If you’re a MileagePlus member looking to make the most of your United miles, you’re in the right place. In this ultimate guide on United Award Search, we show you step-by-step how to unlock the full potential of your MileagePlus account: we walk you through everything you need to know to find the best award flights and maximize your miles. Let’s get started!

In This Post

• What is United MileagePlus?
• Things you need to know about MileagePlus in 2024
• Saver vs. Non-Saver Awards
• United MileagePlus Award Search: The Easy Way (Step-by-step)
• Why use AwardFares instead of United’s website?
• Become a United MileagePlus Hacker
• Read More

What is United MileagePlus?

MileagePlus is United Airlines’ loyalty program. With several elite status tiers -Premier Silver, Gold, Platinum, and 1k—it remains one of our favorite options when redeeming Star Alliance and other airline partners.

Since November 2019, United MileagePlus transitioned to a dynamic pricing model for award flights (read our full post), meaning that the number of miles required for a specific itinerary varies depending on factors that include demand, route, and travel dates (check the cash prices!). This makes the award booking process more complex because it is harder to determine whether you are getting good value for your miles.

Program Features We Love

• Excursionist Perk: This unique feature allows members to add a free one-way award within select multi-city itineraries, providing excellent value when planning more complex trips.
• Partner Airlines is definitely one of our favorites. United has one of the largest networks of partner airlines, which means you can get extra lucky when choosing who you fly with. However, redeeming miles on partner airlines sometimes involves different award charts, pricing, and availability rules. It’s essential to familiarize yourself with the specific requirements of each partner. But don’t worry. AwardFares does its best to show you the real-time prices across all options so you can compare them easily.
• MileagePlus Credit Cards: There’s a large array of United co-branded credit cards that make it extremely easy to earn miles and access additional benefits, such as priority boarding and free checked bags.

Things you need to know about MileagePlus in 2024

• Easier to earn Premier status with United credit cards: United revamped its co-branded credit card program in 2024. You can now earn more qualifying points (PQP) towards elite status through spending on your United credit cards. There’s also no overall cap on PQP earning across multiple cards (each card still has its own limit).
• Program requirements remain unchanged: This is good news for flyers looking to maintain their current MileagePlus status. United is keeping the qualification requirements for Premier status the same in 2024.
• Miles pooling: In a first for major US airlines, United MileagePlus allows members to pool their miles with friends and family into a joint account. This can be helpful for families traveling together or reaching redemption goals faster.

Saver vs. Non-Saver Awards

Despite the dynamic pricing, MileagePlus still makes a distinction between Saver and non-Saver awards:

• Saver Awards: The most economical option for redeeming miles. They require fewer miles compared to non-Saver awards but have limited availability, especially during peak travel seasons or on popular routes. To secure Saver awards, it’s crucial to book well in advance and be flexible with your travel dates.
• Non-Saver Awards: These provide greater flexibility in terms of availability but come at a higher mileage cost. If you have specific travel dates in mind or are looking for last-minute bookings, non-Saver awards may be the only option.

United MileagePlus Award Search: The Easy Way (Step-by-step)

1. Go to AwardFares

Creating an account is optional, but it’s also free, and it gives you access to more features. Make sure to sign up for one here.

2. Select the Frequent Flyer Program

In the Frequent Flyer Program picker, select United MileagePlus.

3. Add a Route(s)

In the From and To fields, enter your departure and arrival airports. In the example below, we search for flights between San Francisco (SFO) and London (LHR).

4. Explore Travel Dates

Tap on Calendar to add a particular date in mind.

AwardFares will start searching for available seats on flights that day, and show the results in a list below.

Alternatively, you can use the Timeline View feature to check availability across multiple days at the same time. The bars show different classes in different colors.

5. Sort by Price

A great advantage of AwardFares is that it lets you easily sort and filter results intuitively and with just a few clicks. It’s the simplest way to explore the cheapest options and find the best awards.

On the result list, tap on the different header columns to sort the results by price. Use the Eco, Prem, Biz, and First class tags to find cheap awards across multiple dates, itineraries, and airlines.

Plus, use the Max Price pill to set a maximum number of miles for the reward flights you are searching.

6. Saver vs. Non-saver (optional)

AwardFares has a quick toggle to exclude awards that are non-saver. This way you can make sure you are only seeing the most economical options (although you lose a bit of flexibility).

7. Mixed Cabins (optional)

Another key feature is the ability to exclude mixed-cabin itineraries from the list. Often times, some of the options involve multiple connecting flights in different cabins. You can easily exclude them by tapping on Exclude Mixed: No Mixed Cabins.

Using these filters in combination can be extremely powerful. Following our previous example, now we sort by price (Business Class), excluding mixed cabins, and only searching for saver awards:

8. Add more filters (optional)

Try filtering out by cabin class (e.g., Business Class, First Class), number of stops (e.g., nonstop), number of passengers, aircraft type, or even flight number!

9. Book on United’s website

Once you find your desired flight, click the Book button.

AwardFares will redirect you to United’s website to finish the booking process, without the need to re-enter your search criteria, as it will be pre-populated.

Why use AwardFares instead of United’s website?

AwardFares is the easiest search engine for award flights, and it works across different frequent flyer programs, routes, and dates at once. It makes it incredibly easy to find award flights in seconds, without having to do manual searches on United’s website.

1. Save time! Instead of searching day by day on United’s site, AwardFares lets you view multiple dates and routes at once, saving time and ensuring you don’t miss out on better options.
2. Dynamic Pricing Insights. With United’s dynamic pricing, mileage costs vary. AwardFares helps you spot trends and clearly find better deals that might not be obvious on United’s site.
3. Advanced Filters and Alerts. AwardFares offers powerful filters and notifications, allowing you to customize searches and get alerts when availability or prices change.
4. Compare with other programs! (Broader Search Across Airlines). United’s website limits you to its flights and Star Alliance partners. AwardFares, on the other hand, lets you search multiple airlines and programs, offering a wider range of options.
5. User-Friendly Interface. AwardFares offers a more intuitive and visually appealing platform, making it easier to navigate and find the best award options.

Become a United MileagePlus Hacker

You can try AwardFares for free. With our Gold and Diamond tiers, you can access premium features including unlimited daily searches, alerts, seat maps, flight schedules, and more!

Read More

Our guides have all the information you need to be a pro travel hacker and explore the world on points. Here are some related posts you might enjoy:

• United MileagePlus Sweet Spots (2024)
• A Week of Discounted United MileagePlus Awards
• United Airlines Adds 100+ New Flights And Announces The Largest Summer Schedule in a Decade
• United 767-400 Polaris Business Class From Washington To Sao Paulo (2023)