Good evening everyone, United Airlines has a new transfer and buy miles promo. I crunched the numbers and found that it is possible to transfer miles from one account to another for as little as 0.97 cents per mile (CPM). You can also buy miles for your own United Airlines account for as little as 2.46 CPM.
Disclosure: the transfer miles and buy miles links are affiliate links processed by Points.com.
To get started, click here and then click the Transfer Miles button in the lower right corner of the page. You can transfer up to 100,000 United Airlines miles per account per year and receive the 40% discount, but the transactions must be broken into 25,000 mile increments.
Here are the terms and conditions of the transfer:
- To take advantage of this offer, you must use the order links on this page.
- Transfer 500 to 100,000 miles and receive a 40% discount on both the per mile charge and the transaction fee.
- Mileage transfers cost $9.00 per 1,000 miles and a $18 processing fee per transaction for the duration of this promotion.
- GST/HST is charged to Canadian residents
- Displayed price includes all discounts.
- Price displayed on this page does not include any fees or taxes.
- Miles can be transferred in 500 mile increments between 500 and 5,000 miles, and in 1,000 mile increments from 5,000 to 25,000 miles
- Give up to 100,000 miles to each recipient’s account per calendar year – No recipient may receive more than 100,000 miles from any other MileagePlus account or combination of account in any calendar year
- Maximum transfer of up to 100,000 miles per calendar year out of one account
- Allow up to 48 hours for the miles to post to each recipient’s account
- Your credit card will be billed immediately for purchase
- Powered by Points to purchase United MileagePlus miles. Transaction will appear as ‘Points United Miles’
- Mileage rates and other applicable fees are subject to change
- Minimum transfer 500 miles per account
- All MileagePlus Program Rules and terms and conditions apply
I crunched the numbers and here are the CPM calculations. Transferring United Airlines miles for around a penny each is actually a pretty good deal, considering what it normally costs to buy or transfer miles with United Airlines.
Since Chase recently changed their rules of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, you can now only convert Chase Ultimate Rewards Points into miles for your account or your spouse’s account. Thus, you may have United Airlines accounts with orphaned miles (less than 12,500 United Airlines miles, which is needed for a one way award in the US). In this situation, it may make sense to transferring United Airlines miles from one account to another.
Moving on, you can also purchase United Airlines miles by clicking here and then clicking the Buy Miles button at the top of the page. If you purchase 10,000-19,000 United Airlines miles, you will receive a 20% discount. If you purchase 20,000 United Airlines miles or more, you will receive a 30% discount.
Here are the terms and conditions of the purchase:
- To take advantage of this offer, you must use the order links on this page.
- Minimum purchase of 10,000 miles required for this promotional pricing.
- Buy 10,000 to 19,000 miles and receive a 20% discount, or buy 20,000 miles or more for a 30% discount.
- Promotional offer valid until 11:59 p.m. CT (Chicago local time) on February 16, 2015.
- Miles are available in increments of 1,000 up to a maximum of 100,000 miles, and in increments of 5,000 up to a maximum of 150,000 miles.
- Purchase up to 150,000 miles per account per calendar year.
- Displayed price includes all discounts.
- Price displayed on this page does not include any fees or taxes
- Credit card will be billed immediately upon purchase.
- Mileage rates and other fees and offer terms are subject to change.
- Allow 48 hours for miles to process and post to your MileagePlus account.
- Miles are nonrefundable.
- Purchased miles do not count toward MileagePlus Premier® status.
- All MileagePlus Program Rules and terms and conditions apply.
- GST/HST is charged to Canadian residents.
- Credit card will be billed immediately upon purchase.
- Powered by Points to purchase United MileagePlus miles. Transaction will appear as ‘Points United Miles’.
I crunched the numbers and here are the CPM calculations. Purchasing United Airlines miles for around 2.5 cents is not a very good deal in my book, but could be useful if you need miles quickly for an award ticket (you might be better transferring the points from another United Airlines account).
Will I be transferring or buying United Airlines miles? No, I have plenty of United Airlines miles as it is and I can easy convert Chase Ultimate Reward Points into United Airlines miles if I need more miles.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great evening everyone!
let see if I uy 50 $500 GC I will earn 25K miles and cost 3.95 x 50 = 197.50. So it is cheaper and nobody has to give miles, they still have 25K miles.
That is true, I would only buy miles if I needed them to book an award today or tomorrow. There are many cheaper ways to get United Airlines miles.
Grant, you may want to recrunch another scenario if you use an airline bonus credit card spend since UA processes the mile transfer. It would lower the CPM, especially if someone is looking for extra UA miles, they can use a United card or Sapphire Preferred
I recently learned about the new way to buy United Airlines miles for around 2 CPM. Still too high for me.
I got the 50% offer. I’m curious; if you use a United Chase card, is it considered a United purchase (2miles/$)? Or is it considered another company (points.com)
I believe the transaction is processed by Points.com, so you will only get 1x on the purchase.
I don’t see an expiration date on the 40% off promo (mileage transfer). When I click on the link, it takes me to the transfer page but charges $405 to transfer 25,000 miles. Sort of ridiculous, like paying twice.
It’s not worth the cost to transfer miles. You are better off booking the award from that account for someone else, than trying to transfer the miles.
Do transferred miles count towards status?
No, they won’t count toward United elite status.