Here’s Where to Credit Cheap United Flights

If you like flying United Airlines’ cheap fares and don’t know where to credit your miles to, this post was written just for you. But I must forewarn you, there is no happy ending at the conclusion of this post. When it comes to crediting cheap United Airlines flights, it’s no longer a quest to find the airline frequent flier program that’s going to reward you the most. But rather, it’s now a battle to find an airline frequent flier program that’s going to screw you the least. Pretty dire right?

Back in the day, it was super easy to rack up tens of thousands of miles on cheap international flights but with the recent changes to airline frequent flier programs, it has become harder and harder to maximize our mileage earning potential. Right after United went full, revenue-based mileage earning, many United fliers jumped ship from United MileagePlus to Aegean’s Miles+Bonus program. But shortly thereafter, that program also devalued, making it harder to earn Star Alliance elite status and even harder to keep it.

Then there was Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program. It wasn’t the best frequent flier program by any means but for us cheapskates, it still allowed us to earn 100% mileage on the majority of United’s cheapest fare classes. Well, that all changed a couple weeks ago when Singapore Airlines gutted their mileage-earning chart for flights flown on United Airlines. Effective October 1, 2017, all United Airlines-operated flights will earn the following mileage accrual when credited to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. Are you ready for this? It’s not pretty.

Singapore Airlines mileage-earning devaluation with United Airlines

• First Class:
  • A, F – 150%
• Business Class:
  • C, D, J – 125%
  • P, Z – %100
• Economy Class:
  • B, E, H, M, U, Y – 100%
  • Q, V, W – 75%
  • L, S, T – 50%
  • G, K – 25%

If you’re like me and  travel on United Airlines’ cheapest fare classes, G and K, this will be a huge hit to your mileage earning, 75% reduction to be exact. And as horrible as this devaluation sounds, the bigger issue for me was the lack of notice on Singapore Airlines’ behalf. There literally was no notice at all. No email. No tweet. Nothing. Just a stealthy change to their mileage-earning chart. Luckily for me, I only had one cheap United Airlines trip left on the books but some of you were not so fortunate.

Earning full mileage on United Airlines was a big reason why I stuck with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer all these years but I’m not sure that it makes sense for me anymore. K class fares (second to lowest) were my bread and butter and I know I’m not the only one out there. Heck, you wouldn’t be reading this post if you weren’t in the same boat.

To learn more about the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program, click here to read my complete Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer guide. 

So what do we do?

Well, let’s look at some options using myself as an example.

Thanks to the Flight Deal, I recently booked a great United Airlines K fare to Paris for early next year. My ticket was booked on United.com and all flight segments will be operated on United metal (no codeshare flights). The total airfare cost was $409, including all taxes and fees.

If Singapore didn’t screw me over, I would have earned 12,024 award miles and elite miles towards KrisFlyer Gold status (LAX-EWR-CDG-SFO-LAX). But with this newly devalued, mileage earning structure, my K fare will only earn me 3,006 award and elite miles. That’s a difference of 9,018 miles! Crappy right? So I sat down and looked at some other options for crediting my United Airlines K fare ticket to. Below are 5 different programs that I compared. I don’t know which one I will go with yet but hopefully, this quick breakdown will help you decide what you want to do with your miles.

United MileagePlus

If you only care about earning elite status and the travel perks associated when flying United Airlines (free upgrades, priority boarding, etc.), then United’s MileagePlus program might still be a good option for you. Other than Basic Economy fares, all other United Airlines fares will still earn at least 100% of mileage flown towards ELITE status. In my example above, I will still earn 12,024 Premier Qualifying Miles towards elite status.

Keep in mind that you will still have to meet United’s Premier Qualifying Dollars to make elite status. For United Premier Gold (Star Alliance Gold), you will need to fly 50,000 miles and spend at least $5,000 per calendar year.

Award miles, on the other hand, will be based on the cost of your ticket and your current United Premier status. General United MileagePlus members (those without any status) will only earn 5x the airfare cost (not including taxes and fees) towards award miles. For my example above, I will only earn $274 x 5 = 1,370 award miles, which is even crappier than what Singapore Airlines will credit me.

Aegean Miles+Bonus

Once an all-time favorite for United MileagePlus defectors, the Aegean Miles+Bonus program has devalued and made it harder to earn elite status and even harder to keep it. Based on their mileage-earning chart, my flight to Paris would earn me 6,012 miles towards elite status and award miles if credited to Aegean Miles+Bonus. Here’s their mileage-earning chart for United Airlines flights:

• First Class:
  • F, A – 150%
• Business Class:
  • J, C, D, Z, P – 100%
• Economy Class:
  • Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q – 100%
  • V – 75%
  • W, S, T, L, K, G, N – 50% *Note: N fares (Basic Economy) will earn award miles only and not Tier Miles towards elite status.

Here are some important points about Aegean Miles+Bonus program:

• Tier Miles and award miles can be accrued when flying Aegean Airlines, Olympic Air and Star Alliance partner airlines.
• Elite status lasts for 12 months.
  • To qualify for Miles+Bonus Gold Tier (Star Alliance Gold), you must first qualify for Silver Tier status. To qualify for Silver Tier status, you will need to accrue 24,000 Tier Miles (or 12,000 Tier Miles and fly Aegean/Olympic Air twice) within a 12 month period.
  • Once you earn Silver Tier status, you will need to accrue ANOTHER 48,000 Tier Miles (or 24,000 Tier Miles with four flights flown on Aegean/Olympic Air) within a 12 month period.
  • To re-qualify, you will need to accrue 24,000 Tier Miles (or 12,000 Tier Miles with four flights flown on Aegean/Olympic Air). If you can make it to Greece annually to fly 4 Aegean/Olympic Air flights, this might not be a bad way to go. The first year will suck though.
• Award miles expire after three years regardless of activity.
• Aegean is not a transfer partner with any of the major flexible currency programs such as American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi Thank You Rewards but they are an SPG transfer partner. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio (with a 5,000 bonus for every 20,000 points transferred).
• Aegean Miles+Bonus award chart.
  • Aegean considers North Africa to be part of Europe so a roundtrip North America to Europe/North Africa in business class costs 90,000 miles.
  • North America to Asia or Oceania roundtrip in business class costs 150,000 miles.

Thanks to reader Archon1995 for the updated info.

Air Canada Aeroplan

Air Canada is a little weird because they have two different frequent flier programs (one for earning elite status and the other for earning award miles). Air Canada Altitude is their elite status program and Air Canada Aeroplan is their award miles earning and redemption program. Altitude manages elite status, lounge access, upgrades and other priority services and Aeroplan manages how many miles you earn and burn for award redemptions. So when you fly Air Canada, United Airlines or any other Star Alliance partner, you will earn miles towards both Altitude and Aeroplan.

In my example above, United K fare class will earn 50% of mileage flown towards Air Canada Altitude elite miles and Aeroplan award miles (6,012 miles).

Air Canada Aeroplan might be a good option for you as most of United Airlines’ fare classes will still earn you at least 50% mileage accrual. Fare classes S, T, L, K, and G will all earn you 50% of mileage flown towards Air Canada Altitude status and Aeroplan award miles. However, United N fares (Basic Economy) will earn 50% of mileage flown towards Aeroplan award miles only and not toward Altitude elite status.

But here’s the bad part about Air Canada’s Altitude program. Altitude actually requires you to fly Air Canada in order for you to achieve elite status. For Elite 50K (Star Alliance Gold), you will need to accrue 50,000 elite qualifying miles per year and 25,000 of those miles must be on Air Canada metal. This is easy for Canadians; not so easy for United only fliers. Also, keep in mind that Air Canada has plans to bring the Aeroplan program back in-house so expect major changes once that happens.

Here are some other important points about Air Canada:

• Air Canada Altitude and Aeroplan miles can be accrued by flying Air Canada, Air Canada Express, Rouge and other Star Alliance airline partners.
• Air Canada Altitude elite qualification period is between January 1^st to December 31^st and elite status will last until December 31^st of the following year, meaning if you qualified for Air Canada Elite 50K status today, your status will last until December 31, 2018.
• Air Canada Aeroplan miles expire after one year of inactivity.
• Air Canada Aeroplan is a transfer partner for American Express and SPG.
• Air Canada Aeroplan DOES add fuel surcharges on award flights but not for flights on Air China, Brussels Airlines, Egypt Air, Ethiopian, EVA Air, SAS, Singapore Airlines, SWISS, Turkish Airlines and United.
• Air Canada Aeroplan award chart.
  • Business Class from North America to Europe 1 costs 110,000 Aeroplan miles roundtrip and 115,000 Aeroplan miles for Europe 2.
  • First Class awards from North America to Europe 1 cost 140,000 Aeroplan miles roundtrip and 160,000 Aeroplan miles for Europe 2.

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands

I know this is a totally random frequent flier program but I’m adding them here since they are a transfer partner for Citi Thank You Rewards.  All United fare classes (except N fare class) will earn at least 50% of mileage flown when credited to Infinity MileageLands. In my example above, I will also earn 6,012 miles if credited to EVA Air Infinity MileageLands. Here’s the mileage earning chart for United Airlines flights:

• First Class:
  • F – 150%
  • A – 100%
• Business Class:
  • J, C, D – 125%
  • Z, P – 100%
• Economy Class:
  • Y, B, M, E, U, H – 100%
  • Q, V, W – 75%
  • S, T, L, K, G – 50%

Here are some important points about EVA Air Infinity MileageLands:

• Miles can be accrued when flying EVA Air, UNI Air and Star Alliance partner airlines.
• Elite status lasts for 24 months.
  • To earn EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Gold Card (Star Alliance Gold status), you need to accrue 50,000 qualifying miles within a 12 month period.
  • To re-qualify for Gold Card status, you need to fly 80,000 within a two year period.
• Like Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles and Aegean Miles+bonus, Infinity MileageLands miles will expire after three years, regardless of activity.
• EVA Air Infinity MileageLands is a Citi Thank You Rewards airline partner.
• EVA Air adds fuel surcharges on partner flights but not on their own metal.
• EVA Air has a pricey, zone based award chart.
  • Business class North America to Europe costs 130,000 miles roundtrip.
  • Business class from North America to North Asia costs 175,000 miles roundtrip.

Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles

Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles handles the mileage accrual for both elite status and award miles. All United Airlines flights will earn at least 50% mileage when credited towards Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles. So in my example above, my United Airlines K fare ticket will also earn 6,012 miles towards elite status and award miles. Here’s the mileage earning chart for United Airlines flights:

• First Class:
  • F, A – 150%
• Business Class:
  • J, C, D – 150%
  • Z, P – 100%
• Economy Class:
  • Y, B, M, E, U, H – 100%
  • Q, V, W, S, T, L – 75%
  • K, G, N – 50%

Here are some other important points about Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles:

• Mileage can be accrued when flying Turkish Airlines, AnadoluJet, Jet Airways and other Star Alliance partner airlines.
• Elite status lasts for two years and you get a soft landing down to the next lower elite tier if you do not re-qualify within the two year period.
  • To qualify for Miles and Smiles Elite Card (Star Alliance Gold), you must accrue 40,000 miles within a 12 consecutive month period.
  • To re-qualify, you will only need to accrue 25,000 miles within the first year of status or 37,500 miles within the two years of status. For elite status privileges, this is not bad.
• However, like Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines miles expire after 3 years, regardless of activity.
• Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles is a now a transfer partner for Citi Thank You Rewards. You can transfer your Thank You points to Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles at a 1:1 ratio.
• Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles does add fuel surcharges to award flights.
• Turkish Airlines has a great award chart for redeeming on Turkish Airlines flights.
  • Saver business class awards from North America to to Turkey and Europe costs 90,000 miles roundtrip.
  • North America to Turkey and Europe in first class is 135,000 miles roundtrip.
  • Turkish Airlines allows one free stopover on roundtrip awards.

Mileage Accrual for Cheap United Flights

So as you can see, when it comes to flying United Airlines’ cheapest fares and crediting your miles to another airline frequent flier program, there is no clear winner here. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer used to be a great option but now, it’s only slightly better than United’s MileagePlus. There are pros and cons to all the other partner programs listed above and depending on what you care about, different programs will be better for different people.

If you care about elite travel perks when flying United Airlines, then United MileagePlus might still be the best option for you. You will earn crap for award miles but you’ll enjoy complimentary upgrades to Economy Plus, priority services and so forth when flying United Airlines.

Out of this list, Aegean Miles+Bonus and Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles look like the best options but that’s still a lot of flying to make Star Alliance Gold status. If you can get to Greece for 4 Aegean/Olympic Air flights a year, then Aegean Miles+Bonus might be a good program for you. However, that first year requires a lot of flying to make elite status with Aegean and with only one transfer partner, I’m not sure this program will work for the majority of you. In which case, Turkish Airlines might be a better option now that they are a transfer partner for Citi Thank You Rewards.

That being said, it’s important to keep in mind that these programs can change at any time, with or without notice (and we should expect them to devalue). Singapore Airlines showed us that perfectly with their unannounced devaluation of United’s mileage-earning chart. And the last thing you need is to be stuck with a mileage bank with orphan miles and no way to redeem or transfer them somewhere else.

What do you guys think? Which one of these programs will you switch to now that Singapore Airlines has slashed their United Airlines mileage accrual chart? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!