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United Airlines is offering “double the miles” when you convert Choice Privileges points to United Mileage Plus by October 15th, 2023. The conversion is normally absolutely terrible and with this bonus it improves to “pretty bad”. In other words, this isn’t worth it unless you use it for Choice points that would otherwise expire.
The Deal
- United Mileage Plus and Choice Privileges are offering 2,000 United miles for every 5,000 Choice Privileges points you convert to United miles by 10/15/23.
Key Terms
- While this promotion lasts – for every 5,000 Choice Privileges® points you redeem, you’ll get 2,000 MileagePlus miles, instead of the standard amount of 1000.
- Minimum redemption is 5,000 Choice Privileges® points (for 2,000 MileagePlus miles) and redemptions above 5,000 must be in 1,000 point increments.
- Transactions must be completed between 12:00 a.m. ET September 1, 2023 and 11:59 p.m. ET, October 15, 2023 to be eligible to receive the offer.
- Members must also have an active United MileagePlus account.
- miles will be posted to your United account within 48 hours after your transaction is complete.
- Once the miles transfer request is initiated it cannot be reversed.
Quick Thoughts
Again, this is not a good value. Our Reasonable Redemption Value for Choice Privileges points is ~0.68c each. That means that 5,000 Choice points are worth about $34. Meanwhile, we value United miles at 1.3c each (though you’ll sometimes do even worse), which would mean that the 2,000 United miles are worth around $26. In most cases, it doesn’t make much sense to transfer at that ratio.
That said, if your Choice points will expire unused and/or you have a very valuable United redemption in mind, maybe this will make sense. Outside of that, I wouldn’t advise taking advantage of this bonus.
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What’s not mentioned here is that by transferring TYP – CP – UA, u preserve a waay more valuable UR pts. Yes we have other Star alliance options but some still find some value from UA. If someone told me I could MS $3,333 on my TY Premier on groceries/gas (no cap) and get 8k UA miles, I’d jump on it based on how easy it is to acquire TYPs. I’m not aware of any card that has that ratio for UA, not including Freedom’s Q bonuses.
If you are MSing wouldn’t you be better off with the CIC. 5% for $3333 would give you over 16K UA Miles for a 1:1 transfer. TYP is best for Turkish sweet spots or Choice.
Oh heck I also MS on my Ink. I was specifically referring to grocery MS since I do a lot of Kroger GCs + fuel pts to sell to brokers. TYP is 3x on groceries while no Chase branded cards offer that.
It appears that the 0.68 RRV for Choice was last calculated in May 2021. Planning a road trip recenty with a bunch of one night stays, which used to be a good use of Choice points, but basic Sleep/Quality/Comfort Inns now rarely under 20K when cash rates are <$100. Feels like the RRV is much lower now, around 0.50, which would make the 5:2 transfer to United about a wash.
Overall not a great value as you mentioned. I can see it making sense for someone with a lot of TYP though. It effectively would transfer 5:4
Nick, I hear you and generally agree. However, I think my case for doing the swap makes sense, even when you run the numbers. On April 4, I purchased 94,000 Choice Points during a sale that included 47,000 points bonus. The final tally on that was 141,000 points for $968.20. I then took advantage of your post about the Bluegreen timeshare and I received an additional 80,000 Choice points after sitting through that presentation. My balance currently stands at 221,000 Choice points. If I exchange those points for United miles, I will net 88,000 United Miles under this current promotion, which is the cost for saver award availability for business class flights from Houston to Europe. I think $968.20 for 88,000 United Miles makes sense under those circumstances; especially as I’m currently sitting on about 800,000 Hilton Honor points and some Wyndham points as well (Vacasa) that I can easily use for lodging in the near term.
CORRECTION: what I am able to price is saver award on Turkish Airlines from Houston to Istanbul, then to Athens at 88K through United.
1 Citi Thank you point => 2 Choice points => 0.8 United point?
This was my thought as well, I could see value in it. I value Citi at 1c, mostly for cash or choice anyway, not a bad way to make them a UA transfer. Although definitely would’ve been more attractive pre-deval.
I’m holding on for the hope that AA comes back as a transfer partner…
Bad deal but I took it. I have had Choice Privilege Points sitting there for about four years and never had a use for them. Occasionally I would buy a few more points to keep the account open. Now
they are United miles and I will find a use. You don’t win them all!