How Can You Earn United Air Miles ?

When the first frequent flyer programs were launched they were allowed to let the passengers who flew with one airlines save miles and redeem them. Today with United Air miles, getting an upgrade or buying a free ticket is just the part of a loyalty program. Nowadays, there are many ways to earn and redeem miles apart from just flying. There are many passengers who have been earning and redeeming their air miles without even leaving the ground.

When the program was started initially, the MileagePlus miles could only be earned through flying. Later, the miles could be earned without flying. United Airlines offers you several ways through which you can earn the miles, you can stay at your favorite hotels or shop for your favorite stores, go for dinner to partner restaurants and on every dollar that you spend you can earn credits.

Redeem Miles On Traveling

When you talk about air travel, there are two best ways for redeeming air miles, purchase an air ticket or upgrade the ticket which you already own. Upgrades use lesser miles than a full ticket and the cost of each mile also depend on the flight and its destination, distance from the airport you are traveling to the other one. The time of the year is also another important factor. Depending on the number of miles you have earned, you can buy a coach seat on short flight, if you are traveling for a longer flight then upgrade your seat to business or first class. After you have reached the destination of your visit you can also use your miles to make a booking for the hotel or rent a car.

Other Prizes For Miles

Not every person likes to travel, or is in a mood to save enough miles to purchase a free ticket. Unite Air miles offers you an interesting way to get miles by different fun activities and experience of a life time, like they offer you fascinating wine tours in to Europe to major sports events happening around the world like the Olympics. Virtual shopping also allows you to collect miles on every single dollar that you spent on any purchase big or small. You can spend your miles for magazine subscription to paying the bill of your dinner, the choices are endless.

Disadvantages

While frequent flyer miles or programs seem to be a good idea there are drawbacks for each of them. Credit cards that offer you miles on every dollar that you spent may charge you an annual fee which equals the same value as the cash of the miles or a higher interest rate than the other credit cards in the same back. When you are using miles to book a flight, blackout date can you prevent you from flying anywhere or if the first class cabin is filled up then you can be prevented from getting an upgrade on your coach seat. Some people are so obsessed in getting a free flight they start buying miles to get an upgrade or a free ticket which doesn’t equals with the fact that miles are meant to be collected for free rather than paying for something that you could have easily got without any spending of cash.