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Consolidated: XXXX UA miles short of award- how to get them quickly? [Merged Threads]

Old Jan 17, 2020, 11:46 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Transfer miles from Chase or Marriott to UA
Beware for Chase this is an one-way transfer and for Marriott the return would lose points
This can take a few hours to a few days
Mile/Points transfers between UA & Marriott via RewardPlus - Questions/Experiences

Purchase Miles from UA
Currently, at 3.75 cents per mile, an expensive program but often has significant sales where miles are 2 to 2.5 cents per mile
This can take a few days

Award Accelerator
This is a more complex process but generally runs 2 to 2.5 cents per mile but hard to buy a specific amount
Miles post in a few hours at the most
Consolidated Award / Premier Accelerator questions

Transfer miles from another UA account
This costs 1.5 cents per mile (plus $30 fee)
Miles will post within 1 day
Generally considered a bad deal, as you can purchase the miles at about 2 cpm and not lose the miles in the other account
Short miles for award, What about transferring from another account? Alternatives?

Miles from Purchases (for small amounts)
Either via MileagePlus X Shopping App to Earn Additional Award Miles
or MileagePlus Shopping
Posting time is variable

Credit Card signup bonuses
Cheapest approach but requires getting card approval and likely some card usage

An alternative is Book with Money and Miles -- What is the "Book with Money and Miles" option ?

Additional ways to earn miles
Also the slowest, as this will take months

e-Rewards Opinion Panel

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Consolidated: XXXX UA miles short of award- how to get them quickly? [Merged Threads]

Old Aug 27, 2012, 8:12 am
  #151  
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Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,998
Originally Posted by used_wardrobe
I need one United mile by 8/31. I currently have have no ultimate rewards points and nothing I have on points.com meets the transfer requirements. Anything I can do that will cause the points to post this quickly?


Many thanks!
Buy some from UA
Stoughton is offline  
Old Aug 27, 2012, 8:17 am
  #152  
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Land of the parrots and parrotheads
Programs: Several dozen
Posts: 4,820
If you have a UR card, you need someone to transfer (loan) you 1K and then you transfer it back when you earn it. Anyone in your family have URs?

Stoughton: Buy miles? Really now!.

Originally Posted by used_wardrobe
I need one United mile by 8/31. I currently have have no ultimate rewards points and nothing I have on points.com meets the transfer requirements. Anything I can do that will cause the points to post this quickly?


Many thanks!
AlohaDaveKennedy is offline  
Old Aug 27, 2012, 8:36 am
  #153  
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 74
Thanks for the tips, but was hoping for something like a trivia game (used to be able to get best buy points answering audience rewards questions, then transfer to united on points.com, but looks like Best Buy doesn't do the trivia anymore). No UR points and my family isn't in the game, but my aunt wants to get a United card I told her about. Only problem is that it's a targeted offer requiring points in your account (offer is 65k miles, but requires points in your account to be targeted). Rumor has it that this deal ends on 9/01, so trying to help her get the offer.

This reminds me why I stopped telling me friends to sign up for all these offers - too much work for most and no guarantees, so I'm the one that looks bad when they can't get the redemption or offer they want.
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Old Aug 27, 2012, 8:47 am
  #154  
mia
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend; Moderator: American Express, Capital One, Citi, Chase, Credit Card Programs, Diners Club, Signatures
 
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Moderator action

Thread transferred to UA forum where another member is likely to have already solved this puzzle.
mia is online now  
Old Aug 27, 2012, 8:48 am
  #155  
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Programs: All of them
Posts: 214
If you had more time you could buy a song from iTunes through the United shopping portal.

Why do you need 1 mile so quickly? If it's to keep miles active, you can do that by redeeming them for a magazine subscription. Some can be had for around 300-500 miles. Blowing a few hundred miles is a lot better than losing thousands.

Actually come to think of it, I think United just launched some sort of digital content shopping mall where you can redeem 100 miles for a song. Maybe you could go that route.
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Old Aug 27, 2012, 8:52 am
  #156  
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Times Square
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Posts: 1,396
Not sure if this is still around, but there were United miles being offered for checking into an airport location via topguest. I was able to get a few straggler miles I needed this way. You may want to check the topguest thread here on FT to see if it's still valid.
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Old Aug 27, 2012, 9:21 am
  #157  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
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Do you need one mile to get an award or do you need one mile to show activity in your account so your miles don't expire? If the latter, keep in mind that using points for purchases from partners qualifies as activity. You can buy a song from United's digital media store for 150 miles or so. I think that activity might post immediately.

Two weeks ago, I made a cash purchase through the United shopping mall that earned miles that posted within five days, but there's no guarantee that if you made a purchase today that it would post by Friday.

Given the short turnaround time, buying miles provides certainty but at a high cost: $75.25 for the minimum 2000 mile purchase. Again, if you don't mind losing a few miles in order to have activity that protects the remainder of your mileage account, you can transfer 1000 miles for $15. That activity should post immediately as well but no later than 48 hours from the transfer, which is the amount of time United says to expect for the transfer to post to the other account.
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Old Aug 27, 2012, 9:31 am
  #158  
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Originally Posted by sent
Not sure if this is still around, but there were United miles being offered for checking into an airport location via topguest. I was able to get a few straggler miles I needed this way. You may want to check the topguest thread here on FT to see if it's still valid.
Unfortunately, that deal is dead.
FriendlySkies is offline  
Old Sep 10, 2012, 8:54 pm
  #159  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
Posts: 165
Originally Posted by FriendlySkies
Unfortunately, that deal is dead.
Yep.

Per http://mileageplus.topguest.com/
Thank you for your participation in MileagePlus social offers.

This promotion ended on June 15, 2012. Registration has closed and MileagePlus award miles are no longer being offered for checking in via Facebook or Foursquare at United airports.

We hope you will continue to take advantage of the many other ways to earn MileagePlus award miles. To learn more about earning and using miles, please visit mileageplus.com.
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Old Sep 10, 2012, 9:19 pm
  #160  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: NYC
Programs: Marriott Platinum Elite, National Executive, United Gold
Posts: 1,181
Hi folks,

I'm currently a Premier Silver with 19,446 PQMs and would like to re-qualify for 2013. Remaining itineraries left for 2012 are EWR-BOS and LGA-ORD. My main constraint is that I do not have time in my schedule to do a MR, so I think the accelerator is my best option - I just bought a LGA-DEN ticket ($198) that I intend on using the accelerator ($302) and wanted to know if the ~9.2cpm is worth it.

Thanks in advance.
764toHI is offline  
Old Sep 10, 2012, 10:57 pm
  #161  
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Originally Posted by 764toHI
... wanted to know if the ~9.2cpm is worth it. ....
only you know the answer to that.
MR can be cheaper, but you mention the lack of time. If no MR, than what are your alternatives?

One question is it worth $302 to get Silver? What Silver benefits do you value?
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Old Sep 11, 2012, 11:55 am
  #162  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
only you know the answer to that.
MR can be cheaper, but you mention the lack of time. If no MR, than what are your alternatives?

One question is it worth $302 to get Silver? What Silver benefits do you value?
Thank you - I think the marginal cost is worth it to achieve Silver for another year. I guess I'm just going to price random itineraries to see which one will give me the best cpm.
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Old Sep 23, 2012, 11:02 am
  #163  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: HEL
Programs: BA Gold, AY Gold
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Missing 3031 miles from award

As the topic says, I'm missing 3031 miles from an award flight I would like to book. My travel partner has extra miles and I am considering transferring miles from her account to mine. This would cost an reasonable $45. So, my question is, is there any way to get the extra 31 miles without transfering 4000 miles? Is the system fully automatical, or are there possibilities to flex? Thank you!
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Old Sep 23, 2012, 11:15 am
  #164  
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Originally Posted by Alec84
As the topic says, I'm missing 3031 miles from an award flight I would like to book. My travel partner has extra miles and I am considering transferring miles from her account to mine. This would cost an reasonable $45. So, my question is, is there any way to get the extra 31 miles without transfering 4000 miles? Is the system fully automatical, or are there possibilities to flex? Thank you!
The mileage transfer and purchase systems are all fixed on 1K increments -- no flexibility.
There is another method ( Award Accelerator) that may allow a purchase of a more specific number of miles but the price runs 2 to 3 cpm so in this case would be more expensive (and it is a bit more involved).
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Old Oct 1, 2012, 1:07 pm
  #165  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
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Thank you! This site is absolutely fantastic! You get responses quicker than when contacting companies and most often people here know much better than the representatives.
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