Consolidated MP hotel & car rentals awards Q&A, Experiences, ....
 

Anyone familiar with using this? I am trying it out for the first time. When I click "Book Now", it asks me to Log in and continue, then I get an error:

"You are not eligible to use miles for Hotel and Car Awards at this time. You may be eligible for other options such as newspapers, magazines, dining, and air awards. Please visit our Use Miles web page for more information."

Has it always been like this? Or is the website just down/updating? TIA.

hotelandcarawards.mileageplus.com

Hotel and Car Awards are available to Premier members and/or United MileagePlus Chase Cardmembers who in each case are also members with a MileagePlus account address in the 50 United States, Puerto Rico or Guam.

https://hotelandcarawards.mileageplu...cfm?PAGE=terms

thanks.

Booking hotels with United miles?
 

Do you ever get greater than 2 cpm value by booking hotels with United miles?

Is there anything at all that you can get with United miles other than flights that gets better than 2 cpm value?

I've found hotel bookings in pricey Asian cities like Seoul or Hong Kong to be the only good value with miles. Booked a suite in Seoul a few years back and was very satisfied.

I used miles + money to get over 3cpm once, St. Patrick's day weekend in New Orleans. Only good deal I've ever found searching for hotels with miles.

It's not worth of using your miles to book hotels on United.com. I had this unforgettable experience that I booked my room using my leftover 20m in my mileage account. After I completed my booking online, I thought everything was well done and expected to be checking in on the day of travel. But what surprised me was when I checked in the hotel i booked from United.com, the lady working at the front desk said she couldnt find my booking and asked me where I made this booking. Frustrated and helpless, I made a phone call to United hotels reservation center,hoping I was able to get some help from professionals. And again, during the call, I was put on hold for like as long as one hour and the lady handling my case never came back and talked to me before the signal went off suddenly without my knowing. To make a story short, at the end, I had to pay my stay at the hotel instead of miles I had intended to use at the first place. So from my experience, I strongly suggest you don't use miles to book hotels, it'd be, to my understanding, more valuable to make a roundtrip to /from Canada with a little makeup of miles brought online.

Miles for Hotel Awards
 

A co-worker has 26,000 miles set to expire Nov 30, 2013. He's trying to burn them this weekend for a hotel award. When he tries to book, he's getting the message "you are not eligible to book a hotel or car rental award at this time."
Any ideas why?

When I log in and try the same thing, I'm not getting a message and can go all the way to the check-out page, etc.

?????

Only premier members are eligible. I suppose he's not?

send him to opinionmilesclub and renew them for pittance almost instantly.

Using United Miles for Hotel or Car
 

So I am using United miles for my wife and I for a November trip from Newark-San Diego. Booked the award travel last week.

Yesterday I received an email from United Mileageplus to "Use miles to book your hotel and car in San Diego".

I checked it out but figured it will be a horrible deal.....I was right about the deals for hotels, not worth it....but I was able to find good deals on using it for a rental car through Dollar. 18,000 miles total for 5 days in a Premium car (Nissan Maxima) which included unlimited miles, and all taxes and fees included. When I priced it out at Dollar.com it came to a total of $520 with all fees.

I was very pleasantly surprised....

Quick Question / recommendation about using UA miles to book hotels
 

Hi, I wasn't sure where to place this and there is probably a thread somewhere related but I wanted to get your valued opinion...or to be pointed in the right direction.

I will be in Auckland Octoberish 2014 and was thinking of doing the airbnb thing.

Before I make a decision, I thought maybe I should consider hotels. From what I've found, I haven't been quite interested in what I am seeing except one or two properties, and I noticed that some of these can be booked using UA miles.

For instance: I was eyeing the Rydges Auckland which is about 12,050 a night. I dont think I am quite ready to leave UA as of yet but lately, finding saver awards for the locations/times I want to visit is difficult. Not to many, a recent experience with changing my current award ticket has been NO so fun. So, bad taste in my mouth has me wondering how to use the miles I am currently accumulating and perhaps using them for my hotel fundage is the way to go.

So my ? is: overall is using UA miles to book hotels a good use of miles and if so, are there any recommendations? This will be my first time in Auckland and while I prefer a local experience with a host, etc. I'm also afraid I may get a dud and ruin this portion of my trip.

As always, thanks for making this a flame-free zone. :)

the typical measure is what you are getting cents per mile (cpm) most shoot for 1.5 cpm or better, some set their target at 2 to 2.5 cpm. Most hotel redemptions are below 1 cpm. From that measure, hotel redemption are a poor use of miles.

But if you have orphan miles or no plans to use the miles, anything better than zero is good. Also one can be mileage rich and cash poor.

what is the cash cost?

cash cost (USD) *100 / (12,050) ==> ? cpm

Auckland travel ideas -- see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ocean...h-pacific-461/

Repeating, ofcourse the inverse is to multiply the miles by 0.02 and make sure you get your money's worth. 12050 x 0.02 = $241. Does it cost more than $241 (with taxes, etc) to get that hotel?

Thanks guys! Yeah, the cheapest room is like less than $150 a night so no where near the coveted 2 cpm. As wc mentioned, yeah it will allow me to unhand the miles and get them gone but I guess I can always save them for an emergency situation or something.

Thanks as always guys! I'll check that Auckland link out as well. Happy Travels!!