But Hold On - It Never Makes Good Financial Sense and We’ll Show You Why!
Expiration Date – April 25, 2016
United Airlines is offering a 35% discount to transfer miles to another United MileagePlus member until midnight CT on April 25, 2016. But even with a sale, transferring miles to another MileagePlus member doesn’t make good financial sense!
Here are three cost aspects to be aware of when transferring miles:
The price of each mile.
The overall transaction fee.
The value of the miles you intend to transfer.
Without a bonus the price to transfer a mile is 1.50 cents per mile plus a transaction fee that is set at $30 regardless of the number of miles you transfer.
If you transfer miles during this sale, the cost will range between 1.1 cents per mile for 25,000 miles and a whopping 6.9 cents per mile for 500 miles. And, because you’re simply transferring existing miles instead of buying new ones, you have to factor in the value of the transferred miles that you’re giving up (which we value at 1.50 cents per mile). This makes it a very expensive transaction at any purchase level!
Want to look a bit deeper into the option to purchase, gift or share miles with or without a discount or bonus offer; and the opportunity to acquire miles using the United MileagePlus Award Accelerator when purchasing a flight? See our great tip: United - Pros & Cons of Buying and Gifting Miles.
The Wrap-Up:
You may have good reasons to transfer miles to a friend or family member. Just remember that you are always better off using your MileagePlus miles to book an award ticket for a friend or family member instead of transferring miles. It’s simply too expensive to transfer miles – even when they are on sale!
And if you haven’t already, sign up for FREE travel updates so you never miss an important trvlvip Perk or Tip about United Airlines!
We greatly appreciate when you click on any of our links or ads and book a stay directly on the travel partner's website! We have the potential to receive compensation, which allows us to provide our helpful travel updates and advice to you FREE of charge! For more information see our Advertising Policy. Many thanks!