Credit & Charge Card Reviews (21): United MileagePlus American Express & Visa

This is my review of the United Airlines MileagePlus credit cards issued in the UK.

It is part of my series of articles looking at the major UK loyalty credit cards and discussing whether or not they are worth applying for.  These articles will be linked to the relevant sections of the ‘Credit Card Offers‘ page.  My other UK airline and hotel credit card reviews can be found here.

Key link:  United Airlines MileagePlus credit card application form

Key facts:  No annual fee

The representative APR is 22.9% variable.

As with all rewards cards, this is not a suitable product for you if you do not clear your balance in full every month.  You should focus on a credit card with a low interest rate such as the Tesco Clubcard Mastercard Low Rate card. This has a very attractive representative APR of 5.9% variable – and you can transfer your Clubcard points into Avios or Virgin Flying Club miles.

About the card

The United Airlines MileagePlus cards are issued by MBNA. As with other MBNA airline cards (American, Miles & More, Emirates, Etihad), this is a combined Amex and Visa package.

What is the sign-up bonus?

There is no sign-up bonus on this card at present, although it is occasionally increased to 10,000 to 12,000 miles.

Any other benefits?

No!

What do I earn per £1 spent on the card?

You earn 1.25 miles per £1 spent on the American Express and 0.625 miles on the Visa. This is an improvement on the old ‘Amex only’ United card, which only gave 1 mile per £1.

For a free card it is a decent rate – albeit worse than the 1.5 miles per £1 offered by MBNA on its American Airlines and Miles & More cards. MBNA has a good reputation in my experience for posting points punctually.

Annoyingly, this is still the best way to collect United miles from a credit card. The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express only lets you transfer Starwood points to United at a 2:1 ratio (most airlines are 1:1) – this was presumably done to protect United’s own card. United is also not an American Express Membership Rewards partner in the UK.

What is a United mile worth?

This is a tricky one, especially from the perspective of someone living in the UK. 

A one-way business class award to the Middle East is 45,000 miles. If you’re heading to the US, a one-way Saver-level award in business to New York would be 57,500 miles.  However if Saver seats are not there you are looking at a crazy 150,000 miles for a one-way ticket.

Please note United’s nasty fees for changes or cancellation or indeed booking less than 21 days before departure.

In the main, because you now can’t get very far on United unless you have a very large miles balance, the main beneficiaries of this deal will be people who already have some MileagePlus miles they want to build up.  Even an intra-Europe redemption on, say, Lufthansa or Swiss would run to 25,000 miles in economy (40,000 miles in business).

If you are topping off an existing United account from the credit card to reach a redemption level, you will obviously place a higher value on the miles from the credit card than someone with a zero balance.

How does this compare to a cashback credit card?

My default comparison card is the ASDA Cashback Credit Card which is free for life and offers 0.5% cashback.  The representative APR is 19.9% variable.

If you value a United MileagePlus mile at 1p then this card offers a better return. That said, as there are few other ways of collecting United miles from the UK apart from flying, I would not recommend it to someone with no existing United balance.

How else can you earn United miles from a credit card?

The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express credit card offers 10,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points for signing up.  These convert to 5,000 United miles.  It has a £75 fee, refunded pro-rata if you cancel.

Conclusion

If you collect United miles, I would hold off (unless you are planning major expenditure) until a temporary sign-up bonus comes back.

When you look at the on-going earnings, 1.25 miles per £1 on the Amex and 0.625 miles on the Visa is not bad, but still weaker than some other free MBNA airline cards.  The weak conversion rate of Starwood Preferred Guest points to United means that the SPG Amex is not a viable alternative.

The application form for the United MileagePlus credit cards can be found here.

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.