United offering up to 50,000 bonus miles for flying

In a refreshing change of pace, United is offering a bonus of up to 50,000 miles if you fly on their airline. Considering they’re making billions of dollars a year in profit, it’s nice to see them giving a little back to fliers in the next couple of months. Your individual offer may be more or less (or not at all), as United is marketing this as an “exclusive offer” but the three people I’ve checked with have the same offer as me. One friend of ours didn’t qualify so “Your Miles May Vary” as they say…

There are three levels to their promotional offer, and if you’ve got some United flying coming up in the next 7 weeks, this could be really good for you.

United Dreamliner via YouTube and Kris Trexler

United Dreamliner via YouTube and Kris Trexler

Note that all the promotion levels require spending on United fares. This will include ONLY the base fare and will not take into account taxes and fees that the airline tacks on. This also means that if you wanted to fly on a United Codeshare with any StarAlliance partner, it’s a no go. United metal or nothing. Here’s a copy of the mailer that they sent out to remind me to fly with them:

United Mileage Plus Bonus Offer

United Mileage Plus Bonus Offer

The first level requires $500 of spend, that’ll earn you 10,000 bonus miles. The second level is $1,000 of spend, and you’ll earn an additional 15,000 miles. The third level is $2,500 in spend, earning you an additional 25,000 miles for a total of 50,000 miles as a bonus for spending $2,500.

Depending on your elite level, you’re going to be paying between 2-3.5 cents per mile, and if nothing else for a mileage run, that’s a pretty good level.

Head over to United’s splash page to register for the promotion. When you go there, the first screen will come up asking for your frequent flyer number,

United Splash Page

United Splash Page

and then your exclusive offer will come up.

50000 miles bonus!

50000 miles bonus!

Make sure to register for this promotion BEFORE you buy your tickets to take advantage of the offer.

I’d even considered doing a straight mileage run over the holiday. Since distance doesn’t matter with United, there’s lots of options for the $1,000 level for a quick weekend jaunt somewhere (in business class, of course). As a silver elite member, I’d earn 7 miles/$, another 3 miles for putting it on my credit card. That’s 10 miles per dollar.

10 miles/dollar = 10,000 miles

Bonus miles offer = 25,000 miles

Total miles earned = 35,000 minimum. That’s 2.8 cents a mile, and a pretty good value for a mileage run!

So, United flyers out there… does this offer make you want to jump on a mileage run? Are you able to take advantage of this offer for some of your flights? Was your mileage offer different from ours? Did you get a big zero? Let us know in the comments below!

 

Author: Jon Nickel-D'Andrea

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12 Comments

  1. Can I buy a United ticket and credit to another program and still get the bonus miles?

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    • Nope. You’ve got to credit it to United to get the bonus 🙁

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  2. My offer was different (worse :():

    Spend $2,000 total, get 10,000 bonus miles.
    Spend $2,500 total, get 15,000 more bonus miles.
    Spend $4,000 total, get 25,000 more bonus miles.

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    • Womp Womp 🙁

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  3. Nowhere near new. This is about 5 months old.

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    • Was new to a lot of people :). Including me!

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  4. My targeted offer was $2,000 for 8,000 miles, $2,500 total for 12,000 additional miles, $3,500 total for 20,000 additional miles. Not really worth it for me to make a specific spending run.

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  5. My levels are $2K spend for the first 10k bonus miles going up to $4k for the last 25K of bonus miles. No bargain, I’ll fly on LH metal.

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  6. I’ve been on this for a while, but my offer is very different than yours. My entry level spend is $10,500 to get 20k miles, then $12,000 for 29k, and then $14,500 for 48k. Total of 97,000 possible miles if I spend a ton more money. I’m a 1k and I don’t think I’ll make it. This offer seems more targeted to the casual traveler who has lower spending limits.

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    • Good lord! I haven’t seen an offer that high. But then again, if you’re a 1k and you’re spending that kind of money anyway, free miles are free miles…

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