Category Archives: United Airlines

Targeted Offer: Earn Up to 25,000 Bonus United Miles When You Fly 4 Round Trips (Check Your Email)

I received the targeted email offer below from United (check your inbox!). In short, fly 1 round trip before July 15th and earn 5,000 bonus miles. Fly 2, get 10,000 miles. Fly 4, earn 25,000 miles. It says it’s only available to the recipient, so unfortunately I don’t have an offer code to share.

Promo is only good on tickets booked after you register and flights must be completed by July 15th. Flights July 3-5 don’t count. Flights also must be on United or United Express metal (codeshares operated by other airlines also don’t count).

Last Day to Buy United Miles at (the Still Expensive) 40% Off

United is offering a deal where you can purchase miles from them for 40% off the regular price through the end of the day today (April 25th). Through this link you can buy miles at 2.25 cents a piece (ie, $225 for 10,000). I’m not sure why you would do this, but if you needed to buy United miles to top off an award (and assuming you had none to transfer from Ultimate Rewards), this is better than paying full price.

My, That United Mileage Plus Club Card Has a Lot of Packaging

I switched my Continental Presidential Plus credit card to a United Mileage Plus Club card (non-affiliate link here). Why? They’re both pretty similar – the primary reason to get it is the Presidents Club access for the $395/year annual fee (club access alone costs $450). The link above offers a $95 credit on your first month’s bill. If you go to a Presidents Club location, they will give you an application where they waive the first year entirely. I recommend that. The cards also come with Avis Presidents Club membership (2 class upgrade; guaranteed availability) and Hyatt Platinum status (as well as a few other things.

I switched because the new card offers 1.5 miles for every dollar spent on everything (2 miles for spending on United). That’s pretty huge. I’m now using this as my everyday card (except for travel and restaurants, which I’m still putting on the Sapphire card because they earn double and can then be transferred to United). If you’re a Presidential Plus card holder, United will switch you to the new card for free. The old card offered 1000 EQM for every $5,000 spent, which is fine but for most people, not particularly useful.

In any case, I wasn’t actually writing today to let you know that. I was writing to show you the ridiculous packaging the card comes in. I know that some folks out there are impressed by what a card looks/feels like. Bravo to them. I am not one of those people. Please just send me the card in a #10 envelope. I was not impressed when this monstrosity (schmancy box; several booklets; ribboning; etc) arrived in the mail…

The Kit and/or Kaboodle

A Little Tip about Booking Your Family Trip to Maui Using United Miles

I’ve been trying to book a trip to Maui for the 4 of us using United miles, and I wanted to share a little tip:

Hawaiian Airlines (a UA partner) doesn’t make 4 award seats available between Kahalui, Maui (OGG) and Honolulu. That was causing a problem for me getting back from Maui (I wanted to connect in Honolulu to the Newark or Washington nonstops rather than having a short overnight flight to the West Coast).

There is another option that I wanted to pass along: United also partners with Island Air, and Island Air has several flights a day from Kapalua (on the West Coast of Maui, close to the hotels at Kaanapali) to Honolulu, and there is wide open availability for award travel back to Honolulu (5k miles each way) and a good connection back to Honolulu for those East Coast long-hauls. If you’ve tried to book a family trip, you may have run into the issue with Hawaiian Airlines trying to grab 4 award seats. This is an easy way to avoid that.

United Not Able to Upgrade on Partners Using Miles?

I’m going to Australia next month, and I’ve booked the trip on Air New Zealand in Premium Economy (yes, I’m traveling for an extra 6 hours instead of flying on Qantas because of the miles, sue me). I called United today to upgrade the trip using United miles. I learned 2 things I thought I would share:

1) I know that you can only upgrade Star Alliance partner flights from coach to business if you booked in Y or B class. I was hoping that I could upgrade Premium Economy classes as well, and that perhaps they’ve just never adjusted their rules since ANZ added Premium Economy. Answer? You can’t upgrade Premium Economy classes (A or O, in Air New Zealand’s case) using miles.

2) More importantly, my Auckland-Sydney flight is in B class, so it is upgradable. But the United rep told me their systems for upgrading partner flights using miles “has been down for 6 weeks.” Has anyone else encountered this? 6 weeks?

Newark to Istanbul: $638 Round Trip (Nonstop) Including Taxes In Late August

(Thanks, Flyertalk)

United has a fare sale for their new nonstop service from Newark to Istanbul for just $638 round trip (tax included) for travel beginning August 28th (fares from August 21st are just under $700).

Yes, cheap fares to Istanbul have been around on-and-off for a little while, but during the late summer/early fall season, this is a really great deal (check out the ridiculous fares to other cities in Europe).

United Ends Service to Accra and Copenhagen

United announced that it will end Newark-Copenhagen service in September (the route will still be served by fellow Star carrier SAS) and, more surprisingly, Dulles – Accra service in June.

Loss of any service to Africa is a bummer (though I believe there’s more service from the US to Africa today than there has been since the Pan Am heyday.) I would’ve thought the IAD-ACC route made a ton of sense, with a huge West African population in the Washington, DC, area. But, I would guess, without onward traffic from ACC, perhaps the market is too limited. I don’t know – this really seemed like a route with possibilities. Anyone have any ideas why they’re abandoning?

2 Very Quick Notes from Chicago

1) I left the W Lakeshore at exactly 5:30am and was AT MY GATE at O’Hare at 5:55am. It’s like we skipped some time-space continuum.

2) Because of the warp-speed taxi ride I stopped by the gate of the 615am (!) flight to LaGuardia (I’m on the 7am). There were seats available, but the gate agent told me it would be $75 to get on the flight. I said that I was Platinum and I believe the fee is waived (as it was waived the prior day when I moved up to the 7am from a later flight). He said that the fee is only waived for 1K and Global Service. The United webpage suggests I am correct. I wasn’t about to argue at 555am about a flight that gets in 45 minutes earlier, but I’m curious – who was right?

United Explorer Card 60,000 Miles Bonus Now Widely Available

The United Explorer Card bonus offering 50,000 miles after the first purchase (and 10,000 more after $25k in spend in a year) has been around in some form (on and off) for a while, though either it has been targeted, or people have had to have some miles in their account to be able to view the deal.

All of that nonsense is gone (for now). Visit theexplorercard.com/60bonus to apply – it’s a non-affiliate, non-targeted link that is available to everyone. The offer is good through May 31st.

Remember that the United Explorer Card, which has the first year fee waived, offers free first checked bag, 2 club passes, and priority boarding.

A friendly reminder that you can generally apply for 1 Chase card every 30 days, and I suggest bundling your apps together so you’re waiting 90 days between apps.

(Thanks, Slickdeals)

United Flight to Shanghai Includes 2 Days Stuck in Anchorage

A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Shanghai turned into a long ordeal for passengers on Sunday when they found themselves stuck in Anchorage for an unexpected 2-day stop.

A few hours into the flight, crew (and passengers, I guess) discovered that several of the lavatories on the plane did not function. Pilots landed the plane mid-afternoon in Anchorage to fix the issue, but after several hours – when passengers were not permitted to deplane – it was determined that the aircraft could not be repaired.

At 8pm passengers deplaned, but they then waited 2 hours for meal and hotel vouchers, by which time airport restaurants were closed.

A new plane was flown in the next day, but after passengers boarded the crew found mechanical issues with that aircraft as well. Everyone was sent back to their hotels to wait it out another night.

A third plane was sent up to Anchorage on Tuesday, and the 777 was able to get everyone back on their way to Shanghai.