Your Guide To The United MileagePlus Program

One of the largest travel rewards programs in the world, United’s MileagePlus program partners with dozens of airlines and hundreds of merchants. Sure, you can earn miles by taking flights, but you can also get rewarded by travelling, dining, and shopping with certain partners.

Although United doesn’t offer Canadian credit cards, you can maximize your miles and enjoy more perks with Premier membership status.

Key Takeaways

• The MileagePlus program is owned and operated by United Airlines.
• MileagePlus members earn miles by flying with United and other Star Alliance Partners.
• MileagePlus miles are worth an average of X cents CAD each.
• The MileagePlus Program offers 4 membership tiers with exclusive benefits and earning rates.

Never miss an amazing deal again + get our bonus 250+ page eBook for FREE. Join 50,000 other Canadians who receive our weekly newsletter – learn more.

What is United MileagePlus?

MileagePlus is the travel rewards program of United Airlines. In addition to earning MileagePlus miles for qualifying United flights, members can also earn miles for flying with over 25 Star Alliance partner airlines, which they can redeem for free flights, cruises, and merch.

United Airlines flies to and from 10 major airports in Canada, making the MileagePlus program a viable choice for Canadians:

• Calgary (YYC)
• Edmonton (YEG)
• Halifax (YHZ)
• Montreal (YUL)
• Ottawa (YOW)
• Quebec City (YQB)
• Regina (YQR)
• Toronto (YYZ)
• Vancouver (YVR)
• Winnipeg (YWG)

Overview

Currency: Miles

Redemption options: Charity, Experiences, Flights, Shopping, Travel, Travel extras

Pros:

• 300+ destinations and 1,400+ aircraft in the United network
• 25 airlines and 1,000+ global destinations in the United Star Alliance partner network
• 10 Canadian destinations
• 6 US-issued United credit cards and 6 international credit cards
• 6 ways to earn miles
• 6 ways to spend miles
• 4 membership tiers with premium travel perks
• Miles worth as much as 35.45 cents CAD each
• Miles don’t expire

Cons:

• Miles worth as little as 0.1 cent CAD each
• No United credit cards available in Canada
• Can’t transfer miles for free
• Miles don’t have fixed value

How much are MileagePlus miles worth?

Miles take their value from what you decide to redeem them on. For example, if you decide to use them for flights, you can expect to recoup about 2 Cents Per Mile (CPM).

Value of reward in CAD / cost of reward in miles x 100 = value in cents per mile (CPM)

Depending on how you choose to redeem your MileagePlus miles, you could get anywhere from 0.1 – 35.45 CPM.

^{* 1 USD = 1.42 CAD at time of writing}

MileagePlus membership tiers

Every United, United Express, and Star Alliance partner flight earns miles, plus 1 Premier Qualifying Flight (PQF) and a number of Premier Qualifying Points (PQP).

^{* Excluding any taxes, fees, and surcharges.}

You must take at least 4 United or United Express flights and collect enough PQF and/or PQP in one year to advance your membership to Premier status. Premier membership takes effect the moment you qualify and lasts for the rest of the year plus 13 months. So, if you reach Premier Gold status in 2025, you can hold onto it until January 31, 2027.

MileagePlus currently offers 4 Premier membership levels:

United increased all Premier membership requirements in 2025. As compensation, all Premier members who earned status before February 1, 2025 will receive a one-time deposit of free PQP: 300 PQP for Silver, 600 PQP for Gold, 900 PQP for Platinum, and 1,400 PQP for 1K.

PlusPoints are a special rewards currency Premier Platinum and 1K members can use to request flight upgrades for them and their travelling companions. 1K members can also skip the waitlist and instantly confirm upgrades on select international flights operated by United.

The cost to upgrade from Premium Plus to Business Class ranges from 10 – 80 PlusPoints, with short-haul flights at the lower end of the scale and long-haul flights at the other. If you request multiple upgrades for one trip, you’ll only be charged the cost of the highest-priced upgrade (meaning you get the smaller upgrade for free).

To request a PlusPoints upgrade, select "PlusPoints" as the type of upgrade you’d like to request on the “Enter Trip Information” page.

To skip the waitlist, select an upgrade with the "Skip Waitlist" on the “Pick Your View” page during a PlusPoint upgrade request. You can do the same by clicking “Upgrade” on an existing booking, but either way, you must request to skip the waitlist at least 30 days before departure.

Remember: PlusPoints expire at the end of the year in which you earn Premier Platinum or 1K status.

How to earn MileagePlus miles

Sure, flying with United is a surefire way to earn miles, but it’s not your only way to accumulate rewards. You can also:

• Book other travel
• Boost, buy, convert, or transfer miles
• Fly with partner airlines
• Shop and dine with partners
• Use a United credit card

Some of these options aren’t so convenient for Canadian members, so we’ve ranked them in order of usefulness below.

Fly with United

If you’re a frequent flyer aboard United or United Express, your miles will quickly add up. You can boost your earnings even faster with Premier membership status.

^{* Excepting taxes, fees, and surcharges.}

Some Star Alliance and MileagePlus partner airlines also use these earning rates. However you fly, United limits your rewards to 75,000 miles per flight.

Some specialty tickets (such as bulk, group, and tour fares) earn miles based on flight distance and fare class instead of price.

Fly with partner airlines

When it comes to earning miles, United divides partner airlines into two categories: MileagePlus partners and Star Alliance partners. Star Alliance partners grant Premier Gold, Platinum, and 1K members special benefits, including priority boarding, check-ins, and baggage handling. MileagePlus partners do not.

Every partner flight booked directly on the United website uses the same rewards chart as United and United Express flights.

Flights booked "indirectly" on partner websites (or other third-party sites, like Expedia) earn miles based on distance and fare class, even if you provide your MileagePlus membership number during checkout. Your rewards will range from 0 – 3.5 miles per mile flown; the higher your fare class, the more miles you’ll earn.

To complicate things further, not all partners award the same amount of Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) or Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) needed for Premier membership status.

Using the table below, you can see each airline’s partner category and how much PQP and PQF it awards.

Boutique Air, SAS, and Vistara are no longer partners of the United MileagePlus program.

Book other travel

Like many modern airlines, United offers more than just air travel. You can earn miles by booking every step of your journey with these partners, many of which can be found worldwide:

For Premier members, booking non-air-travel through the United website has more benefits than just reward miles. Look for bonus miles and extra goodies from partners such as:

• Avis and Budget card rentals: Up to 35% off, 500 bonus miles per rental, and automatic Avis Preferred Plus status more for all Premier members
• CLEAR Plus: Get 5 – 100% off a Clear Plus membership for faster security screening
• Marriott hotels: Complimentary Gold Elite status for Premier Gold Platinum, and 1K members
• United Hotels: Complimentary drinks, breakfast, room upgrades, early check-ins, late check-outs, and more for all Premier members
• United Cruises: Complimentary wine and chocolate covered strawberries, plus up to $250 in credits for all Premier members

To qualify, you must use the official links provided by United’s travel partners and provide your MileagePlus membership number at some point during checkout. You can even retroactively earn miles on purchases you made within the last 12 months by sending a claim and proof to United’s customer service team.

Shop and dine with partners

The best way to earn miles on non-travel-related purchases is to download MileagePlus X. Available on Android and iOS, the app provides a single portal where members can buy gift cards, get dining offers, browse shopping offers, and pounce on last-minute deals, all while earning miles.

You can also access some of the app’s individual features from the web by visiting:

• MileagePlus Dining to collect 500 miles on your first order of $25 or more, plus up to 5 miles per $1 USD spent on dine-in or takeout food orders.
• MileagePlus Shopping to earn 50 – 15,550-mile bonuses or up to 12 miles per $1 USD spent at 1,100+ stores, including Adidas, Home Depot, Lenovo, PetSmart, and more. You can even link your credit or debit card to earn miles on in-store shopping.

While the MileagePlus Dining network is confined to the States, Canadians can use MileagePlus Shopping to buy from stores that ship to Canada. Add the MileagePlus Shopping button to your web browser to get notifications for deals, price drops, and coupon codes.

Boost, buy, convert, or transfer miles

United offers several paid options to boost your MileagePlus miles. Paying for miles detracts from their values, so use the following methods in moderation:

• Buy or gift up to 108,000 miles for $35 USD per 1,000 miles
• Multiply your miles by purchasing an Award Accelerator when you book a flight, or by redeeming a personalized multiplier offer
• Subscribe to receive up to 8,000 miles for $225.75 USD per month
• Transfer up to 100,000 miles to another member for $7.50 USD per 500 miles, plus $30 USD per transaction

Instead, we recommend converting your points from one rewards program to MileagePlus miles for free. The MileagePlus program has 9 points conversion partners:

You can buy extra Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) by adding a Premier Accelerator to your purchase of an Award Accelerator.

Use a United credit card

Unfortunately, there are no Canadian credit cards allowing you to earn United MileagePlus miles. If you qualify for a US-issued credit card, you can choose between 4 personal United credit cards (offering up to 4 miles per $1 USD spent) and 2 business credit cards. United also offers 6 international credit cards issued in Hong Kong or Japan.

How to redeem United MileagePlus miles

United is possibly the most flexible rewards program we’ve ever reviewed. In total, there are 6 ways to redeem your miles, plus about 20+ sub-categories:

• Charity
• Experiences
• Flights
• Shopping
• Travel
• Travel extras

We’ve already introduced you to the most valuable rewards in the program, so in this section, we’ll explore your redemption options in greater detail, from the most to least recommended.

Flights

Average value: 2 CPM

Redemption options: United and United Express flights; Star Alliance partner flights, and Money + Miles

Best option: One-way from Toronto (YYZ) to London (LHR) in Business Class for $10,280 or 96,400 miles (2.58 CPM)

One of the most obvious ways to use up all of those miles is to cash them in for a flight. There are 3 ways to fly:

• Aboard United or United Express flights for an average of 2 CPM
• Aboard partner airlines for an average of 1.5 CPM
• Using Miles + Money to pay for flights for a fixed 1.42 CPM

Redeeming miles is easy – just search for flights on the United website after ticking the "Book with miles" checkbox. The value of your miles can vary when applied to United or partner flights, but they always count for 1 US cent each when you pay for your ticket using Money + Miles.

After comparing the value of the most popular United flight routes on different travel dates, we recommend redeeming your miles on Premium Economy flights on Wednesdays during off-peak times. Not only do partner flights offer less value, they’re also harder to find and book, especially during peak travel times.

United often routes international flights to and from Canada through one of 5 hubs: Chicago, Denver, Houston-Intercontinental, New York/Newark, and San Francisco.

Travel extras

Average value: 1.15 CPM

Categories: Airport dining, Baggage fees, Inflight dining, Seats, TSA PreCheck, United Club membership, Upgrades, and Wi-Fi

Best option: In-flight Wi-Fi for $8 USD or 800 miles (1.42 CPM)

You don’t have to use all of your miles on flights. Instead, cash in some of those miles for 8 travel extras to make your next trip a little nicer:

• Wi-Fi: Redeeming 800 miles for a one-time use of Wi-Fi provides 1.42 CPM and 35% more value than a month’s subscription
• Inflight dining: Whether you spend them on snacks, meals, or drinks, every mile you spend on United’s inflight menu yields 1.2 CPM
• United Club membership: Get unlimited, free access to United and Star Alliance airport lounges around the world starting at $650 USD or 85,000 miles, or 1.09 CPM
• TSA PreCheck: With 11,000 miles, you can cover the $78 USD TSA PreCheck application fee and get 1.01 CPM
• MileagePlus Upgrade Awards: You can upgrade your seat for as little as 6,000 miles, but with values ranging from 0.1 – 20+ CPM, it’s always a gamble
• Airport dining: Redeem miles for food at select restaurants at the airports in Newark (EWR) and Houston (IAH)
• Prepaid baggage fees: Use miles to prepay your baggage fees up to 24 hours before your flight
• Seating fees: Members can use miles to pay for Basic Economy, preferred seating, or Economy Plus seats on United or United Express flights

You can combine multiple upgrades on a single trip, allowing you to customize your flight experience completely in miles! Just note that TSA PreCheck is only available to MileagePlus members located in the US at the time of redemption.

Travel

Average value: 1 CPM

Categories: Car rentals, Cruises, and Hotels

Best option: The least expensive rental car for a two-day booking in Toronto for $586.04 or 48,000 miles (1.22 CPM)

Similar to flights, there are 3 ways to redeem your miles for non-air travel:

• United Cruises for a fixed 0.99 CPM
• United Hotels for an average of 0.95 CPM
• United Car Rentals for an average of 0.85 CPM

The good news is that you can always get the most bang for your buck by booking a United Cruise. The bad news is that its redemption value is fixed at a measly 0.99 CPM, and Canadian members aren’t eligible for cruise rewards.

If you decide to opt for a car rental or hotel instead, we found different travel dates to have little effect on value. Instead, try opting for the least expensive rental cars or any hotels running a promotion.

At the moment, you can’t redeem miles on a United Vacations package.

Shopping

Average value: 2.6 CPM

Categories: Apple purchases, Gift cards, Magazine subscriptions, MileagePlus Merchandise Awards, and Newspaper subscriptions

Best option: 8 issues of NewsChina for $10.99 USD or 400 miles (7.8 CPM)

MileagePlus offers 5 types of shopping rewards, but not all of them guarantee great value. Most provide less than 1 CPM or carry annoying limitations:

• Magazines: New subscribers can choose between 10 subscriptions, including a digital pass to the Washington Examiner, for an average of 5.93 CPM.
• Newspapers: There’s only one newspaper subscription available to MileagePlus members: the Financial Times, which provides about 3.55 CPM.
• Apple: Shop the full range of Apple products for an average of 0.83 CPM.
• MileagePlus Merchandise Awards: Shop thousands of rewards, from golf to kitchen products, but note that you’ll only get an average of 0.77 CPM.
• eGift Cards: Every $10 USD from over 200 retailers costs 333 miles, yielding a fixed value of 0.43 CPM.

Unfortunately, Apple, gift card, and merchandise rewards aren’t available for Canadian members. To get a print magazine subscription, you must also have a U.S. address.

Experiences

Average value: 2.25 CPM

Categories: Broadway shows and MileagePlus Exclusives

Best option: 2 Mezzanine tickets to see Chicago at the Golden Gate Theatre, plus a $25 dining credit for $386.90 or 15,000 miles (3.66 CPM)

As the name suggests, "Broadway Shows" are restricted to New York City, whereas MileagePlus Exclusives are experiences taking place across the United States. We found few experiences available for comparison, but the ones with a “Buy Now” option averaged 2.25 CPM.

The downside is you don’t get to choose which show you want to see, the date, or the time – and MileagePlus only makes international shipments on an "exception only basis."

While you have the opportunity to score a great deal by bidding on select experiences, we’d say the risk of non-fulfillment isn’t worth it for Canadian members.

Charity

Average value: 2 CPM Categories: Campaigns and Partners

Best option: Any for 2 CPM

If good karma interests you more than travel, MileagePlus enables members to donate miles to support individual campaigns and partner organizations. All donated miles are used for air travel, giving them an average value of 2 CPM.

How to get the most out of your MileagePlus miles

Once you’ve put some miles under your belt, you’re probably wondering how to best use them. After all, you don’t want to use them for low-value redemptions.

While everyone’s travel needs are different, here are some effective ways to maximize your miles:

• Avoid popular travel days: Holidays, we’re looking at you. Not only will it be harder to find qualifying flights using your miles, but these trips will also cost you more miles since everyone is hoping to fly on those days.
• Earn United Premier status: Keep an eye on United’s status changes in 2025, but expect good things. Not only will you earn miles faster as a Premier member, but you can also redeem miles for useful travel upgrades. This might mean you can buy a cheaper fare, but upgrade a specific perk you want (like premium snacks, drinks, and extra bags).
• Play around with travel dates: The next time you’re booking a trip with your miles, use the flexible fare date option to see when it’s cheapest to fly. Adjusting your travel plans by a day or two could save you thousands of miles!
• Use the Excursionist perk: If you’re sight-seeing or just want to add a quick stop to a trip, the excursionist perk allows you to add a free one-way flight to a round-trip fare (as long as it’s within the same region). For instance, if you’re flying from Toronto to London and want to do a quick trip to Paris, 1 of your flights to Paris could be free.

FAQ

Do United MileagePlus members get free baggage?

If you’re a Premier MileagePlus member, you get 1 free carry-on.

How many miles do you need for free flights with United?

United doesn’t publish a flight awards chart, so you’ll need to log into your MileagePlus account to see fares. That said, reviewers noted that you could fly one way to a destination in North America for around 10,000 to 20,000 miles.

Is it worth joining United MileagePlus?

As with many airline rewards programs, whether or not the program is good for you depends on how often you fly with the airline. If you frequently use United or one of its Star Alliance partners, it makes sense to join. Since miles never expire, you won’t lose out on anything but potential savings.