Generous new £250 United Airlines cashback offer on American Express cards

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• gl says:

  13 Apr13 April 09:20

  Got burned on this last time – fares were lower on the US site (in USD) and did not end up qualifying for this offer

• Andrew. says:

  13 Apr13 April 09:24

  When this was run last year, during BAs price gouging on domestics and the multiple rail strikes…

  EDI-EWR, Points overnight, EWR-LHR was the cheapest and most convenient one way route from Edinburgh to Oxford.

  Plus it gave me a chance to have a potter around NYC.

  • Charles Martel says:

    13 Apr13 April 10:04

    “How dare you!”

• Tracy says:

  13 Apr13 April 09:56

  I used this offer last year for trip to EDI – NYC. Flights were almost bang on £500 so paid £250 each. I tried to get United to split ticket for me but they said computer say no lol. I ended up booking separate tickets for me and OH, each using our own amex offer. Needless to say the basic economy ticket for us was a la Ryanair, middle seats allocated to both of us miles apart. However, the basic economy transatlantic does allow a cabin bag 🙂

• Jas says:

  13 Apr13 April 10:09

  Saved this on my platinum. Really want to try booking Dublin to LAX – even though it’s a non-UK departure. The United website keeps me on the UK version of the site and asks to pay in £ so I’m somewhat inclined to think it may work….. feel free to tell me if that’s a bad choice!

  • L Allen says:

    13 Apr13 April 10:16

    Can you afford the flight if you don’t get the cash back? That’s the main consideration to be wary of. If you’re prepared to pay the full cost then the cash back will be a welcome bonus.

    • Skywalker says:

      13 Apr13 April 10:50

      @Jas, please report back how this pans out if you go ahead with it.

      It’s hard to get data points for obvious reasons but if you’re willing to try – thank you! 😀

      • Nick says:

        13 Apr13 April 11:40

        Airlines have to submit itinerary data to Amex before they get any money from them, so it’s a risky strategy. Obviously Amex may or may not set it up this way, but they could very easily check if they wanted. If United are keen to stick to these terms they’ll have made sure of it.

• L Allen says:

  13 Apr13 April 10:15

  Having done some research lately into StarAlliance status earning, Aegean or Turkish would be the better schemes to credit the flight to – if you were looking to earn status rather than points to spend. Turkish awards status for two years once you intially qualify and the threshold isn’t high.

  • Jonathan says:

    13 Apr13 April 12:00

    Don’t forget about hard expiry policy that’s very common amongst Star Alliance airline loyalty programs, off the top of my head United, Air Canada and Aegean are the notable ones not to enforce these types of policies, most of the rest do, including Turkish.

    Something to be aware of or do your research into before you commit to enrolling and earning with a program

  • al_wiltshire says:

    13 Apr13 April 12:53

    I was just thinking about this, as I may have some Air India flights coming up. Asiana Club seemed quite easy too.

    • Rhys says:

      13 Apr13 April 12:54

      Asiana is about to be gobbled up by Korean…

  • VickyTM says:

    13 Apr13 April 14:07

    So would you say that United is better than Lufthansa in terms of points collection? I don’t actively collect Star Alliance, but I am starting to have to fly on several Star Alliance partner airlines. I signed up for “Miles and More” but could just as easily switch to someone else. I’m thinking that a US carrier may be better as most of my personal travel is in the US. Any thoughts?

    • Rob says:

      13 Apr13 April 14:33

      United generally has lower taxes on partner airline redemptions because it doesn’t add surcharges. Of course, that doesn’t help if they want more miles than other programmes – you really need a plan for where you want to go first.

      Lots of other stuff in play too, eg Lufthansa has 25% off redemptions for kids, Singapore opens up more seats for its own members on its own flights etc.

• Cash says:

  13 Apr13 April 10:47

  Does anyone know if the offer works with partner airlines – looking at booking an Air Canada flight via United.

  • Rob says:

    13 Apr13 April 11:35

    Risky because for flights Amex is sent full details of what you book – airline, class, ticket number etc, you will have seen this on your statements in the past.

    • Nick says:

      13 Apr13 April 11:44

      There’s nothing I can see in the T&C to limit to operating carrier. Rob is absolutely right of course, but equally you could push it if you didn’t (obvs DYOR). I suspect in reality if it’s UA coded it will be fine regardless, Amex is clever but not that clever.

      • Rob says:

        13 Apr13 April 11:49

        If it’s UA coded then I think you could argue it was a United flight even if AC operated.

• KJ says:

  13 Apr13 April 10:50

  Not showing on either of my Platinum or BA cards

  • can2 says:

    13 Apr13 April 11:33

    Likewise. Fingers crossed that it’d show later on.

• David says:

  13 Apr13 April 11:54

  *warning – this may not work for you!*

  Last time this offer came round, I booked a US domestic flight via the UK site (this is important), priced it up in £, paid via my Amex, and I got the £250 credit. I needed to book the flight anyway, so it was a risk free bonus.

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