagePlus partner:
Max of 1,000 PQPs for first/business
Max of 500 PQPs for economy/premium economy
Bulk tickets, like those purchased through a consolidator or vacation package, are treated differently. See this page for more details .
Elite Benefits United’s elite benefits can be found here . Here is a quick summary of the key benefits:
Premier Silver : Free economy plus seating at check-in for member + 1 companion, 1 free checked bag up to 70lbs, 8x miles with United card / 5x withoutPremier Gold : Free economy plus seating at booking for member + 1 companion, 2 free checked bags up to 70lbs, Star Alliance Gold (access Star Alliance lounges but not United Clubs), 9x miles with United card / 6x withoutPremier Platinum : Free economy plus seating for member + up to 8 companions, 3 free checked bags up to 70lbs, 40 PlusPoints (which can be used for upgrades), 10x miles with United card / 7x withoutPremier 1K : Premier Platinum benefits with 280 PlusPoints (plus an additional 20 PlusPoints for every 3,000 PQP earned above 22,000 PQP), pre-boarding, 1 free drink and snack in economy class, 12x miles with United card / 9x without
Elite Upgrades In addition to complimentary operational upgrades, Premier Platinum and Premier 1K members receive PlusPoints which can be used to confirm upgrades in advance.
The number of PlusPoints required to upgrade a flight depends on distance and fare class being upgraded.
Generally, economy to business class costs 20 PlusPoints each way on short-haul flights or 40 PlusPoints on long-haul flights (though discounted economy fares cost 80 PlusPoints each way on long-haul flights).
Credit cards
