You Might Be About to Earn Fewer Miles on This Airline
- ⁄
- Travel News
- ⁄
- News
Starting April 2, United MileagePlus members without a co-branded credit card or elite status will earn fewer miles—and none on Basic Economy fares—under new program rules.
On April 2, members of Mileage Plus, the frequent flier program for United Airlines, will earn fewer miles per dollar spent if they do not also have a Mileage Plus branded credit card. Members without United credit cards or elite status won’t earn miles at all if they purchase United’s lowest Basic Economy fare.
At the same time, United will increase the amount of miles earned by members who do have a United credit card, expanding the number of points earned per dollar for members who have the card—regardless of whether they use it to purchase their flight. Members will earn at the highest level if they also use their United credit card to purchase their United flight, as most of the United credit cards offer significant bonuses for United purchases with the card. United is also slightly increasing the bonuses it pays to travelers who use the card to purchase their United tickets.
In essence, United is offering incentives for passengers to sign up for their credit cards by removing value from the program for those that either don’t wish to apply for a credit card or whose credit scores prevent them from being approved for a card. Members under 18 can earn at the same level as their parents if one of them has a United credit card and they link their accounts with their kids (they can share their benefits with up to eight of their minor children).
Recommended Fodor’s Video
Not all of United’s bank-issued financial products count, either. United’s Debit Rewards card and the United Gateway card (which has no annual fee) won’t qualify members to earn at the new “cardmember” rates until members spend $10,000 within a calendar year.
United will also change earnings for all members purchasing Basic Economy fares, which are United’s lowest Economy Class fares, which come with significant restrictions, including no advance seat assignments, no free carry-on bags on domestic flights, no changes after ticketing, and boarding in the last groups. After April 2, Basic Economy will come with a new restriction: no miles at all for members who don’t have a United credit card or haven’t reached one of the elite tiers in the Mileage Plus program.
United will also discount flight awards purchased entirely with miles for Mileage Plus members at the rate of 10% for General Members and 15% for Premier Members if they have a United credit card (cards issued in Japan and Australia will not receive the discount).
United’s partnership with Chase Bank, the issuer of most of its US co-branded credit cards, is worth a large amount of annual revenue. United doesn’t break out how much it makes from its partnership with Chase Bank, but it tallied partner revenues at $2.9 billion in 2024. Bank partnerships typically make up a significant portion of partner revenues for an airline frequent flier program, simply because of the sheer volume of miles earned. Banks pay airlines a proprietary amount per dollar spent on their credit cards in exchange for the miles the airlines award their program members.
Airline mileage programs began in the early 1980s as a way to more accurately track spending behavior by repeat customers. Airlines had previously used phone numbers to do this, but found the system unreliable, particularly when customers had multiple phone numbers or booked through different channels, such as with a travel agent or by calling directly. They created frequent flier programs to create account numbers to make the tracking easier, and offered free tickets for travelers as an incentive. As the programs got larger and more members had more miles to redeem, airlines found it necessary to protect revenue by adding restrictions to how miles could be redeemed.
Mileage Plus was one of the earliest programs, launched in May 1981, shortly after American Airlines launched the industry-first AAdvantage program. Mileage Plus had over 110 million members worldwide by late 2024.