Earn by flying United
The natural way to earn United miles by flying with the carrier or one of its partners. However, the exact way that you earn United miles depends on several factors: the airline operating the flight, how you booked the flight and your fare class, to name a few. Let’s take a closer look.
United has changed how you earn miles when flying on United-operated flights. Instead of earning based on miles flown, you now earn MileagePlus miles based on your ticket’s base price (minus taxes). You’ll also earn additional miles if you have MileagePlus elite status — the higher your status, the more miles you earn.
Here’s how many miles you’ll earn per dollar spent based on your level of status:
No status – 5 miles
Silver – 7 miles
Gold – 8 miles
Platinum – 9 miles
Premier 1K – 11 miles
Here’s an example of how this works. If you buy a one-way United ticket from Chicago-O’Hare’Hare (ORD) to Des Moines (DSM) with a base fare of $210 and $30 in taxes, you’ll earn 1,050 miles as a MileagePlus traveler without status. However, if you’re a top-tier Premier 1K member, that earning jumps to 2,310 miles.
Note that these earning rates apply even if you’re booked into United’s basic economy fare class, though that has several other restrictions of which you should be aware.
Note that United flights also count toward earning Premier Elite status, though the carrier changed this process significantly for the 2020 qualification year. Instead of earning status based on miles flown, you’ll now earn it based on how many Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) you earn, or a combination of how many PQP you earn and Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) you take. PQP is determined based on how much you spend on flights and PQF is based on the number of segments flown on United or its partner airlines.
Earn with United credit cards
You have a few options when it comes to earning United miles with credit cards. The most obvious of these is earning miles with United cobranded credit cards. You can quickly rack up miles by using these cards to pay for your everyday spending. Additionally, each card has a lucrative welcome bonus that can give you a huge amount of United miles right off the bat — so long as you meet the minimum spending requirement.
Finally, all of the cards come with enhanced award availability when it’s time to redeem your hard-earned miles.
Transfer Ultimate Rewards points to United Airline Miles
Chase Ultimate Rewards is one of the most popular transferable point currencies out there. You can use these points for various redemptions, including paying for paid travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal. However, the most lucrative way to use your Ultimate Rewards points is by transferring points to one of Chase’s airline or hotel transfer partners — and United is one of them. Chase points transfer to United at a 1:1 ratio so that you can turn 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points into 1,000 United miles.
Plus, Ultimate Rewards has various other transfer partners, including Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Avios, and World of Hyatt. This added flexibility is why we recommend earning Ultimate Rewards points over United miles.
Chase’s suite of Ultimate Rewards-earning credit cards may be a better fit for your wallet too. They have broader bonus categories than United’s cobranded cards — for example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers 3x points per dollar spent on travel and dining. Even if you only plan on transferring your points to United, there’s a good chance you’ll come out ahead with an Ultimate Rewards card.
Convert rewards points to United Airline Miles
One of the Marriott Bonvoy program’s best perks is that you can transfer Marriott points to the hotel group’s 40+ airline transfer partners. The vast majority of these airlines transfer at a 3:1 ratio, meaning that three Marriott points equal one airline mile. Plus, you’ll get a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points you transfer.
Better yet, United has a preferred transfer rate due to the airline’s RewardsPlus partnership with Marriott. As of the time of writing, Marriott points transfer to United MileagePlus at a 3:1.1 ratio. This is in addition to the 5,000-mile bonus we mentioned earlier, so transferring 60,000 Marriott points to United results in 27,000 United miles.
To transfer Marriott points to United, log into your Marriott Bonvoy account, head to the Transfer Points to Miles page, and click the Transfer Points button at the center of the screen. Then, select United from the airline drop-down menu, enter your United MileagePlus number and enter how many miles you’d like to transfer. Click the Continue button at the bottom of the window to initiate the transfer, and the miles will appear in your United account within 48 hours.
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