United Airlines Mileageplus: A guide to earning and redeeming miles, elite identity and more

United Airlines’ Mileageplus plans to make some recent changes, such as a depreciating first-class partner redemption in 2024 and overhauling its mutual brand credit card earlier this year. However, since United Miles never expires, you can use plus points and mileage to confirm the upgrade of the long-distance Polaris, and Mireageplus now lets you do the pool, the program still has many highlights.

This guide will provide you with all the necessary information about the program, including how to earn a unified mileage and identity, and how to maximize the miles of reward travel.

Joint Mission ℠ Card: Earn 100,000 miles and 3,000 Prime Minister Qualification Points, after the previous three months of $4,000 from account opening. (See rates and fees.)

United MileagePlus Overview

With over 100 million members, Unity Mileageplus is one of the largest loyalty programs in the world.

MiLeagePlus members can earn miles through United and their partners as well as their credit cards, shopping and dining. You can redeeve miles on reward trips from airlines and their star alliance partners.

MiLeagePlus members can also earn joint elite status by achieving certain Prime Minister qualifying points. Elite identities include other benefits such as upgrades, preferred and economical, plus seating, priority boarding and free shipping bags. In addition, the Federation offers a variety of common branded credit cards that can help members earn miles faster and enjoy additional privileges.

United Airlines Partners

You can earn and redeem miles through United Airlines’ membership with a variety of international airlines with United Airlines. When traveling with these partners, United Prime Minister members can often enjoy allowances such as lounge access (depending on status) and additional luggage allowances.

This is Manchester United’s current star league partner:

• Aegean Airlines
• Air Canada
• Chinese Air
• Air India
• Air New Zealand
• All Japanese airlines
• Air Asia
• Austrian Airlines
• avianca
• Brussels Airlines
• Cup airline
• Croatian Airlines
• Egypt
• Ethiopian Airlines
• Eva Airlines
• Juneyao Air (connection partner)
• Plot Polish Airlines
• Lufthansa
• Shenzhen Airlines
• Singapore Airlines
• South African Airlines
• Switzerland
• Tap Air Portugal
• Thai Airways
• Turkish Airlines

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Manchester United also cooperates with several airlines outside the Star Alliance:

• Aer Lingus
• Dolomite in the sky
• airline
• Azur Aramaic
• Cloak in the air
• Discover airlines
• Edelweiss
• UAE
• Europe
• Flydubai
• Hawaiian Airlines
• JSX
• Lufthansa Airlines
• Olympic Air
• Virgin Australia

Partners can have their own limitations for Mileage Pulis members, including applicable bonuses, qualified fare courses and exclusion routes – so be sure to check out the United Airlines Partners page for full details for everyone.

United Airlines Prime Minister’s Status

Mileageplus has four levels of elite identities: Prime Minister Silver, Prime Minister Gold, Prime Minister Platinum and Prime Minister 1K. There is also an exclusive global service layer where you can only make money after completing 4 million miles or receiving a personal invitation.

There are two ways to win a joint prime minister status: combining Prime Minister qualifying and Prime Minister-qualified flights, or earning PQP alone. To win any level of status, you must also make at least four joint or joint express flights.

You can earn PQF and PQP through Flight United or its partners. You can also spend PQP on most of Manchester United’s co-branded credit cards.

This is the qualification to be eligible for joint status in 2025 (valid until January 31, 2027):

United Prime Minister members can enjoy rewards on paid tickets, free check bags and free waiting lists on most joint-operated flights.

High-level members can get more valuable perks such as free economy plus seating, plus points (which can be used to confirm upgrades), Bonvoy Gold Gold Elite status and Star League gold medals (this provides extra benefits on other star league carriers such as lounge access, priority boarding, extra bags, extra bags, extra bags, etc.).

How to earn Manchester United Miles

Here are some of the most popular ways to improve your mileage balance.

Take United Airlines

When flying on a ticket that is jointly marketed and operated, you can earn miles (up to 75,000 miles per ticket) based on the price of the ticket minus the tax and your miles Pluth identity rather than the distance you fly.

Here are a few miles of every dollar you earn based on your identity level:

• General Member:5 miles
• Prime Minister Silver: 7 miles
• Prime Minister Gold: 8 miles
• Prime Minister Platinum: 9 miles
• Prime Minister 1K: 11 miles

These earning rates also apply if you book a joint basic economic fare course.

Take United Partner Airlines

When flying with a Manchester United partner, you can earn miles of miles, but it can be complicated. If you book a partner flight through United (indicated as 016 tickets), you will earn miles based on your fare and elite status.

However, if you book through a partner, you will earn miles based on the length of your flight and fare courses. Usually, you can see the fare courses on booking a flight or confirming email. Airline mileage rates vary, so check your reservation and use the United partner airline list to determine your reward miles. As expected, premium carbin tickets earn more than economic tickets, and Prime Minister members are eligible for reward miles from selected partners.

Obtain and use United Airlines credit card

Chase issued a Manchester United co-branded credit card that is one of the most popular ways to earn miles (and on some cards, PQP). Here are some of our favorite current welcome bonuses:

• Joint Mission Card: Earn 100,000 miles and 3,000 PQPs after the previous three months of $4,000 from account opening.
• United ℠Explorer Card: Earn 60,000 miles of bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first three months of opening an account (see interest rates and fees).
• Joint business card: Earn 75,000 miles of bonus miles and 2,000 PQP, spending $5,000 in purchases in the first three months of opening an account (see interest rates and fees).
• United Club Card: Earn 90,000 miles in purchases (see rates and fees) during the first three months of opening.

Related: Why someone in your home needs a joint credit card

Transfer credit card points

There are two programs with transferable currencies in partnership with United Mileageplus: Chase Ultimate Rewards and Bilt Rewards. You can transfer points from either program to your MileagePlus account in a 1:1 ratio. Transfers usually happen immediately, which is an easy way to improve the balance of joint redemption.

Related: How to transfer the ultimate reward point to United

More ways to earn unified mileage

Like most airlines, the U.S. has an online shopping portal where you can buy miles online. The MiLeagePlus X app offers another way to earn bonus miles on in-store and online everyday purchases.

Meanwhile, when you dine at an participating restaurant and use the linked credit card, LileagePlus dining rewards are up to 5 miles per dollar.

Other ways to earn Manchester United miles include buying miles and transferring Marriott Bowater points, as well as booking hotels, car rentals and cruising through the United Travel Portal.

United Mile Pool

Miles of all ages Prous members can share and redeem miles in one account.

This is especially useful for families. Since there is no age limit to join the mileage Pleps, children can earn miles and use their parents’ miles to cash in on a larger redemption. A swimming pool can have up to five members. You can choose how many miles you want to put into the pool, and there is no limit on how many miles you can contribute.

First, you must be at least 18 years of age to create a swimming pool and become a “pool leader”. You will then have the right to add other members and determine which members have redemption privileges.

There are some regulations. When you provide mileage to the pool, you will have 24 hours to turn the deal around, after which you cannot return the aggregated mileage. You can also only operate in one swimming pool at a time. If you exit the pool, it will take a 90-day “cooling” period before you can join another pool or a new member can join your old pool.

Finally, you can’t summarize Prime Qualifying Tournament, and summarizing mileage won’t affect your primary status.

How to redeem Manchester United mileage

Manchester United has retired its rewards list and is now using dynamic reward pricing. Still, there are ways to maximize the program.

Usually, when you redeem your flight, you will get the most value, which is easy to do on a joint website or app. United Credit Card Holders and Prime Minister members can access additional reward space on United flights, so if you fall into these categories, be sure to log in to your MileagePlus account before searching for reward flights.

Manchester United also offers a payment method called Money + Miles. However, we do not recommend this because it offers a fixed speed of 1 cent per mile – well below our June 2025 joint mile valuation of 1.35 cents.

The same goes for most other ways to redeem joint miles, such as United Club membership, in-flight Wi-Fi purchases, TSA Precheck fees, car rentals, hotel accommodation, retail products and gift cards. The value you get from these redemptions is almost always much lower than what you get in the prize ticket.

Related: How to exchange unwanted gift cards for Manchester United mileage

The best use of Union Mile

You may find about 5,000 miles of reward options on high-frequency, short-haul flights. While these flights are almost always under $100, these awards may be a great way to keep travel plans flexible, as United no longer charges for re-hit fees when you cancel your award flight.

You can also find it at 30,000 miles in Business Class/domestic 30,000 miles in Economic Class or at 30,000 miles in Business Class/domestic when there is a space with a savings prize. For last minute situations, you might consider hiding your healthy “just in case” in your mileage Pluth account.

If you want to fly to Europe, the Federation offers 20,000 miles of savings-level flights in economy class, 50,000 miles of premium economy, or 80,000 miles of North Star Business Class. All of these are great ways to travel to Europe.

You might consider riding with United Miles on top partner operators, including products like “room” business class with ANA or EVA Airways business class, which offer high-end amenities but with high reward rates.

Related: How to Get Maximum Value from United MileagePlus Plan

Bottom line

Because Manchester United has an extensive network – and often adds new routes, it is easy to earn and redeem mileage on flights. If you live near the Union Hub or want to enjoy the stipend for elite status, it may make sense to stick to the LireagePlus loyalty program. Even if you don’t fly frequently or care about elite identity, you may still find it useful to transfer miles from your planned credit card transfer partner.

Whatever type of joint flyer you are, it can make sense to know the complexity of the Mile Pleator program.