United MileagePlus Archives - Travel With Miles

6000 Bonus United Miles for shopping online!

This time of year brings a bunch of holiday shopping promotions where you can earn tons of extra miles! United MileagePlus Shopping just announced a promotion where you can get up to 6000 bonus miles on top of what you would normally receive. If you have never shopped online and earned miles then check out this article on Online Shopping for Mega Miles. Here are the details on this promotion.

Spend $150+ : 500 Bonus Miles
Spend $350+ : 1500 Bonus Miles
Spend $650+ : 3000 Bonus Miles
Spend $1250+ : 6000 Bonus Miles

This offer is cumulative which means you can get the bonus even if you shop over different orders and different merchants. The offer is valid from November 6th – 24th. This is a great time to get some Christmas shopping done and make a bunch of extra miles doing it! If you stack this with some of their current specials such as Nordstrom’s for 12 miles per dollar, then you could get 21,000 miles for $1250 in spending which is just about enough for a free ticket anywhere in the US!

Note, I don’t see a splash screen when I click on the link so here are the terms and conditions that were contained in the email I received. This offer is automatically applied to all purchases during the promo period so just shop through the portal and you are all set!

As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss any great info! And don’t forget to share this article with anyone who might be interested using the handy social share buttons right below this post!

“*During the “Holiday Early Access” bonus campaign, which runs from November 6, 2015 through November 24, 2015 at 11:59:59 pm ET (the “Bonus Period”), Member will receive a one-time bonus of up to 6,000 bonus award miles on qualifying purchases, in addition to the standard miles earned from shopping online through MileagePlus® Shopping. Bonus miles will be issued based on Member’s cumulative qualifying purchases made during the Bonus Period: 500 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of at least $150; 1,500 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of at least $350; 3,000 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of at least $650; or 6,000 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of $1,250 or more. Returns, cancellations, shipping and handling, taxes, gift card or other cash equivalent purchases, and certain products are not included in the bonus award miles eligibility calculation; please see the MileagePlus Shopping site for details on product eligibility and/or any coupon code details or other usage restrictions. Please allow 8-10 weeks after the Bonus Period for bonus award miles to post to your MileagePlus Shopping account. The maximum number of bonus award miles that will be awarded to an eligible MileagePlus Shopping account through the “Holiday Early Access” bonus campaign is 6,000 bonus award miles. This offer cannot be combined with other offers or promotions. Please check the MileagePlus Shopping site daily for updates to increased earning opportunities. Void where prohibited by law. “

United and US Airways Buy Miles 100% Bonus, Good Deal?

Is buying miles a good deal when they have a 100% bonus? In my email box yesterday I received two different offers from both United Airlines and US Airways, each for an up to 100% bonus on purchased miles. Purchasing miles is something I haven’t covered much in the past so today I wanted to run the numbers to show when it makes sense and when it doesn’t.

Continue reading “United and US Airways Buy Miles 100% Bonus, Good Deal?”

Get 2000 Bonus United Miles by shopping online.

Another day, another great online shopping deal just like the shopping bonus for 1,000 American miles we talked about last week. This time United shopping is offering up to 2000 bonus United MileagePlus miles for $500 in online shopping in $125 increments.

Continue reading “Get 2000 Bonus United Miles by shopping online.”

Chase United Explorer 50K Mile offer!

Edit 10/26/14: The public offer of 50K has expired but you may still be able to get it! The trick is you need to log into your United MileagePlus account FIRST and then click on the above banner to see your signup offer. Let us know in the comments if this works for you!

The Chase United Explorer 50K Visa has been on our Top Credit Cards page for a long time and while there were targeted sign up bonuses for some accounts, the standard sign up bonus was 30,000 miles. They have updated their page to reflect that anyone can now get the 50,000 Mile offer after spending $2000 in the first 3 months of having the card. The annual fee is waived for the first year and then $95 afterwards. Continue reading “Chase United Explorer 50K Mile offer!”

Last day to book United Award flights before massive increases

Today is the last day to book United Awards under their old award schedule as I wrote about in December. If you are flying on United flights the prices don’t change that much but if you want to fly on another airline such as the incredible Lufthansa First Class then the prices go up as much as 86%!

First Class on Lufthansa booked using United Miles

You can only book for the next 11 months but if you have any trips planned for that period especially if you want to fly on a non United flight now is the time to book!

Read our article about booking using United Miles to get started and make sure you get a free one way when you book your trip!

As always, feel free to comment with any questions and follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Ibiza 2013: Part 3 – Lufthansa First Class New York to Munich on an A-330

This is the third post in a series about my 2013 trip to Ibiza for the closing parties. Part of the free plane tickets were funded by the 40,000 point sign up bonus of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. I redeemed 135,000 points for First Class flights from Miami to Ibiza on Lufthansa.

As I left the lounge I was able to get a glimpse of the Airbus A-330-300 I would be flying on from New York to Munich.

I had actually spent as much time in the lounge as possible so had missed the premium cabin preboarding call but as I went down the jetway, I realized there was a separate entrance at the front of the plane for First Class passengers so I wouldn’t have to wait in line after all.This dedicated entrance whisked me right into the First Class cabin where the flight attendants were waiting for my arrival. I had arranged seat 1K and it looked like it would be comfortable for the 7 hour flight to Munich!They offered me a snack and a drink so I got one of their selection of German beers. And what a beer it was! No little cans here!As you can see, even though I am 6’2″ there was plenty of room for me to stretch out my legs. There was also a giant video screen(I think it was 17″) for watching TV shows and movies on demand or listening to music.I particularly liked that since Lufthansa is a German airline, they used a turntable for the “Audio” icon in the AVOD system.

They provided an amenity kit, a pair of pajamas and some slippers.

The amenity kit included toothbrush and toothpaste, an eyemask, some socks, some ear covers for the headphones and some facecream to help with the dry air of the cabin.

Shortly after take off they brought me the menu and you could tell right away this was first class due to the caviar service and other choices.They brought me some sort of a salad first which was tastyThen came the caviar service with vodka, the Peppercorn Beef, and the green papaya salad. Since First Class wasn’t full they gave me an assortment of appetizers to choose from!For my main course I had the Masala Lamb with Curried Cauliflower and Fingerling Potatoes which was perfectly seasoned and cooked.They had a comprehensive wine list and I tried a few glasses including the Spanish LAN a Mano Red as well as some champagne.I finished off with some ice cream, fresh berries, and some coffee with Bailey’s to help me sleep on the way to Munich.They had given me a pair of pajamas and sleeping in jeans isn’t exactly the best way to arrive rested so I changed into the Oh So Stylish PJs. When in Rome….While I was changing, the steward converted my seat into the completely lie flat bed. This is really the way to fly!I was able to get a good 5 hours of sleep on the way to Munich but I did have them wake me up for my omelette for breakfast since I wanted to experience everything first class had to offer.As I opened my window shades (I had 4) I saw the rolling countryside of Germany enveloped in fog. I only had an hour and twenty minute layover in Munich before my nonstop flight to Ibiza which I thought might be a tight connection. I didn’t realize that one of the best parts of my first class experience was yet to come! Read about that in my next article 🙂

As always, feel free to comment with any questions and follow me on Facebook or Twitter!

How I Traveled with Miles in 2013

As each year ends, I think it is important to reflect on what has happened in the last year. As I make decisions on how to acquire and use miles in 2014, I wanted to see what value I had received from my miles in the last year.

I started out in January with a trip to the BPM Festival in Playa del Carmen Mexico in business class for 18000 British Airways Avios and $70.
That same month I had the unfortunate need for some last minute tickets to attend a funeral in North Carolina. Instead of paying $370, I used 15,000 Avios and only $5!
At the end of January I attended for the first time Intifest in Lima, Peru in Business Class for 50,000 Avios and $65.
In April I used another 18,000 Avios and $72 each to send a friend and I to Cancun, Mexico for a long weekend.
In May I went back to Detroit for the Detroit Electronic Music Festival using 12780 Southwest points and $20 for two tickets using my companion pass so my friend flew for free!
In June, I had one of my most memorable experiences ever when I splurged on 100,000 United miles and $134 each to give my Dad an unforgettable Christmas present of a business class trip to Brussels, Ireland, Scotland, London and Frankfurt. I also used 18,000 Avios for four one way tickets on that trip which saved me a bundle over the cash price.
In August, I attended Burning Man for the second time using 5,900 Southwest points and $5. I used the free one way feature on my United Europe ticket to fly out there in first class!
In September, I splurged again with a first class ticket on Lufthansa for 135,000 United Miles and $118 to the closing parties in Ibiza.
In October, I used 40,000 Avios and $125 for two tickets to Panama for a long weekend and my first time in Panama
In October, I also went to Austin to visit a friend for the first time for 11,600 Southwest points and $5.
Finally in both November and December I was able to fly home to Nashville for the holidays for only 9000 miles and $5 per trip!

Looking back and writing it all down has helped me remember why I am so obsessed about points and has me looking forward to my travel in 2014!

If you are ready to get started, why not try the Chase Sapphire Preferred card? With the Ultimate Rewards points it has, you can transfer them to all of the airlines I used to fly this year!

As always, feel free to comment with any questions and follow me on Facebook or Twitter!

United and Delta award chart changes effective February 1, 2014

I’ve been wanting to do an article on this for the last few weeks to 1) share the information for you, my readers and 2) to help myself see how I should proceed with my miles. I currently have 111,000 Delta miles and over half a million Ultimate Rewards points (which I have typically used to redeem for United award tickets) so this article definitely affects me. Back in November, United and Delta both announced some changes to their award charts, and not in a positive way. Since I am based in North America, I will be focusing on how the changes affect the North American routes around the world. All of these prices below are one way milage rates so for round trip you would double the one way rate.

United

In November, United announced some pretty drastic changes to their award charts, and split awards on all United flights (called United Metal) away from Star Alliance Partner flights. Check out our ABC’s of Airline Alliances article if this is confusing. I typically use United miles not on United flights, but instead for Star Alliance Member airlines such as Lufthansa or Brussels Airlines such as when I recently went to Ireland, Scotland and London for only $137. What this means is that if I want to do a similar trip after February 1, it will cost me many more miles. Here is a chart summarizing the changes. I’m just listing the Saver awards for simplicity’s sake since that is when you should be booking to get the maximum value for your award seats. I have bolded those awards that are increasing 30% or more.

Destination from Mainland North America, Alaska and Canada		Before Feb 1, 2014	After Feb 1, 2014 United Metal	% Change	After Feb 1, 2014 Star Alliance Partners	% Change
Mainland North America, Alaska and Canada	Economy	12.5	12.5	0.00%	12.5	0.00%
	Business	25	25	0.00%	25	0.00%
	First	35	35	0.00%	35	0.00%
Hawaii	Economy	20	22.5	12.50%	22.5	12.50%
	Business	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
	First	50	50	0.00%	50	0.00%
Mexico	Economy	17.5	17.5	0.00%	17.5	0.00%
	Business	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	First	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
Central America	Economy	17.5	17.5	0.00%	17.5	0.00%
	Business	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	First	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
Caribbean	Economy	17.5	17.5	0.00%	17.5	0.00%
	Business	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	First	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
Northern South America	Economy	20	20	0.00%	20	0.00%
	Business	35	35	0.00%	35	0.00%
	First	45	45	0.00%	45	0.00%
Southern South America	Economy	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	Business	50	55	10.00%	55	10.00%
	First	67.5	70	3.70%	70	3.70%
Europe	Economy	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	Business	50	57.5	15.00%	70	40.00%
	First	67.5	80	18.52%	110	62.96%
Northern Africa	Economy	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
	Business	60	70	16.67%	80	33.33%
	First	75	85	13.33%	130	73.33%
Southern Africa	Economy	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
	Business	60	70	16.67%	80	33.33%
	First	75	85	13.33%	130	73.33%
Middle East	Economy	40	42.5	6.25%	42.5	6.25%
	Business	60	70	16.67%	80	33.33%
	First	75	90	20.00%	140	86.67%
Central Asia	Economy	40	42.5	6.25%	42.5	6.25%
	Business	60	70	16.67%	80	33.33%
	First	80	90	12.50%	140	75.00%
South Asia	Economy	32.5	40	23.08%	40	23.08%
	Business	60	70	16.67%	80	33.33%
	First	70	80	14.29%	130	85.71%
North Asia	Economy	32.5	35	7.69%	35	7.69%
	Business	60	70	16.67%	80	33.33%
	First	70	80	14.29%	120	71.43%
Japan	Economy	32.5	35	7.69%	35	7.69%
	Business	60	65	8.33%	75	25.00%
	First	67.5	80	18.52%	110	62.96%
Oceania	Economy	35	35	0.00%	35	0.00%
	Business	60	65	8.33%	75	25.00%
	First	75	80	6.67%	110	46.67%
Australia / New Zealand	Economy	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
	Business	67.5	70	3.70%	80	18.52%
	First	80	80	0.00%	130	62.50%

If you were saving up your miles for a Star Alliance partner flight to any of the further destinations, now is the time to book before the prices go up in some cases 86%!

Delta

Delta has two different devaluations, one starting on February 1, 2014 and then another on June 1, 2014.

Destination from Mainland North America, Alaska and Canada		Before Feb 1, 2014	After Feb 1, 2014	% Change	After June 1, 2014	% Change
Mainland North America, Alaska and Canada	Economy	12.5	12.5	0.00%	12.5	0.00%
	Business	22.5	25	11.11%	25	11.11%
	First	30	32.5	8.33%	32.5	8.33%
Hawaii	Economy	20	22.5	12.50%	22.5	12.50%
	Business	37.5	40	6.67%	45	20.00%
	First	42.5	45	5.88%	50	17.65%
Caribbean	Economy	17.5	17.5	0.00%	17.5	0.00%
	Business	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Mexico	Economy	17.5	17.5	0.00%	17.5	0.00%
	Business	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Central America	Economy	17.5	17.5	0.00%	17.5	0.00%
	Business	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Northern South America	Economy	22.5	22.5	0.00%	22.5	0.00%
	Business	45	45	0.00%	45	0.00%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Southern South America	Economy	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	Business	50	50	0.00%	62.5	25.00%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Europe	Economy	30	30	0.00%	30	0.00%
	Business	50	50	0.00%	62.5	25.00%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
North Africa	Economy	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
	Business	60	60	0.00%	70	16.67%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Middle East	Economy	40	42.5	6.25%	42.5	6.25%
	Business	60	60	0.00%	70	16.67%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
South Asia	Economy	40	42.5	6.25%	42.5	6.25%
	Business	60	70	16.67%	70	16.67%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
North Asia	Economy	35	35	0.00%	35	0.00%
	Business	60	60	0.00%	70	16.67%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Southeast Asia	Economy	40	40	0.00%	40	0.00%
	Business	60	60	0.00%	70	16.67%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Southwest Pacific	Economy	50	50	0.00%	50	0.00%
	Business	75	75	0.00%	80	6.67%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
South Africa	Economy	50	50	0.00%	50	0.00%
	Business	70	70	0.00%	80	14.29%
	First	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Delta’s changes not as drastic as United’s but are still something that should be considered if you have been saving miles for a future trip.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you decide the best ways to use your miles. I’ll be planning some trips myself which I will share with you. This renews advice that I have received before that you shouldn’t hoard miles and points but instead should “earn and burn.” Plus, the burning part is the fun part. 🙂

As always, feel free to comment with any questions and follow me on Facebook or Twitter!

How to use shopping portals to make mega miles!

I love shopping portals. I have literally made hundreds of thousands of points all at one time by taking advantage of shopping portals. See how I made 264,000 Ultimate Rewards Points + $1000 shopping at Sears or how I made 189,000 Rapid Rewards Points + a companion pass shopping online. But what exactly are shopping portals and how do they work?

What are Shopping Portals?

A shopping portal is just like the name describes it is a portal (like a doorway) that takes you shopping online. Think of it like a mall. It is full of many shops that are all owned by different companies. What if I told you if you went through one entrance of the mall that you could get 5 miles for every dollar you spent? And if you went through another entrance you could get 10 miles for every dollar? And if you went through yet another entrance you would get no miles at all! That is how they work! But it’s easiest to explain with an example.

How do Shopping Portals Work?

Let’s say you have gone through our Getting Started Page and have already signed up for a free United MileagePlus number. If you haven’t, go do it now! We are going to use the MileagePlus Shopping Portal in our example. This portal gives you United Airlines Miles for shopping in their mall. Some malls you need to create a separate login, but this one you can just log in with your United MileagePlus number and PIN or password you use to access your MileagePlus account online.

After logging in, search for the store you want to go shopping in. FYI here is their version of how the online shopping portal works.

In our example we are going to use Walmart. Online is about the only way I will ever go to Walmart. I search for Walmart in the search box and it brings up a screen that shows details about that merchant.You can see that they are offering 1 Mile for every dollar that you spend. This means if you buy a $500 LCD TV from Walmart on Black Friday, you can get an extra 500 United Miles just by starting your shopping session through this portal! They also list some sale and coupon codes that you can sometimes use. Since you are already logged in just click on the Shop Now button and you will be transported to the exact same Walmart.com as if you went their directly. Same products, same prices.

1 Mile per dollar is pretty much the bare minimum you will find and many of them offer much higher rates. I have even seen up to 60 Miles per dollar on occasion which is incredible!

The miles will typically show in your account after a week or so, but sometimes it might take up to a month to see them reflected. You can see your earning history by clicking on the My Account link at the top right of the screen.

What shopping portals are there?

Almost every major US airline, most hotel chains and even some random point programs have shopping portals. Here are a few of them.

There are also some straight Cashback shopping portals that give you cold hard cash instead of miles such as:

Discover Cashback
Upromise
ShopAtHome
TopCashBack(one of my favorites for cashback)

How do I know which shopping portal to use?

Luckily there are web sites whose whole purpose is to help you decide which portal to use. Of course if you are specifically after United Miles then that might be the best one to use. But you should at least compare a few of the portals to make sure a much better deal isn’t available. The shopping portal comparison site I like to use is EVReward.com. If I go to that site and type in Walmart for instance, here is what I see.

As you can see, UPromise and ShopDiscover are offering 5% cash back. I would rather have that than 1 mile per dollar all day long!

Conclusion

I hope this has showed you how easy it is to make extra miles and cash by shopping online. You really shouldn’t shop online without utilizing a shopping portal. If you don’t, you are simply leaving free miles on the ground that you should be picking up. If you have any questions then leave them in the comments and I will answer them.

Awesome Deal Alert! 12-16X Miles at Sears via United Mileageplus Shopping

Sears occasionally has some awesome promotions such as when I made 264,000 Ultimate Rewards points and $1000 with Sears and when I received 189,000 Southwest points and the companion pass via online shopping. This is one of those times!

For today and tomorrow you can get 12 United Miles per $ that you spend on Sears.com. If you have the United Explorer card, the rate goes up to an amazing 16 Miles per $! Now even though the terms and conditions say gift cards don’t apply, in my experience as long as you order the physical gift cards the miles will still be awarded. Read this recent post of ours about maximizing sears purchases by quadruple dipping using Plink for bonus points you can redeem for giftcards.

The way to maximize this is to buy the physical gift cards today using a Plink optimized amount of $50 per gift card. Since the gift cards purchased at Sears are issued by KMart (they have the same parent company), you will need to have KMart in your Plink wallet. By the way I get 100 Plink points (worth $1!) if you sign up for Plink using this link 🙂 so thanks!

So an overview of how this would work if you wanted to get $1000 of gift cards would be.

Buy twenty $50 gift cards in separate transactions each time starting at the Mileage Plus Shopping Portal
For each purchase, you would get 12X$50 = 600 united miles and 300 Plink points.
So if you bought 20 gift cards you would get 12,000 United Miles and 6,000 Plink points (worth $60 in gift cards).
This is in addition to whatever miles or points you would get from the credit card you use.
Once you get the gift cards you can go back through the shopping portal again and will get more miles when you use the cards for merchandise!

So what to do with the gift cards if you don’t actually need anything from Sears? What I do is buy and sell tablet PCs. I can usually buy and sell them for about the same amount. I have had really good luck with the new Nexus 7 model from Asus.

Read this post for an example of how I bought and sold tablets without losing much and scored a bunch of miles!. Once you buy and sell enough with Sears you can become a Platinum member in their Shop Your Way Rewards program and get an extra 15% if you buy on the right days.

What to do if you have never done anything before?

If you want to get started here are the steps to take.

Sign up for a free United Mileage Plus frequent flyer account. This is the account you will get the miles deposited to.
Log into your Mileage Plus Shopping account using the frequent flyer number and PIN you just created.
Sign up for a free Plink account. Add Sears and KMart to your “wallet” once you have your account set up and download their mobile app.
Then follow the guidance above to get started. Start with just one $50 purchase if you want so you can see how the process works and buy something you need at Sears (they sell a ton of stuff). Then next time you will have all the accounts set up so you can swing for the fences and get a ton of miles!

Feel free to comment on this post if you have any questions and don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter!