United adds new ways for elite members to use PlusPoints

One of the benefits that United Airlines Premier Platinum and Premier 1K members receive is PlusPoints, which can be used to confirm upgrades in advance. Members earn 40 PlusPoints when they reach Premier Platinum and 280 more when they reach Premier 1K. 1K members can then earn 20 more PlusPoints for every 3,000 Premier qualifying points (PQP) they get beyond 22,000.

The number of PlusPoints required to upgrade a flight depends on the distance and fare class being upgraded. Generally, economy to business class costs 20 PlusPoints each way on short-haul flights or 40 PlusPoints on long-haul flights (though discounted economy fares cost 80 PlusPoints each way on long-haul flights).

This week, United sent an e-mail to its members announcing that there will now be several different “exchange” options for unused PlusPoints, in addition to putting them to use towards upgrades. However, they may not be particularly good value.

The News

• United has announced that PlusPoints can now be exchanged for a variety of perks beyond upgrades
  • Only PlusPoints earned from 2025 on can be exchanged
  • PlusPoints can only be exchanged until March 31st of the year after they are earned
  • A maximum of 600 PlusPoints can be exchanged per member year
• PlusPoints can be redeemed for perks and amounts shown in the table below:

• PlusPoints can still be used towards flight upgrades at the rates shown below:

Short-haul is defined as:

Short-haul flights are flights without United Polaris business and include flights within the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii and premium transcontinental service; flights between the U.S. and Canada; Bogota, Colombia; Central America; Caribbean; Mexico and Quito, Ecuador; flights between Guam and Honolulu, including island hopper service; and intra-Asia flights.

Long-haul is defined as:

Long-haul flights are flights with United Polaris business, including flights between the U.S. and Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand, South America, and Tahiti.

Quick Thoughts

Many United elite members have been frustrated by the PlusPoints system since its inception. It can be difficult to clear upgrades on many high-demand routes, and since they expire at the end of the program year for which you earned Premier Platinum or Premier 1K status, many go unused.

In response, United has been promising additional flexibility with the PlusPoints system…and here it is.

While it’s obviously better to be able to use these points than have to watch them grow old and perish in your account, United just can’t help but overcomplicate things. You can only exchange up to 600 PlusPoints per year, regardless of how many you earned; you can’t exchange any points earned prior to 2025 and you have to decide whether or not to exchange them 10 months before they expire. That last part really gets me. Why can’t your top elite members have the freedom to exchange points right up until they expire? Because United still wants to see breakage.

None of the exchange options are as valuable as using the points towards upgrades. As an example, you can either use 40 points to upgrade from economy to Polaris on a long-haul flight (80 to upgrade from discount economy) or you can get $80 in TravelBank cash or 6,000 miles. I’ll take the upgrade, thanks.

The problem is that those upgrades can be hard to come by, so at least there’s something else that can now be done with them. I just wish United was a little less “United-y” with the rules.

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