United is running another MileagePlus miles sale where you can get up to a 70% bonus on your purchased miles. This promotion runs from now until 11:59am 3 May 2018 for us here in Singapore. Purchasing through any of the links on this page supports the running of The Milelion through an affiliate commission.
You can purchase miles from United MileagePlus through your MileagePlus account here. Each calendar year, you’re only allowed to purchase 150,000 MileagePlus miles. This cap includes the bonus miles that you’ll be receiving when purchasing points.
Tiered bonuses from 25% to 70%
In this promotion, the maximum bonus you can stand to receive is 70% and the lowest that you’ll get is 25%. Here’s the number of miles you will need to purchase before the respective bonuses are triggered :
- Buy 5,000 – 14,000 miles | Get 25% bonus
- Buy 15,000 – 29,000 miles | Get 50% bonus
- Buy 30,000 – 88,000 miles | Get 70% bonus
If you were to max out your mileage purchase, you’ll receive a total of 149,600 MileagePlus miles at a cost of US$3,311. That works out to be 2.21 cents per mile(US cents), which is not the lowest that we’ve seen United sell their miles at (we’ve seen up to 100% bonuses historically)
Points purchased from United MileagePlus are processed by Points.com so you should be using your DBS Woman’s World card or Citibank Rewards to earn 4 mpd. In the “worst case” scenario that you’ve maxed out the monthly spending ceiling of S$2,000 on your DBS WWMC and hit the 120,000 Citi Dollar cap on your Citi Rewards card, you could use the HSBC Revolution to earn 2 mpd.
Uses of United MileagePlus miles
Despite the recent devaluation, the United MileagePlus award chart has some sweet spots still. For example, there used to be the sweet spot where you could get a one-way First class ticket from Bangkok to Sydney for just 40,000 MileagePlus miles, sadly that has since increased to 65,000 miles one-way.
That’s still rather reasonable considering you’ll have access to the Thai Royal First Lounge in Bangkok and would get to experience Thai’s First cabin on the Boeing 747-400 which has been highly praised. Award availability on the Bangkok to Sydney route with Thai is quite good so you shouldn’t face major issues where availability is concerned when redeeming your flights.
Concluding thoughts
While this isn’t the cheapest that we’ve seen United sell MileagePlus miles at, if you have an upcoming use for it and require them urgently then go for it. Just another reminder that there’s an annual cap of purchased miles at 150,000 MileagePlus miles which includes the miles you obtain from the bonus miles received.
Not sure why you’d recommend using Citibank Rewards given that it’s unlikely to fall into any of the MCC categories they’ll reward the 10x Rewards for.
because it’s tried and tested to earn 10X. by right ,by left.
I just used it recently to buy miles from points.com and it works well.
Wouldn’t the purchase of miles be in USD and post overseas and therefore give 2.4 miles/SGD with UOB PRVImiles? As such, wouldn’t the UOB PRVI make more sense than the HSBC Revolution if DBS Women’s card etc are already exhausted?
potentially yes. but remember the hefty 3.25% fee that comes with prvi miles. need to do the math and see if that makes sense.
Usd right? Uob vs would be my choice especially as that would for sure hit the minimum sum to trigger 4mpd. Just be aware of the 2k ceiling.