United Airlines’ MileagePlus Program 2024 Guide

One of the best ways to use United miles is for free flights on United Airlines and on its 25 Star Alliance airline partners. First, let’s look at booking flights on United.

The United award chart used to be the first stop for determining the number of miles needed to book an award ticket. With the move to dynamic pricing, you’ll simply need to head to united.com and plug in your origin, destination and date(s) of travel to find out how much an award ticket costs. You can book awards over the phone, but United’s website has a sophisticated award search that will return plenty of results — plus, you’ll avoid the $25 phone booking fee charged to everyone except members with the two highest levels of elite status.

United has two levels of awards for each cabin class: Saver and Everyday:

• Saver awards are cheaper, but availability at this level is limited.
• Everyday award seats are plentiful, but the value per mile is poor

There is no difference between the awards aside from these factors.

United award flight prices vary substantially based on the cabin class and when you’re flying.

Example: Economy Saver Award prices for the short hop from San Francisco to Los Angeles run as low as 5,100 miles, while a first-class Everyday Award for the same hop costs around 30,000 miles.

Your trip to see family for the holidays may cost more as well.

Example: Transcontinental flights from San Francisco to Newark generally start at 12,200 one-way as an economy Saver Award. However, an ideally-timed nonstop economy flight on Dec. 23 costs 32,500 United miles, nearly three times the price.

Flights between the U.S. and other continents are subject to variable pricing as well. It used to be easy to calculate the cost for a Saver Award using the United award chart, but that’s no longer an option.

Example: Economy Saver Awards between the U.S. and Australia start at 40,000 miles on United flights. On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll pay as much as 325,000 miles for a business-class Everyday Award to the Central and Southern Africa zone.

United’s airline partners are a big part of what makes United miles valuable. Booking on Star Alliance partners can offer some of the highest value United award redemptions. You can find especially good values when choosing business- or first-class on airlines known for their incredible in-flight experiences.

Previously, the United award chart had different pricing for United flights versus partner flights for some regional pairs. For example, business-class partner flights between the U.S. and Europe cost 70,000 miles one-way versus just 60,000 miles on United-operated flights. Although prices are no longer published, this trend is still widespread under the dynamic pricing model.

Apart from a long list of airline partners and the ease of booking online, another factor that increases the value of United miles is its “Excursionist Perk.”

Put simply, this perk allows you one free one-way flight embedded within a multi-city award ticket, allowing you to visit two or more cities for the price of one.

As always, though, there are some restrictions:

• Your trip must start and end in the same award region, as defined by United.
• The free one-way ticket using the Excursionist Perk must have an origin and destination within the same award region, as defined by United.
• The cabin of service and award inventory of the free one-way award is the same or lower than the one-way award preceding it (i.e., if your first one-way ticket is in business class, you can get your free one-way flight in either business or economy).
• If multiple one-way awards qualify as an Excursionist Perk based on the above criteria (i.e., by being wholly within a single MileagePlus award region), only the first of these awards will be free. You can ticket extra segments into a multi-city itinerary, but you cannot use the Excursionist Perk more than once on a single ticket.

A common way to take advantage of the Excursionist Perk is to add an extra city into a European itinerary. Here’s an example United provides:

• Chicago (ORD) to London (LHR): 30,000 miles
• London (LHR) to Paris (CDG): 0 miles (this is your Excursionist Perk)
• Paris (CDG) to Chicago (ORD): 30,000 miles

If you want to visit more cities, you can always add them after the Excursionist Perk, but you’ll have to pay the regular price for a one-way award.

However, you can do much more with the United Excursionist Perk. The fact that your ticket needs to begin and end in the same region means, for example, you could depart from the U.S. to Europe as your first segment. Then you could return to the U.S. from Southeast Asia — you won’t need to return from Europe.

You can also add as many “open-jaws” (i.e., breaks in your segments) into your itinerary as you’d like. The Excursionist Perk segment doesn’t even have to be in the same destination zone of your first qualifying one-way award. Here is a more advanced use of the Excursionist Perk:

• Chicago (ORD) to Copenhagen (LHR) in SAS business class: 77,000 miles
• Transit overland to Paris by train, stopping in Amsterdam for a couple of days along the way
• Paris (CDG) to Singapore (SIN) on a separate one-way ticket
• Singapore (SIN) to Hong Kong (HKG) in business class: 0 miles (this is your Excursionist Perk )
• Hong Kong (HKG) to Taipei (TPE) on a cheap cash ticket
• Taipei (TPE) to Chicago (ORD) in EVA Air economy: 38,500 miles

There’s even more you can do with the Excursionist Perk. Go play with the multi-city award search tool.

You can use your miles to make your upcoming flight much more comfortable and luxurious by snagging space in a premium cabin. Here are four ways you can get an upgrade with United miles:

1. Get a United upgrade during booking. You can request a United upgrade award during booking. To do so, sign in to your MileagePlus account and choose “Advanced search options.” Search for your flight and choose “MileagePlus Upgrade Awards.” If no flights show upgrade availability, you can book and request an upgrade later.
2. Request a United upgrade after booking. You can get an upgrade after booking in several ways: You can sign in to your MileagePlus account and pull up your reservation to make the request online, call your dedicated Premier elite service line or United Reservations at 800-UNITED-1 (800-864-8331), or talk with a United representative at a check-in counter or at the gate within 24 hours of departure.
3. Choose a PlusPoints upgrade. You can also get what United calls a PlusPoints upgrade during or after booking a flight on United or a partner airline. During booking, go to “Advanced search options” and choose “PlusPoints Upgrades” from the dropdown menu of upgrade types. For an existing reservation, you can request a PlusPoints upgrade at United.com, through the mobile app by clicking the “Upgrade reservation” link or by calling your dedicated Premier service line.
4. Get a Star Alliance upgrade. You also may be able to use United miles to buy a one-cabin upgrade on eligible flights on certain Star Alliance partner airlines. You can request these upgrades for up to four people per reservation (even if you’re not traveling with them). You can get these upgrades up to 24 hours before departure.

Using United miles for upgrades can be a good way to use your rewards and, depending on the upgrade and the flight, can offer an excellent value.

Award flights are by far the best way to redeem your United MileagePlus miles, as you’ll generally get more than 1 cent per mile based on LendingTree’s valuation. However, there are other redemption options if you don’t wish to book flights, including:

• Car rentals: You can use miles to book a rental car with Avis and Budget through the MileagePlus Car Awards booking portal.
• Cruises: Redeem your United miles for cruises to many destinations.
• Experiences and events: You can use your miles to book unique events and experiences.
• Hotel stays: You can use your miles to book stays at hotels and resorts around the world by using the United Hotels booking portal.
• In-flight Wi-Fi: Use your miles to pay for in-flight Wi-Fi on United flights.
• Magazine subscriptions: Use your United miles to subscribe to your favorite magazine or give a subscription as a gift.
• Gift cards: Use your United miles to buy electronic gift cards from a variety of retailers and restaurants, from Apple and Lowe’s to Starbucks and Walmart.
• Merchandise: You can use the MileagePlus Merchandise Awards portal to shop with United miles for merchandise, from electronics and luggage to jewelry and sports equipment, from a variety of retailers.
• TSA PreCheck: Use your United miles to give yourself the gift of a speedy and more convenient trip through airport security.
• United Club membership: Redeem United miles for an airport lounge membership so you can have space to rest or work between flights.

In general, redeeming miles in these ways will yield less value than award flights. For example, redeeming United miles for hotel stays, car rentals or TSA PreCheck membership all yield less than 1 cent per mile. Redeeming miles for merchandise will give you little more than half a cent per mile. It is highly recommended to redeem your miles for award flights.

You can check out all the ways to redeem miles here.

It’s totally free to sign up for United MileagePlus, so you can get a frequent flyer number and start earning miles that can get you free flights and other rewards. However, you’ll need to spend money with United and its partner airlines, or sign up for a United credit card, in order to earn enough miles to make the program worthwhile.

No, United MileagePlus is not a credit card. MileagePlus is the frequent flyer program for United Airlines. However, you can open a United Airlines co-branded credit card that will allow you to earn United miles by making everyday purchases. These cards also provide welcome bonuses and perks such as free checked bags.

If you misplaced your MileagePlus number, you can go to the MileagePlus sign-in page and click the “Forgot MileagePlus number?” link below the space where you enter your MileagePlus number to sign in. Or you can use this Forgot MileagePlus number link. Either way, you’ll end up on a page where you can enter your first name, last name, email address and date of birth and click the “Submit” button. United will then send you an email with your MileagePlus number. If you don’t get an email or still need help finding your MileagePlus number, you can call the MileagePlus service center at 800-421-4655.

You can join the United MileagePlus program for free by filling out an online form. When you sign up, you become a MileagePlus member and you get a frequent flyer number that you’ll use when making reservations with United and partner airlines to earn miles and credit toward elite status. You also can earn miles in other ways, such as opening a United credit card with a welcome bonus or shopping through the MileagePlus shopping portal. When you earn enough miles, you can redeem them for free flights and other rewards.

You cannot add family members to your MileagePlus account. Each family member ages 18 and older must create their own account. You can create an account for your children if they are under 18.

MileagePlus members can submit a request for mileage credit online for United flights dating back six months. To request mileage credit for other travel bookings, you must call the MileagePlus Service Center at 1-800-421-4655.

You can transfer MileagePlus miles to another member. Transfers start at 500 miles and go up to a maximum of 100,000 miles. Mileage transfers cost $7.50 per 500 miles plus a $30 processing fee per transaction.

You can request to merge United Mileage accounts if you have more than one account. Requests can take up to seven days to process. Also, your full name must match between the accounts to be eligible to merge them.

United MileagePlus miles never expire as long as your account is open and in good standing. Members can redeem their miles or save them up over time.

You can sign up for United MileagePlus by filling out an online enrollment form. You fill in your name, birth date, gender, address, mobile phone number and email address. You choose five security questions and answers and a password. Once you’ve signed up, you get a frequent flyer number and you can start earning miles — it takes only a few minutes.