United Just Changed MileagePlus — Here’s How To Tell If It’s Worth Chasing

A few weeks back, we covered how United would overhaul MileagePlus as part of a steep devaluation that’ll leave most travelers earning fewer miles — except for United cardholders. Last week, those changes landed, and travelers now have to choose between accepting less or finding a way to come out ahead.

United, we double-dip: The big MileagePlus changes benefit one group: United credit or debit cardholders. In its February announcement, United said cardholders would earn “up to twice as many miles as non-cardholders,” get 10% off United award tickets, and access special “saver” award inventory that used to be reserved for top-status members. The real changes, though, are in the earning rates:

• Just having a card earns you more miles: Regardless of how you book, you’ll earn 6 miles per dollar as a General member, 8 as Premier Silver, 9 as Gold, 10 as Platinum, and 12 as 1K.
• Book with a United credit card and earn even more: The United Explorer earns 3 miles per dollar, Quest earns 4x, and Club earns 5x on direct United purchases — all higher than before, and stacked on top of your base cardholder rate.

How To Come Out Ahead

These changes mean that just having a United card helps — even if you book with a different card for corporate travel. If you do pay with a United card, the earnings stack with your ticket and card rates. For example, take a $300 economy fare as a General member — under the old system, you’d earn 1.5K miles.

• No card: You now earn 900 miles. But just having a card — even if you don’t check out with it — gets you back to 1.5K miles.
• Book with Explorer, Quest, or Club: You’ll earn 2.7K, 3K, or 3.3K miles, respectively — that’s a 10.8%, 12%, and 13.2% rebate on the fare.
• Break-even spending: You can cover the annual fee on the Explorer, Quest, and Club cards by spending $2.09K, $3.65K, and $7.24K per year on United flights.

Our healthy dose of skepticism: Higher earning rates won’t speed up your climb through United’s status tiers, but they could help you afford bigger trips. There’s also a chance these higher rates set the stage for another devaluation — but the more optimistic read is that United is trying to protect the existing value of its points, which NerdWallet pegs at about 1.2 cents each. With that in mind, it might be worth rebooking existing reservations with your card to earn at the new, higher rates.