United Award Travel: What You Need to Know

United Airlines’ loyalty program, MileagePlus, allows members to redeem United miles on award flights with both United and its partner airlines. MileagePlus offers some great ways to redeem miles for United award travel — especially if you have a United credit card.

Here's everything you need to know about United award travel, including how to find the best deals.

How many miles do I need to book United award travel?

United does not have an award chart, so flights are priced based on a variety of factors, including demand. To find flights, you'll need to search on United's website or app to determine how many miles are required for a given flight. You can also use an award search tool that allows you to search multiple loyalty programs at once.

When you run your search, make sure to check the box that says "Book with miles" or "Search award travel." You'll need to log in to your MileagePlus account to view pricing.

Using a flight from Chicago-O’Hare to Munich as an example, you’ll get results that will show you a range of prices. These are often affected by the class of service and whether the flight is with United or a partner airline.

If you have an eligible United credit card, you're eligible for at least a 10% discount on all award redemptions for United-operated flights. I have United elite status and a card, so my discount gets bumped up to at least 15%.

On the date selected, from Chicago to Munich, an economy seat costs as few as 34,000 miles, while a United Polaris business class seat is double that at 68,000 miles. Keep in mind these rates factor in my cardmember and elite status discount.

Because the first nonstop option is operated by Lufthansa, one of United's partner airlines, I don't get a 15% discount, but I do get a cheaper rate compared to non-cardholders.

» Learn more: Best benefits of United Airlines credit cards

How can I find the lowest-priced United award flights?

If you want to find the lowest-priced award flights on United and your dates aren't set yet, use the "Flexible dates" feature when searching on the website.

You can also use the "Advanced search" to apply search filters for things like cabin class, partner airlines and more.

For example, this flexible search for a trip in October shows how much mileage prices for a premium economy award can vary just by traveling on a different day.

You'll need to be flexible to score the lowest-priced award tickets. For example, if I were set on flying on October 17, I'd need to use 150,000 miles to fly. However, if I moved my travel ahead by two days, I would instead only need 42,500 miles.

» Learn more: All the ways to earn United MileagePlus miles

Combining money and miles to book United flights

If you’re running low on miles, United offers MileagePlus members a way to combine miles and money to book flights. This can easily be done on United’s website by following these steps:

• First, search for your desired flight using money on United.com or the United app.

• Choose your flight and select the “Money + Miles” option.

• Select the flight portions you want to pay in money and miles.

• Continue to check out.

The Money + Miles option on United can be helpful when you have a pile of United miles but not enough to fully cover the cost of your award ticket. When you pay for flights using Money + Miles, your United miles are valued at 1 cent per mile — just below our baseline value for United miles at 1.2 cents each (here's how we came to that number).

» Learn more: The NerdWallet guide to the United MileagePlus Program

Earn United miles quickly

Before you start using United miles, you have to earn them. Beyond flying, another way to amass a large number of United MileagePlus miles is to earn a sign-up bonus for United credit card.

If you seek more flexibility in redeeming miles for award flights, consider applying for a more general travel credit card instead. A more general travel credit card differs from an airline card in that you can book flights with multiple carriers, rather than reaping the benefits of staying loyal to a single brand.

The more high-end the travel credit card, the more benefits you can enjoy, including airport lounge access or automatic elite status in certain programs. That said, a brand-specific airline card can net you benefits like waived baggage fees, which can have meaningful dollar value.

» Learn more: Which United credit card should you get?

Final thoughts on United MileagePlus Awards

United’s MileagePlus program provides a lot of value to its members (especially those who can be flexible with their travel dates). Plus, if you have an eligible United credit card, you get access to award discounts of at least 10% when flying on United.

United also allows MileagePlus members to pay for certain flights using a mixture of miles and money, which is a nice perk for casual and serious miles collectors alike.