Originally Posted by
bosboy73
Wondering if this a good offer. I am simply needing a car for a quick 3 day PERSONAL trip so can't get reimbursed. The cheapest on kayak is $61 for 3 days (Economy). The UA offer for a full-size is $173. So for 1250+7500=8750 miles (actually with a few more [points] if I use my Chase Sapphire, so let's say 9,000), I will be paying $112 more. That's 1.24 cpm. I guess every mile is valuable but I don't know if I really need 9,000 more miles for $112 more.
Actually for the 5,000 miles, a Mid Size is $104 total for 3 days and that's $43 for around 6,500 miles total so 0.66 cpm and a better offer. Paying $69 more for the 7,500 miles offer is 2.76 cpm for these last 2,500 miles.
.66 cpm means you could effectively buy a one-way USA domestic ticket on UA for $82.50. I'd say there's a pretty good shot that you could get more than $82.50 in value out of that (and obviously bigger balances can equal more outsized value). I jumped in on this promo even though I don't normally collect UA miles, on the grounds that a UA one way domestic ticket for a lot less than what I'd normally pay for a plane ticket works for me, and I had rentals where the cost differential was pretty minimal.
ETA: as a data point, my 9/25 weekend rental has posted as of today (5.5k miles as a UA Dirt).