Do you have any holiday gift cards that you aren't really excited about?
We have some good news: Through United's MileagePlus Gift Card Exchange, you can convert your unused gift cards into United MileagePlus miles.
Here's how it functions.
Which gift cards are acceptable?
United claims that "over 100" different merchant gift card kinds are accepted on the MileagePlus Gift Card Exchange main page.
There is a link to a list of retailers accepting gift cards at the bottom of that page, including Best Buy, Sears, Starbucks, and Walmart.
Note that some of the retailers on its list, like Home Depot and Southwest Airlines, aren't truly exchangeable on the website.
In addition, there are several retailers like North Face and HP that are eligible for exchange but aren't on the list.
Even an airline is an option.
You could exchange an American Airlines gift card for United miles if your family gave it to you without knowing that you were a United customer.
Alaska, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and Sun Country gift cards are not accepted at the MileagePlus gift card exchange.
Will it be worth it?
You could believe that some alternatives give more miles than these rates if you saw a table published by United that listed the "minimum award miles awarded."
But the mileage offer was the same for all of the retailers I looked at, which were several.
You aren't restricted to only using gift cards for $25, $50, or $100, despite the chart.
Any gift card with at least a $15 balance can be exchanged.
According to the information, we have gathered, the computation equals the gift card amount multiplied by 26.6 and rounded to the nearest 10 miles.
Depending on how much you're trading in, this rate assigns a value to United miles that ranges from 3.70 to 3.76 cents per mile.
Consider this:
• Gift cards worth $15 = 400 United miles (3.75 cents per mile).
• Gift cards worth $20 = 540 United miles (3.70 cents per mile).
• Gift cards worth $25 = 670 United Miles (3.73 cents per mile).
• Gift Cards for $30 = 800 United Miles (3.75 cents per mile).
• Gift cards worth $40 = 1,070 United miles (3.74 cents per mile).
• Gift card worth $50 = 1,330 United Miles (3.76 cents per mile).
• Gift cards worth $100 = 2,660 United miles (3.76 cents per mile).
Your gift cards are not providing you with a decent value at this rate, which is significantly higher than our estimation of 1.13 cents per United mile.
But if having the miles is more important to you than having the gift card, it might be worthwhile to use this method of dumping them.
Additionally, United is at least being consistent.
When United isn't offering a deal to buy miles, you can purchase United miles for $35 for 1,000 miles.
This pricing essentially works out to 3.76 cents per mile after taxes and other charges.
Limitations to keep in mind
You must have had an active MileagePlus account for at least 90 days in order to sell gift cards through the MileagePlus Gift Card Exchange.
The rules and conditions of the program state that your account must "have a positive account balance."
The terms and conditions specify that, despite the fact that United will offer you a quote for $10 gift cards, "Gift cards accepted must have a $15 minimum balance on the card and may have a maximum imposed."
The exchange also seems to only take gift cards with a value of up to $100.
Within five business days, the miles from a gift card sale on the MileagePlus Gift Card Exchange should show up in your United account.
In conclusion
Although you won't get a great deal when you trade in unused gift cards, it's nice to have the choice to exchange these gift cards for something you might truly want.
Having said that, it might be worthwhile searching online for a different gift card exchange service (like CardCash) that can offer you a higher deal.
You should only use the MileagePlus Gift Card Exchange if you have used up all of your Chase Ultimate Rewards points, require United miles for a forthcoming redemption, and have a gift card that qualifies.
If your only other choice is to purchase United miles, you might as well sell the gift card, especially if you weren't going to use it anytime soon.
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