United provides Platinum elites with 40 PlusPoints upon qualification and 1K members with 280 PlusPoints upon qualification. You also earn 20 more PlusPoints for every 3,000 PQPs earned beyond 22,000 per calendar year.
Until now, the only use for PlusPoints has been for upgrades, which require 10-80 PlusPoints each way:
Effective today, you can exchange PlusPoints for Premier status gifts, TravelBank cash, bonus miles, PQFs, or PQPs. Those exchanges won’t come cheap, but it’s always good to have more options. Only PlusPoints earned in 2025 or later can be exchanged.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to wait until just before the PlusPoints expire, as you need to make the exchange by 3/31 of the year prior to them expiring on 1/31. That takes a lot of the value out of this program, as that won’t allow you to wait and see if your PlusPoints upgrades will clear before deciding to exchange them if the upgrade doesn’t clear.
On American for example, if you earn loyalty points rewards in 2025, you would have until 3/31/27 to decide if you want miles, upgrades, or another benefit. On United, you would only have until 3/31/26 to make that decision.
“You can exchange up to 600 eligible PlusPoints in total per expiration date, without exceeding the maximum exchange allowance for each perk.
If you earn 280 PlusPoints in July 2025, you can exchange these PlusPoints for a combination of the perks until March 31, 2026. You may exchange 100 PlusPoints for $200 TravelBank cash and 100 PlusPoints for 15,000 bonus miles, a total of 200 PlusPoints exchanged. This exchange would be completed successfully because you did not exceed any of the perks’ maximum exchange allowances. The remaining 80 PlusPoints can be used for either exchanges or upgrade requests through March 31, 2026. After that, these remaining PlusPoints can only be used for upgrade requests until their expiration on January 31, 2027.”
Here is the new PlusPoints exchange chart:
The gift of Gold status for 100 PlusPoints looks like the best redemption option to me, though even that is pricey compared to 2.5 upgrades to business class. The $200 TravelBank cash, 15,000 miles, or 1,000 PQPs are very low-value offers compared to 2.5 upgrades to business class. The PQF redemptions are also very pricey, while the cost of the gift of Platinum and 1K status is sky-high.
It’s a shame that you can’t make exchanges closer to the expiration date, as locking in a low-value exchange 10 months before the expiration is a tough decision to make. I guess the big winners here are friends and family, as this policy means there will still be people giving away PlusPoints close to their expiration.
What do you think of these exchange options? Will you take advantage of any of them?
HT: Ryan S.
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1 Comment On "United Makes PlusPoints More Versatile: Exchange For Elite Status Gifts, Miles, TravelBank Cash, PQPs, And More!"
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Much to do about nothing. I feel this is United throwing crumbs at their elites who keep complaining their pluspoints are useless