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The United Airlines Mileage Plus shopping portal is currently offering a very generous 1,000 Miles for taking out a ~77p ($1.00 USD) Wall Street Journal trial subscription.
You get a 2 months subscription and need to wait at least 45 days before cancelling in order to get the Miles. If you don’t cancel, you will get charged the standard subscription fee each month – so make a note on your calendar to cancel between 46 and 60 days from now!
The offer ends today, so if you want to take advantage, don’t delay and sign up now.
Why do I want United Mileage Plus Miles?
It’s a good question.
Basically, I’m a big believer in diversifying your Points/Miles earnings as far as is practical.
As I wrote about in a recent post about what the point of Points / Miles is these days, one of the great benefits of having a stash of Miles is the flexibility it gives you. Different loyalty schemes can charge very different amounts of Miles, and have different award space on different airline partners that fly to different destinations, so having Miles in a range of schemes increases that flexibility even further.
For example, Avios are great for lots of things, but if you want to travel to or within many parts of Africa then they are pretty useless – and having a 7 figure balance of them doesn’t change that. Put a bit of effort into earning United Mileage Plus (or other Star Alliance) Miles as well, and you’re in a much better position.
1,000 Miles by itself isn’t going to get you anywhere, but it really is amazing how quickly Miles can build up once you start taking an interest in them.
Sign up to RocketMiles for instance and then click through this link to get at least 4,000 United Mileage Plus Miles on your first hotel booking. Take advantage of similar offers from Kaligo/Pointshound etc, and your Mileage Plus balance will start to look a bit more respectable in no time!
Conclusion
1,000 Miles for $1.00 is a great deal – just remember to cancel your subscription between 46-60 days from now!
Even if you do not already have a Mileage Plus account, this is a good incentive to open one and to start keeping an eye out for similar offers for free/very cheap Miles in future.
Terms:
Get two months for $1: extra miles will be issued based on an eligible Member’s purchase of a subscription to The Wall Street Journal, starting with one (1) two month trial subscription for $1.00. The trial subscription purchase must be made between September 15, 2016 at 12:01am Eastern Time through 11:59 pm Eastern Time on September 19, 2016 and must remain active (i.e., may not be cancelled) for at least 45 days. There are no refunds of the $1.00 trial subscription fee. If the Member does not cancel the trial subscription by the end of the two month trial subscription period, Member’s subscription will automatically convert to a monthly subscription, and Member’s credit card will be charged based on the terms found on the WSJ offer page. Offer is limited to one (1) trial subscription per United MileagePlus account number. Please see the MileagePlus Shopping mall site for details on product eligibility and/or any coupon code details or other usage restrictions. Void where prohibited by law.
What benefits are there for saving UA miles, any decent exchange partners?
Hi Adam,
I wouldn’t exchange them – you can use them for hotel bookings etc but it’s generally at a poor rate. They don’t expire for 18 months and any account activity resets the clock.
On my (long) list of posts I’ve got planned is one looking at the best uses of some of the lesser known airline loyalty schemes from a UK perspective, inc United.
Earning large amounts United MP Miles isn’t easy, but they don’t charge surcharges on any partner, so I’d prob concentrate on Economy redemptions. 17,500 one way from North Africa (use Avios to Marrakesh) to anywhere in Africa is very good, considering Star Alliance coverage in Africa is also excellent. 12,500 for a one way within the continental USA can be a lifesaver if there’s no AA availability and prices are high. 12,500 from Japan to Oceania is absurdly cheap, and there was all sorts of fun you could have with stopovers on that one (on a Return award) but they’re putting a stop to that in a few weeks.