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Several United Mileage Offers

by Gary Leff on October 17, 2005

Oct 17 2005

I’ve been swamped the past few days, I have an inbox full of great deals, and no time to cull through them. Fortunately FreeFrequentFlyerMiles does much of the work for me. Gary Steiger points to several worthwhile offers: United’s Silver Wings Plus has a promo (promo code SWA16-2904) — join for $264 and get 25,000 bonus miles, (3) $100 travel credits, and double miles on your next 12,500 flown miles. You’ll have to cancel before the first year is up or they’ll auto-renew you for another $264. Silver Wings Plus is United’s senior citizen program. The offer may expire November 4. United is offering 4,000 miles for signing up for Netflix and paying with a United Visa (2,000 miles otherwise). United is offering up to 36,000 bonus miles for flights to the West Coast and…

More Proof Of the Tremendous Economic Value of Frequent Flyer Programs

by Gary Leff on October 10, 2005

Oct 10 2005

United’s Mileage Plus is such an important economic engine that JP Morgan Chase, which issues United’s co-branded credit card, has been the largest funder of the airline’s bankruptcy. It’s BankOne unit put up hundreds of millions of dollars in debtor-in-possession financing and JP Morgan is putting up a chunk of United’s $3 billion in bankruptcy exit financing. Now a deal to extend the co-branding relationship together with a large pre-purchase of airline miles is taking the place of hundreds of millions of dollars in reserves that United would have to post to its credit card processor (which is majority-owned by JP Morgan). As part of a deal extending United’s co-branding relationship with J. P. Morgan Chase through 2012, the bank agreed to make a “substantial” advance purchase of miles from United, according to an Oct.…

New Ameniti Signup Bonus

by Gary Leff on September 29, 2005

Sep 29 2005

United’s generally worthless ‘luxury travel club’ is offering 50,000 United miles as a bonus when signing up for a 2-year membership ($500). That’s one cent per mile, plus you get 2 lounge passes and Starwood Gold status (and a couple other minor sundry items, like the ability to request a free leather travel wallet from one of their partners). The 3-month trial for $10, which still nets you the lounge passes and Starwood status but no miles, is still available.

United’s Mystery Double Miles Promo Revealed

by Gary Leff on September 1, 2005

Sep 01 2005

It turns out that United’s mystery double miles promotion that Northwest was ostensibly countering with its own double miles promo was a targeted email offering to Mileage Plus members in the Upper Midwest. United was certainly targeting Northwest’s stronghold, just days after Northwest mechanics went on strike. Northwest countered with across-the-board double miles. While United was taking advantage of an opportunity to poach Northwest passengers, I suspect Northwest is trying to lure passengers who might otherwise book away due to negative publicity surrounding the strike in a month where traffic is likely to be slower than the peak summer season.

Best United Visa offer yet?

by Gary Leff on August 28, 2005

Aug 28 2005

I’ve seen 15,000 bonus miles with first purchase and annual fee waived for the first year. And I’ve seen 20,000 miles with first purchase but there’s an annual fee right away. This is the first time I’ve seen 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase and fee waived the first year. In general I haven’t seen too many problems getting the signup bonus credited or having the fee waived — but it’s still a good idea to print the offer page (which mentions the bonus miles) and print the terms and conditions page (which mentions no fee the first year) just in case there’s any confusion later.

20,000 Mile Bonus Offer for United Visa Signature Platinum Class

by Gary Leff on July 14, 2005

Jul 14 2005

The new United Mileage Plus Visa Signature Platinum Class, detailed earlier this month, has an offer of 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase along with the other card benefits detailed in my previous post. The application link won’t spell out the bonus miles — these links usually don’t — but the link is from an email clearly promising the bonus miles. In my experience with the United Visa, this works out perfectly well (although if you have any problems receiving the correct bonus, email me at gleff -at- yahoo.com and I’ll forward the text of the email).

United Mileage Plus Visa Signature Platinum Class

by Gary Leff on July 2, 2005

Jul 02 2005

There’s been a lot of buzz about a new United Airlines co-branded credit card. It’s expensive but has some great features. I haven’t chosen to carry it myself, but for frequent United flyers it may be just the right card. First, the fee is $140 per year. That’s more than the regular Signature Visa at $60 and more than the Gold Class Visa Signature which is priced at $85 (and which comes with 2500 anniversary miles, double miles on United purchases, and up to 10,000 miles a year for balance transfers). It’s also more expensive than the $30 Starwood American Express, to my mind the gold standard in mileage earning credit cards. However, there are some interesting benefits to the new United card. In addition to the 15,000 bonus miles with first purchase, 1000 mile…

The economics of frequent flyer program spinoff

by Gary Leff on June 30, 2005

Jun 30 2005

The cover story of the July, 2005 Inside Flyer is on airlines spinning off their frequent flyer programs in public offerings. David Rowell thinks United could be worth $15 billion. Randy Petersen says “greater than $2.5 billion.” According to the piece, airlines sell $3 billion worth of miles annually. United’s spinoff of Mileage Plus into a wholely-owned subsidiary in 2002 was a $1.4 billion transaction. Mileage is clearly a big business: In 2003, ULS accounted for 5 percent of UAL’s 2003 revenues. In 2004, United recognized more than $400 million in revenues related to ULS, which would not reflect the entire business revenue of ULS for that year. In 2000, revenue for third-party mileage sales reached $220 million during the first six months alone. But American AAdvantage is clearly the king of frequent flyer programs,…

Spinning off United’s Mileage Plus?

by Gary Leff on June 24, 2005

Jun 24 2005

David Rowell looks at Air Canada’s successful public offering of its Aeroplan program, and wonders why United hasn’t gone public with Mileage Plus? Rowell thinks Mileage Plus could be worth $15 billion. That seems a little high to me, I’m also not sure that imputing similar per-member value makes sense. My hunch is that US consumers participate in more frequent flyer programs than Canadian consumers do, so Mileage Plus while valuable may occupy less mindspace than Aeroplan. I’d personally believe a $5 billion market value estimate rather than $15 billion, but what do I know? Either way, it doesn’t change David’s central point that United has a hugely valuable hiddle asset. Contra David, who believes United should sell a large stake in its frequent flyer program to exit bankruptcy and pay back creditors and the…

Daydreaming Scenario: What if United Went Out of Business?

by Gary Leff on May 16, 2005

May 16 2005

It’s terribly ironic that the federal government’s (IMHO, correct) decision to deny United taxypayer backing for billion-dollar loan may have lead to the situation where the federal government is taking on an even larger liability for the airline’s pensions. Of course it’s possible that providing the loan would still leave the government in the position of picking up the pensions also. But United provides an interesting illustration of failed U.S. industrial policy. The airline has been operating under bankruptcy protection for two and a half years and continues to lose nine-figure sums each month. Despite cost-cutting and layoffs the airline has no path towards profitability, and labor relations are at a low point. The airline has been kept afloat by the government, by the courts which have kept aircraft lessors at bay (though a recent…