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United credit card holders: Earn bonus miles with the Mile Badge Game promotion

Ryan Smith
Ryan Smith
Contributor
Ryan is a former TPG credit cards writer who has been around points and miles for several years and has published content at Miles to Memories, AwardWallet and The Points Guy. His wife joins him on many of his trips, and they enjoy snowboarding, diving, and seeing animals in the wild. When not traveling, Ryan is probably answering questions from his family about how he travels so much and whether this points & miles stuff is illegal.
Sept. 28, 2022
•
5 min read
United Airlines planes at the gate in Newark
United credit card holders: Earn bonus miles with the Mile Badge Game promotion
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Quick summary

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

If you have a United Airlines credit card, there's a new promotion where you might be able to earn thousands of bonus miles.

This is a targeted promotion, and the number of miles you can earn — as well as how you earn them — will vary depending on which credit card you have. Let's take a look at the United Mile Badge Game to understand how you can earn these bonus miles.

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United Mile Badge Game promotion

This promotion requires that cardholders complete selected activities to earn virtual badges for bonus miles. Registration is required, but not all cardholders will be able to enroll since this promotion is targeted. At this point, we have seen offers for the following United cobranded credit cards:

  • United Club Infinite Card.
  • United Gateway Card.
  • United Explorer Card.
  • United Quest Card.
  • United Business Card.
  • United℠ Presidential Plus Card.

If you did not receive an email about the promotion, you can check your eligibility by trying to enroll here, using the last four digits of your credit card number and your United MileagePlus account number. Among TPG staff members, we have seen offers to earn up to 9,250 bonus miles. We also received an email from a reader saying he could enroll his United Presidential Plus Card to earn up to 26,500 bonus miles.

The information for the Presidential Plus card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuers.

ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

Qualifying activities

Your bonus miles-earning activities will vary depending on which United Airlines cobranded credit card you have. However, you will likely see some of the following:

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  • Earn bonus miles after making a set number of purchases on your card: 250 bonus miles after using your card 15 times, 500 bonus miles after using your card 30 times, or 750 miles after using your card 45 times.
  • Make five purchases with your card in a digital wallet to earn 500 bonus miles.
  • Book a flight with Money + Miles to earn 500 bonus miles.
  • Add an authorized user to earn 250 bonus miles.
  • Use the Chase app to earn 250 bonus miles.
  • Use your eligible card for a foreign purchase and earn 250 bonus miles.
  • Additional mystery bonuses will be available in November and December.
  • Additional bonus miles for completing five, seven and nine different activities.
  • Sign up to receive United Airlines offers by email and receive 250 bonus miles.

All activities are restricted to the period of Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Cardholders will also see bonus miles available for spending thresholds. We have seen the following offers:

  • Earn 1,000 bonus miles after spending $600 on your card.
  • Earn 4,500 bonus miles after spending $4,500 on your card.
  • Earn 4,000 bonus miles after spending $6,500 on your card.

Related: How to get maximum value from the United MileagePlus program

Is it worth it?

Most of these activities should be easy to accomplish for most people. These activities can net bonus miles on top of your everyday earnings. Before making purchases, be sure to compare what you can earn through this promotion to our guide to bonus-earning categories, since other cards in your wallet may provide a better rate of return.

However, the spending thresholds are a different story. TPG values United miles at 1.45 cents each. Depending on your bonus offer from the Mile Badge Game, you may receive as much as a 2% or as little as a 0.7% return on spending. Other cards in your wallet likely earn at better rates than this.

Related: Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights

Bottom line

United's Mile Badge Game offers targeted cardmembers the ability to earn bonus miles by completing certain activities and earning badges — including bonuses for earning multiple badges. Many of the activities should be quite simple to complete, assuming you can enroll in the promotion. However, the earning rates for the bonus spending requirements are not that great, so consider whether you could earn more valuable rewards by using a different credit card for your purchases during the promotional period.

Enrollment for the promotion is live now, and qualifying activities take place Oct. 1-Dec. 31.

Featured image by SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.