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United is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Mileage Plus loyalty program. While AAdvantage gave away millions of miles, United is marking the occasion with an incredible award flash sale. Today only, you can book award flights on United for as few as 4,000 miles each way. Or, book roundtrip international flights for just 40,000 miles.
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Key Terms of United's Award Flash Sale
With award rates this good, there are sure to be some catches.
- Book by May 6, 2021
- Travel between June 1 and August 31, 2021
- You must book a round-trip flight
- Saturday night stay required
- Available on both nonstop and connecting itineraries
More Availability Available for Cardholders
As is always the case, more United award availability is available to United co-branded cardholders and Premier elite members. So, make sure to log into your account before searching if you have a co-branded credit card.
If you don't already have a card, now is an excellent time to sign up for the United℠ Explorer Card. New cardholders can earn up to 65,000 bonus miles:
- 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. Plus, an additional 25,000 bonus miles after you spend $10,000 in the first 6 months.
- $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $95
- Earn 2 miles per $1 spent at restaurants, on hotel stays, and on United purchases
- Up to $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® fee Credit
- 25% back on United inflight purchases
- Check your first bag for free (a savings of up to $140 per roundtrip) when you use your card to purchase your ticket
- Enjoy priority boarding privileges and visit the United Club℠ with 2 one-time passes each year for your anniversary
- Earn 2 miles per $1 spent at restaurants and eligible delivery services
- 2X miles per $1 spent on purchases from United
- 2X miles per $1 spent at restaurants and on hotel stays
- 1X mile per $1 spent on all other purchases
United Domestic Flights for 8,000 Miles Roundtrip
United lists a total of 160 domestic routes that are available for 4,000 miles each way (with a round-trip required). The full list can be found here.
Most of these routes are short flights — with 150 of the 160 eligible routes under 1,000 miles in distance. So, don't waste your time looking for transcontinental flights or flights to Hawaii. However, these short routes may come in handy depending on your travel needs.
Newark (EWR) — Fort Myers (RSW)
Book a summer trip from New York City to the Florida beaches for just 4,000 miles each way:
Chicago O'Hare (ORD) — Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
If you're in Chicago, you can also snag a South Florida trip for just 4,000 miles each way:
Chicago O'Hare (ORD) — West Palm Beach (PBI)
If West Palm Beach is more your style, you can also fly from Chicago to West Palm Beach for just 4,000 miles each way:
Houston (IAH) — Jackson Hole (JAC)
Jackson Hole, Wyoming is a gateway to both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. And you can book flights there for just 4,000 miles each way this summer:
Houston (IAH) — Bozeman (BZN)
If you want to escape the oppressive Texas heat this summer, Montana is an excellent option. Fly from Houston to Bozeman for just 4,000 miles each way:
United International Award Flights for 40,000 Miles Roundtrip
In addition to the domestic deals, United is offering an award flash sale on 44 international routes from 7 hubs. Here's the full list of eligible routes:
From Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
- Amsterdam (AMS)
- Dublin (DUB)
- London (LHR)
- Paris (CDG)
- Reykjavik (KEF)
- Rome (FCO)
- Tel Aviv (TLV)
From Denver (DEN) to London (LHR)
From Houston (IAH)
- Amsterdam (AMS)
- Guatemala City (GUA)
- London (LHR)
- San Pedro Sula (SAP)
- San Salvador (SAL)
From Los Angeles (LAX)
- Guatemala City (GUA)
- London (LHR)
- San Pedro Sula (SAP)
- San Salvador (SAL)
From Newark (EWR)
- Amsterdam (AMS)
- Athens (ATH)
- Dublin (DUB)
- Dubrovnik (DBV)
- Guatemala City (GUA)
- London (LHR)
- Paris (CDG)
- Reykjavik (KEF)
- Rome (FCO)
- San Pedro Sula (SAP)
- San Salvador (SAL)
- Tel Aviv (TLV)
From San Francisco (SFO)
- Amsterdam (AMS)
- Dublin (DUB)
- London (LHR)
- Papeete, Tahiti (PPT)
- Paris (CDG)
- Tel Aviv (TLV)
From Washington Dulles (IAD)
- Amsterdam (AMS)
- Athens (ATH)
- Dublin (DUB)
- Guatemala City (GUA)
- London (LHR)
- Paris (CDG)
- Rome (FCO)
- San Salvador (SAL)
- Tel Aviv (TLV)
Getting United Miles
This United award flash sale is great for those that already have miles in their Mileage Plus account. However, you aren't out of luck if your United account is too low to book these awards.
If you need to top off your Mileage Plus account, you have two great options. You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United Mileage Plan at a 1:1 ratio in increments of 1,000 miles. And the transfer is instantaneous.
Or, you can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to United at a rate of 3:1.1. That's Marriott's typical 3:1 airline transfer ratio plus a 10% bonus for United transfers. You'll also get a 10% bonus on the standard 5,000-mile bonus for transferring at least 60,000 points to an airline. So, a transfer of 60,000 Bonvoy points to United will net 27,500 miles.
If you need even more miles, you can transfer hotel points from Accor Live Limitless, Choice Privileges, Hertz Gold, Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, IHG Rewards, Radisson Rewards, and Wyndham Rewards. However, the transfer rate on these isn't good for moving a large number of miles.
Bottom Line
United is celebrating the 4oth anniversary of its Mileage Plus program with an excellent award flash sale on over 200 routes. Most of these are short-haul flights for just 8,000 miles roundtrip. However, there are longer domestic routes for this great rate. And there are some incredible international awards available for just 40,000 miles roundtrip — including flights to Athens, Dublin, London, Paris, Rome, Tel Aviv, and even Tahiti!
What trip(s) are you booking with this incredible United award flash sale?
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I can’t believe I missed this! I was JUST thinking about booking a flight to Rome!
Too good to be truth. Sure there are some tricks.
This is cool to see some reward flight deals for United since they seemed to have devalued their points over the last couple years, requiring more and more points for decent flights. Hope their business class award availability is good.
Yes, I’ve found opportunites from Buenos Aires to DC for about 40k. Its amazing
I was frustrated yesterday because when I searched for flights from Ogdensburg, NY to IAD, the matrix said “4k” for the flights. But after clicking through to the “pay” page the price ramped up to 12,500 points. So I wasn’t able to take advantage of this offer.
I did get several emails about this but I do not need any trips right now. I know they are trying to boost but now I wouldn’t think they need too much. I thought I heard that searches are up for travel.
This is great! Does this also apply to COPA Airlines flights?
Amazing!
Whilst I’m sure some people will be able to make use of this, it looks a little underwhelming when compared to the AAdvantage 40th promotion.
I don’t like the limited dates on this flash sale. They know it’s too early still to travel for a lot of people. They should allow longer travel dates.
I suspect that their goal is to entice people to start traveling again. People will resume travel on their own eventually, so this is a sale to speed that up, only works if it’s for travel sooner than people are quite ready for.
The routes are listed in only 1 direction, but in case it wasn’t clear, both directions work. You don’t have to start in the city listed first, you can do your roundtrip in either direction. Every flight obviously isn’t available at the 4k rate, but in my quick search there were some good times, not only 6am flights!
What is United’s cancelation/redeposit of miles if I cannot go?
Great question! There’s no fee if you change or cancel 31+ days in advance. The fee within 30 days is $125 per passenger for general members. That fee is reduced for elite members.
Thank you for asking/answering this. That was going to be my question.
Do you know what the fee is for elite members?
Premier Silver: $100
Premier Gold: $75
Premier Platinum: $50
Premier 1K: $0
Can you combine this with United’s excursionist perk?
Potentially! We didn’t have the chance to check as we wanted to publish this ASAP!
Any offerings in Business?
Not that I’ve seen. Just standard premium cabin rates.
I usually don’t advocate for using miles for short-haul flights that only cost a couple of hundred dollars but if only using 4K miles, it would be worth it.
i booked a july 4th trip PDX-AMS (via IAH and ORD) for 40k. we’ll see if that actually happens! i put a reminder 32 days out to reevaluate before the free cxl period ends.
Nice!