Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Get a 15,000 United MileagePlus miles bonus with their free UK credit card

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

UPDATE – MAY 2025:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

Keep up to date with the latest UK credit card bonuses by signing up for our free daily or weekly newsletters.

The United Airlines MileagePlus Amex credit cards (issued by MBNA) have the unique distinction of offering NO sign-up bonus for much of the year.

Then, once or twice a year, they run a promotion.  This is one of those times. Via this link, you can now earn 15,000 bonus United miles when you take out their cards.

The cards are free and you only need to spend £1800 within 90 days to trigger the bonus.  This can be achieved across either or both cards.

The offer runs until 30th November.

The representative APR is 18.9% variable.

United credit card

The card was revamped and relaunched exactly a year ago. As is now the model with MBNA cards (Lufthansa, American, Etihad, Emirates etc) it comes as a double-pack with an American Express and a Visa.

Here are the core facts:

Generous (for a free credit card) sign-up bonus of 15,000 United MileagePlus miles

No annual fee

Very good earning rate (for a free card) of 1.25 miles per £1 on the American Express and 0.625 miles on the Visa

United is a Star Alliance member so you can redeem across all 20+ Star airlines – from the UK, this will often involve Lufthansa or Swiss via a connection

It is worth noting that United is the only airline to enforce a particularly poor exchange rate with Starwood Preferred Guest. It does this in order to protect its own credit card. Whilst almost all other airlines transfer at 1:1 from Starwood, United transfers at an amazingly poor 2:1. This means that these MBNA cards are the only realistic way in the UK to earn United miles on credit card spend.

United is not an American Express Membership Rewards partner so you cannot top up your balance that way.

United announced an incredibly bad devaluation of MileagePlus in 2013.  This particularly impacts people outside the USA, since the hardest hit awards were Business Class and First Class redemptions on Star Alliance partners.

A one-way business class award to the Middle East is 45,000 miles (up from 27,500 miles) so the credit card bonus would leave you well short. 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.

These numbers are not completely out of line compared to Avios requirements, of course, but they are noticeably higher.  Please also 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.  I would not recommend jumping in if you do not already have a MileagePlus account.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

earns points from credit cards

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – May 2025 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 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:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

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:

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Category

United Airlines and MileagePlus

Comments (11)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Simon says:
    19 Oct19 October 08:40

    It’s a shame the SPG tranfer rate is so poor for United, I took out this card last when the bonus was 12,000 and that combined with Rocket Miles stays and surveys means I’ve managed to get my United balance up from 3,000 to 53,000 but doing lots of surveys isn’t everyones thing!

    I don’t understand why there isn’t a sign-up bonus normally for the card even if it was only a few thousand miles, as you mention the earnings rate is pretty good .

  • Danksy says:
    19 Oct19 October 09:23

    Think I’ll have a go at the etihad one instead!

  • M says:
    19 Oct19 October 10:02

    Also a thing to note is that United is switching to revenue-based program in 2015.

    • RIccati says:
      19 Oct19 October 11:15

      As Raffles says, the points are not free. If one doesn’t want to spend the earned points on United business product then less point of crediting to United. The only benefit I see is Premier Silver (*A Silver) access to Economy Plus seating at check-in. But getting Silver means taking points away from reward seats in other programs.

      Revenue-based miles on United 016 e-tickets, no AMEX MR top up and punitive SPG transfer rate 2:1. Access to United Club is already by PP.

      If Lufthansa M&M and United are cutting earning opportunities and treating miles accumulation as a liability, then it’s no fun to play the points game.

  • Lady London says:
    19 Oct19 October 11:37

    Gut feeling that if you are flying the kinds of routes that might work with UA, you could also look at Alaska Air. AS has some nice tie-ups across alliances and routes. IIRC reading recently about a devaluation of some sort but there still seemed to be a lot of worth in the program. I’d certainly consider it if I wanted to add another program.. A colleague is a fan and says they are pleasant to fly..

    • Simon says:
      19 Oct19 October 12:47

      I’ve done a couple of US domestic flights to and from Seattle with Alaska Air and had no complaints.

      I’m not that familar with their frequent flyer program but the main benefit I find with the US airlines is the low taxes, as RIccati mentioned a domestic flight on United booked using miles will cost $2.50 in taxes, LAX to LHR is $5.60 in first..

    • RIccati says:
      19 Oct19 October 16:06

      50% bonus earning miles for MVP Silver (takes only 20,000 miles to earn) on Alaska applies to partner airlines. Works on discounted BA classes such as O. Means collecting 50% more points than Avios.

      Hong Kong – Europe roundtrip is 85,000 in business on CX, compared to 120,000 Avios..

  • Jimmyjimmy says:
    19 Oct19 October 11:59

    I believe the card is a good way of stopping mileage plus awards from expiry. Normal expiry is 18 months.
    A quick search suggests spend on the card keeps the points alive. Is this correct?

    • Alan says:
      19 Oct19 October 12:09

      Yes any points credit would do the trick – you’ll see your expiry date on the account move with each credit. eRewards credits do the same thing.

  • Simon says:
    19 Oct19 October 12:18

    125 M&M points per flight sounds very poor to me.

  • Simon says:
    19 Oct19 October 16:27

    There will be a 20% bonus on converting hotel points to United miles coming up from October 28th as well. The bonus on this promo seems to be getting less each year, 2 years ago it was 30% and last year it was 25%. As well as the bonus getting less according to the T&Cs they’ve excluded anyone not living in the US which is very annoying!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!