How to Book United Flights With Amex Points? Your Ultimate Travel Hack!

Bad news first: You can’t directly turn American Express Membership Rewards points into United Airlines miles. Amex is in partnership with 18 different airline programs. Unfortunately, the United isn’t on that list. But don’t worry! Even though United flies to more international places than any other airline, you can still use your Amex points to fly with them.

Even though you can’t directly transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to United Airlines’ MileagePlus program, you can still use those points to book United flights by transferring them to other airline partners within the Star Alliance that allow you to book United flights with their miles!

Are you curious about how booking United flights with Amex points is possible when you can’t transfer directly? Check out the various methods!

Booking United Flights with Amex Points

United Airlines belongs to Star Alliance, a global network connecting numerous airlines worldwide. Although United doesn’t directly partner with American Express for point transfers, many of United’s fellow Star Alliance members do maintain such relationships. This arrangement creates an opportunity for savvy travelers to utilize their Amex points by transferring them to these affiliated Star Alliance carriers, subsequently enabling them to secure seats on United-operated flights at comparable or potentially more advantageous rates than would be possible through a hypothetical direct transfer to United’s own program.

When executing transfers from American Express to these United transfer partners, the standard conversion rate provides one airline mile for each Amex point transferred. 

Nevertheless, it is worth noting that sometimes promotional offers help you enhance this exchange ratio. This enables you to secure affordable domestic or international trips anywhere in the world.

From here on, we will be discussing major United transfer partners that can help you use Amex points.

Avianca

You might not have heard about Avianca if you don’t often travel to South America. However, it’s worth knowing the airline’s LifeMiles loyalty program because of its exceptional options for purchasing United flights (which, sometimes, can be better than what United offers).

The award pricing of Avianca can be irregular, resulting in both positive and negative impacts on flight booking. The worst that can happen is that you might have difficulty in predicting the right amount you will need to accumulate for a specific flight. However, there is still a chance to find exceptionally low or rare flight deals if you are lucky enough. For instance, Avianca flights between the U.S. and Europe for significantly fewer miles than the usual 20,000-30,000 miles.

Air Canada

If you are a member of Air Canada’s loyalty program and have been questioning whether you can transfer points from Aeroplan to United, then here’s the answer! This loyalty program has a lot of positive features to admire, specifically the affordability of stopovers and the low cost of lap-infant awards on international flights.

Despite all these qualities, it’s quite hard to wrap your head around Air Canada’s Aeroplan award pricing system. Long story short, you will have to pay for miles in accordance with the selected region and the travel distance. To determine the points you will need for your flight, you need to first identify the “travel zone” of the selected origin and destination airports. After that, you can go through the Aeroplan award chart that corresponds to the distance between those zones.

Taking the example of the same flight we discussed earlier with Avianca, the traveling zones will be “North America” and “Atlantic.” A quick glance at the Aeroplan award chart for these zones tells us that the flight would be around 35,000 points for one part of the journey. The same flight will cost you nearly 40,000 miles on United. While this might seem cheaper with 5,000 fewer miles, the higher taxes and fees charged by Aeroplan ultimately result in the total price being nearly the same as booking directly through United Airlines.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines is just another carrier that might not have been on your list or that you have no plans to travel with unless you’re exploring Southeast Asian destinations. But guess what? Its miles can be extremely helpful in securing cheaper United flights. Plus, you can easily get your head around the award charts, and prices of award flights are based on the zones of origin and destination airports.

Considering travel between the US and Europe, the Singapore Airlines award chart shows that a round-trip flight between these zones will cost around 60,000 miles. So, you will be paying 30,000 for each part of your journey, which is a reasonable amount if you are traveling internationally.

All Nippon Airways

All Nippon is not only Japan’s largest airline, but it’s also known for offering surprisingly low prices on its award flights. You can seriously grab business and first-class seats at a cheaper rate. Plus, it’s a Star Alliance member, making it a good option for travelers looking to redeem miles for United flights on many routes. The hidden caveat is that Singapore often charges pricey fares on partner airlines, especially for first and business class, potentially exceeding $1,000.

Luckily, United Airlines is an exception to this! Though, you will still have to pay taxes, which are higher than what United would have charged on its flights. However, the miles you will be saving on this journey are totally worth it! To clear the picture in your head, a flight from Washington, DC, to Paris on United may require you to spend 55,000 miles for a round-trip (27,500 each way)! This is 12,500 points cheaper than what United Airlines charges.

One thing worth noticing with ANA is that you cannot book a single “one-way” award ticket; you must always book a round-trip itinerary. However, you still have the flexibility in your travel plans. You can use an “open-jaw” fare, which lets you fly into one airport and fly out of a different one. Basically, you can still visit multiple vacations on your trip even though you have initially booked a round trip.

Worst Ways To Use Amex Points For United Flights!

While we have put all the good points for valuable redemptions, it’s time to discuss some of the worst ways to transfer Amex points to United.

American Express Travel Portal

Amex Travel is a platform that enables flight bookings, hotel reservations, rental car purchases, and more with an American Express membership. To successfully pay for services, you can use accumulated points, cash, or a mix of both. 

While you can use this travel portal to purchase flights, you might not get the best deals or the most flexibility. The value of redemption will be 1 cent per Amex point, which is seriously low. However, using this portal in the following scenarios will be reasonable.

• It would make sense to use this portal when you book an award flight on the dates you want, with no seats available through the usual award booking process. However, if you book through the Amex Travel portal, you can still book a seat on that flight using your Amex points. Even if there are no award seats left, the portal has access to a broader range of seats on the plane without restrictions on award space.

• When you hold a Business Platinum membership of American Express and book seats in premium cabins (Business or First Class). If you use your Platinum card for flight purchases, you will get a 35% rebate on points, resulting in an increase in the value of each point to 1.5 cents. On the other hand, the Business Centurion card provides a 50% rebate, boosting the redemption value to 2 cents per point.

This is just a friendly reminder that if you constantly redeem Amex points (1 cent each) to purchase United flights, it’s better to get them for cash instead. 

Converting Amex Points to Marriott

While United Airlines is not on the list of Amex transfer partners, Marriott Bonvoy is! As weird as it may sound, Marriott’s loyalty program allows you to exchange your points for a wider variety of airline miles than any other program, including miles from major airlines like United. You can transfer Amex points to United, with Marriott being the middleman. 

Directly booking United Flights with Amex Points is not possible! But you can indirectly convert American Express Membership Rewards points to United miles by first transferring them to Marriott Bonvoy points. Afterward, transfer those Marriott points to United Airlines, with a bonus for transferring in increments of 60,000 points. 

For every point you transfer from your American Express Membership Rewards account, you will receive one Marriott Bonvoy point in return. However, it’s not usually the best way to use your Marriott points unless you need only a small number of airline miles to complete a specific flight you want to book.

Cashing Out Amex Points

It’s possible to cash out your Amex points by converting them into a statement credit, but you will only get a value of 0.6 cents for each point. To be honest, this is considered a very poor return rate. For United Airlines flyers specifically, it’s much better to use your Amex card to buy a United flight directly and then use your points to offset the cost of that purchase instead of cashing them out for a statement credit at the low rate.

To Wrap It Up:

We hope your constant search for the answer to the question, “Can you book United with Amex points?” is over now! 

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