When It’s Smart to Purchase 1,000,000 Miles to Get Up to 78% Off International First Class Travel
[aside headline="Transconnoisseur: Save 65% Every Time" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]United charges 50,000 miles round-trip for a Business Class award ticket, which if bought at 3¢ from Wall & Main, comes in at $1,545 (including the award tax, which is about $45 on this route). Compare that to the lowest Business Class fare of $4,374, a savings of $2,829 (65%). Even when availability is tight, and United requires you pay 100,000 miles for a standard award, the savings will still be $1,329 (30%).[/aside]
[aside headline="Last-Seat Availability" alignment="alignright" width="half" headline_size="default"]While not my favorite card for everyday use, the United Chase MileagePlus Explorer or MileagePlus Club Card (or Explorer Business) is great for “last seat availability” on United. It allows you to use miles for any seat at the double rate with no limitations, no restrictions, and no black-out dates. Without the UA card, you have to be a United elite in order to receive unrestricted access to standard mileage awards.[/aside]
Buying miles is one of the most lucrative ways to get international First Class flights cheap—especially if you are traveling last minute and saver mileage-award space is available.
In situations like these, the savings can be 80% or more in First Class. But even when you have to go with a standard award (usually double the miles or more), the savings can still be 50% or higher.
The major problem is “accumulating” enough miles. The standard mileage rate can easily start at 300,000+ miles per ticket, and many major U.S. airlines limit annual mileage purchases: AA limits at 60,000 miles, Delta 150,000 miles, Lufthansa only 12,000 miles, and United 150,000 miles.
One outside-the-box solution is buying United miles from, a company that sells up to 1,000,000 (or as few as 150,000) miles at 3¢ each. Wall & Main is a new company, having partnered with United, and has been promoting this offer for several months. To date I have yet to find one negative comment about the company.
I know your first question: Why would you want to buy so many miles, especially when FCF is all about staying diversified? All I can say is that it’s yet another option. My other cardinal rule is, Never Exclude Anything from consideration.
Eight Situations in Which Buying Miles in Large Quantities Makes Sense
- When you can’t wait for miles to go on sale: Most airlines’ rack-rate for miles is about 3¢ to 3.8¢ per mile (sales can decrease the cost 20% to 50% off), so getting everyday miles at 3¢ is not a bad rate, especially if you need them for a pending ticket.
- When you must fly First Class and double (or more) miles is required. A double-miles award often costs 250,000+ miles.
- When you can’t find low-cost saver awards: Miles bought from Wall & Main can be used for United standard mileage awards in First Class, something that can’t be done with Alaska and US Airways, although they do allow unlimited mileage purchases, but limit the use of anytime awards to their own flights. That’s useless because Alaska does not offer international flights, and US Airways doesn’t have a First Class cabin on international flights.
- When the First Class fare is high: Meaning anything over $5,000. Then, buying miles at 3¢ is a great value when used on low-cost awards (see chart below).
Situations to Save With Miles @ 3¢: When Availability is Good For Low-Level Awards
[table_opt style="gray-header" id="861 " width="" alignment="center" responsive="all" heading="thcenter" rows="tdcenter"]
- On routes where it pays to use standard mileage awards, such New York-Sydney: A First Class ticket costs $18,601, even if you book in advance, but buying 320,000 miles at 3¢ reduces the cost to $9,600 (see chart below for more).
Situations to Save With Miles @ 3¢: When Availability is Not Good, and an Anytime Award is Required
[table_opt style="gray-header" id="862 " width="" alignment="center" responsive="all" heading="thcenter" rows="tdcenter"]
- If you’re burning miles quickly: Because you are traveling in a group, say a family of four (which often means you’ll need a lot of miles).
- If you’re flying high-priced international routes that cost more miles than you can buy in a year directly from the airline.
- If you can expense the cost of buying the miles on your tax return.
Situations in which Buying Miles in Large Quantities Doesn’t Make Sense
- When miles are on sale or there’s a 100% buying bonus and you don’t mind some of the restrictions. For instance: US Airways doesn’t allow First Class award travel on Lufthansa and doesn’t offer one-way awards. (Check restrictions before taking the plunge.)
- When United’s award accelerator will get you the miles you need. It offers miles at about 2.2¢ to 3¢ in increments of 3,000 to 60,000, depending on ticket and fare, but only a certain amount of miles can be acquired this way.
- You have credit card points coming out your ears and, therefore, value miles at less than 3¢ each.
- You are usually able to find saver award space in Business Class and don’t want to fly First Class.
Fine Print:
- Wall & Main miles take one to two weeks to post.
- You can pay with American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa.
- Wall & Main offers miles in these increments: (all at 3¢ per mile) 150,000 for $4,500; 250,000 for $7,500; 500,000 for $15,000; and 1,000,000 for $30,000.