What’s the deal???

United is offering a 40% discount for purchased miles. The offer is valid until through 11:59 p.m. CDT on August 22, 2012.

Is it a good deal?

Meh… nope. With this offer, you are basically buying each mile for 2.2575 cents each.

To put that into perspective, a round trip coach ticket from the US to Europe costs 60,000 miles.

If you bought 60,000 miles for 2.2575 cents, you would have paid $1,545… for a coach ticket to Europe! As you can see, not a great deal because you can just outright buy a revenue ticket for much much less.

Wrap Up

Buying miles directly from the airline is rarely a good deal. This is no exception.

In the end, I would pass on this deal, but it’s good to see United offering discounts on buying miles.

In the meantime, I’ll stick to earning miles with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card.