United is offering a 30% bonus earning miles with their partners that you haven’t earned with during the past 12 months. They want to get you earning more broadly in the MileagePlus program than you are today.

The opportunity to earn with this promotion runs through November 20, and requires registration (you’ll only earn the bonus on transactions after you’ve registered). There is no reason not to register, just in case you wind up earning with a partner during the promotion period.

• They exclude points transfers from hotels and credit card programs, and credit card earning itself from the bonus. Here’s the list of specifically-excluded partners:

  airline partners, United Vacations, United Cruises, Mercedes- Benz and Fidelity. Hertz 5,000 and 7,500 mile promotions and all hotel and credit card points-to-mile transfer transactions are excluded from this promotion. MileagePlus credit card transactions (including the use or acquisition of a MileagePlus credit card) do not qualify for this promotion.

• MileagePlus Shopping, Dining, and the MileagePlusX app will earn a 10% bonus if you’ve earned with them during the past 12 months, 30% if you haven’t.

  

• You can earn up to 25,000 bonus miles through the promotion.

• Oddly, bonus earning via FTD ends a week early on November 13.

If you already have transactions, say, through the MileagePlus shopping portal within the past 12 months consider making shopping transactions using a spouse or child’s MileagePlus account that hasn’t earned through the portal during the last year (after you register them for this bonus, of course).

Here are the featured opportunities for earning:

Hotel stays, not points transfers from hotels.

Shopping and transfer partners other than credit cards and hotels. You can transfer points from MyPoints (and new signups earn a bonus).

Entertainment. The DirecTV offers are usually strong on their own.

Hertz is now the featured car rental partner at United, though United isn’t the exclusive airline for Hertz.

Home, most members won’t have these options or make these decisions on the basis of miles but if you’re going to do it anyway…

I wouldn’t touch their participating ‘finance’ partners for reasons other than miles-earning.

(HT: Mommy Points)