Carissa served in the U.S. Air Force where she developed her love for travel and new cultures. She started her own blog and eventually joined The Points Guy. Since then, she’s contributed to Business ...
Edited by: Keri Stooksbury
With years of experience in corporate marketing and as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Qatar, Keri is now Editor-in-Chief at UP, overseeing daily content operations and r...
11 comments
Doug from California
May 20, 2022
Nice article explaining a lot of details about the program! The grim reality, from my experience as a United 1K flyer is that my PlusPoints are rarely useful now that COVID-19 has waned. Aside from some short hop flights off the main routes, the planes are packed full and there is always another 1K flyer with more status to take the only seat or 2 available for PlusPoint upgrade to business. So, my PlusPoints will expire despite numerous attempts to apply them.
Katie Seemann
June 06, 2022
Hi Doug,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m sorry you aren’t finding much benefit from PlusPoints upgrades anymore as I am sure that’s really frustrating.
James
August 05, 2022
I agree with Doug!
Alex
April 03, 2023
Agree with Doug. United’s PlusPoints are basically a scam: a “benefit” that you can’t use is not a benefit at all.
I have 3 trips to Europe planned from now until the summer, two of which have *very* flexible dates. Try as I might, I wasn’t able to use PlusPoints to upgrade in ANY of them. Not a single segment. I’m surprised there’s no class action suit against United for this.
Jayne
June 06, 2022
Excellent information. It was very detailed and helpful.
Thank you!
Katie Seemann
June 07, 2022
Hi Jayne,
We love hearing that! Thanks for reading and commenting.
sanjay
January 03, 2023
You should explain that Skip-the-waitlist, where more points are used, is available only to 100K and global members; Platinum members cannot take advantage of it. BTW, it is a good option if your plus points are going to expire soon.
Dan
February 12, 2023
It is important to keep in mind that Skip-Waitlist does not allow changes, so if you later change your flight you lose your PlusPoints.
John
April 12, 2023
Great write-up. I feel you Doug (+1).
Dan, I did not know that. Very helpful.
Sanjay – 100%. I have tried to use PPs multiple times this year already, and only 1 segment (JFK to SFO) has been upgraded so far. We will likely take a vacation to Europe sometime in June, and plan to use PP to get from Economy to Polaris and we will use Skip The Waitlist, and burn most of our PPs, as we are almost certain we won’t get to use them before expiration.
Dave
August 05, 2023
What about using PlusPoints on award flights? Can this be done?
Christine Krzyszton
August 07, 2023
Hi Dave. According to PlusPoints terms and conditions, PlusPoints cannot be used on award tickets. https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/mileageplus/awards/upgrades-types/pluspoints.html
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