Welcome to FT!
Originally Posted by
ndizz77
United sent me an offer to buy miles. I can purchase 94k and get 79.9k miles bonus for $3536.75 which includes a tax recovery fee of $246.75 whatever that is. ...
Federal Excised tax 7.5% on airfare
Originally Posted by
ndizz77
My main person spend CC is United Explorer card. We travel 4-7x/year round trip. Sometimes (like this upcoming trip) it's cheaper to fly Southwest - we live in Chicago so we have 2 commercial airports.
I'm worried that these will be devalued or not worth it somehow. If these are valued at a penny a mile it would be about $1739, correct?
Presently there is not a direct relation of miles to fares. This could possibly change in the future with the Nov 2019 changes, but no one knows for sure.
The first "rule" of mileage buying is don't buy to collect for potential future use, buy because you have an immediate need where you know what value you will receive.
As an aside, miles earned via a Chase MP card do carry a penny per mile statement credit for UA flight purchases. But historically miles have been considered worth at least 1.5 cpm for an award (and higher for premium awards)