Continental/United MileagePlus?

[scottishgirl87]

Anyone here clued up on the mileage program of Continental/United?

Boyfriend and I each have 11000 miles with them but I can't for the life of me work out if its worth anything to us. We're looking to book flights for next year at some point and while I know we don't have nearly enough for a free flight or anything like that but I wondered if our miles have any monetary value, say £X amount off a flight?

Don't know if it makes a difference but we seem to have 6000 odd "Lifetime Flight Miles" on our accounts, too.

 

[2Tiggies]

CO/United have what I think is a very complicated mileage system! I really can't help shed any light on their program except to say that they are more generous with miles than most other airlines but the also seem to have a shorter validity period. The lifetime miles are miles that don't expire. Will the site let you do a dummy booking and see what the miles are worth against a flight?

Say you didn't use the miles now - are they valid long enough that you will be able to use them in the future? That would be the first thing I would check as if they are due to expire before you intend to take a subsequent trip with them, I would be inclined to use them if there is some saving, rather than lose them and have none at all.

I know you can see (somewhere) if you log into your OnePass account when your miles expire.

 

[scottishgirl87]

Well strangely it says your miles are valid as long as you earn or use them at least once every 18 months. My last flight with them was March 2011 but it says my miles expire September 2013.

I did have a quick look at reward flights and it doesn't seem to allow you to use less than 30,000 miles but the fares seemed reasonable. I noticed you could transfer miles and thinking about it if I transferred from my boyfriends and my dads (who most likely won't be flying CO/UA anytime soon) to my account then I think I hit the 30,000 mark but it costs to transfer and so it could be wasted if there wasn't anything suitable.

Why can't they just say every 1000 points is worth £2.50 or something like that! so much easier!

 

[chmurf]

I have 14,174 miles on my onepass/mileage plus account
tried to price a flight last month using miles, it was worth nothing

for example, to get an upgrade on a flight from europe you need 15k miles if you're on Y (full fare economy) or 20k miles + $550 if your fare is a discounted economy

gatwick-orlando reward flights start at 55k miles + $200 (depending on time of year) in economy
businessfirst is at 125.000 miles + $300

note that above reward flights are one way

some time period get as low as 30.000 miles + $2.50 one way, but restrictions apply

 

[scottishgirl87]

I have 14,174 miles on my onepass/mileage plus account
tried to price a flight last month using miles, it was worth nothing

for example, to get an upgrade on a flight from europe you need 15k miles if you're on Y (full fare economy) or 20k miles + $550 if your fare is a discounted economy

gatwick-orlando reward flights start at 55k miles + $200 (depending on time of year) in economy
businessfirst is at 125.000 miles + $300

note that above reward flights are one way

some time period get as low as 30.000 miles + $2.50 one way, but restrictions apply

Thanks for that, chmurf. The annoying thing is we missed out on miles from London to LA in 2008 and that would have edged us that little bit closer to 30,000.

 

[lin85prest]

I don't think they are worth much unless u have enough to get gold elite, then u get extra leg room seats free, extra bags and weight. Also are eligible for upgrades if they r available

 

[2Tiggies]

Why can't they just say every 1000 points is worth £2.50 or something like that! so much easier!

No they can't do that! For goodness sake ... that would make things way too simple and logical!