United Buy Miles With a 95% Bonus (October 2026): The Real Cost per Mile

The offer at a glance

United runs a buy-miles promotion almost every month, and the headline rate usually lands somewhere between a 50% bonus and a 100% bonus depending on the account. October 2026 is one of the stronger rounds: United is advertising up to 95%, and a small number of targeted members are seeing offers above that.

How the 1.93¢ price is calculated

United quotes a base rate of $35 per 1,000 miles and adds a tax recovery charge of roughly 7.5% on top, which brings the real outlay to about $37.63 per 1,000 miles. The bonus then multiplies how many miles you receive for that money, not what you pay for them.

So the formula is simple:

That single formula is the most useful tool in this whole promotion, because it lets you price any bonus tier instantly — including the tier actually shown in your account rather than the one in the advert.

Bar chart showing cost per mile falling from 2.51 cents at a 50% bonus to 1.88 cents at a 100% bonus. A dashed line marks 1.3 cents, the typical value of a MileagePlus mile.

The 50,000-mile cap problem

This is the part most write-ups gloss over, and it matters more than the bonus percentage itself.

United now limits purchases to 50,000 miles in any rolling 90-day period, bonus miles included, plus 200,000 miles per calendar year. The 90-day limit is calculated on a rolling basis, so the clock restarts from the date of your last transaction, not from a fixed calendar quarter.

Work out what that means in practice at the 95% tier. You need the base miles plus the bonus to land at or under 50,000:

• 25,000 base miles + 23,750 bonus miles = 48,750 miles for about $941
• Going to 26,000 base miles would produce 50,700 total, which breaches the cap

So your ceiling is roughly 48,750 miles. Now hold that against what premium awards actually cost:

Every long-haul premium award in the program is out of reach on a single purchase. If you are buying miles to fund a business-class trip to Tokyo or Frankfurt, the promotion alone will not get you there — you need an existing balance, a credit card transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards or Bilt at 1:1, or a second purchase after the 90-day window resets. That reset may well land after the bonus expires.

Break-even math: when buying actually pays off

Here is the uncomfortable arithmetic. Independent valuations put a MileagePlus mile at roughly 1.2 cents (NerdWallet, August 2026) to 1.3 cents (Supapoints). You are being asked to pay 1.93 cents. On an average redemption, buying miles destroys value.

The table below prices a maximum purchase — 48,750 miles for about $941 — against a range of realistic redemption values:

The break-even sits just under 2 cents. Below that line you would have been better off paying cash and keeping your money. Above it — and only above it — buying discounted miles is a genuine arbitrage.

This is why the sensible order of operations is fixed: find the award first, price it against the cash fare, and only then decide whether to buy miles. Buying first and hunting for a use afterwards is how people end up with 48,750 miles and no flight to spend them on.

Who should buy, and who shouldn’t

Buy if all three of these are true

• You have already found a specific award with saver space available. Not a route you might fly — a date and a cabin where the inventory is actually open.
• The cash fare for that same seat is more than 2 cents per mile. A $3,500 business-class ticket for 88,000 miles works out to 3.98 cents, comfortably above the purchase price.
• The purchase only closes a gap. You already hold most of the miles and need a top-up, so the 50,000 cap is not the binding constraint.

Skip it if any of these apply

• Your dashboard shows 60% or 80% rather than 95%. At 2.35 cents you need a redemption above 2.4 cents just to break even, and those are rare.
• You are hoping to fund an entire business-class award. The rolling cap will not allow it in one transaction.
• You fly domestically in economy. United’s dynamic pricing on its own metal frequently returns under 1.5 cents per mile, which is a guaranteed loss at 1.93 cents.
• You are chasing elite status. Purchased miles do not count toward Premier qualification at all.
• You would be putting it on a credit card you can’t clear. Miles are non-refundable, and interest dwarfs any value here.

How to buy the miles step by step

1. Sign in to MileagePlus first. Your personal bonus percentage only displays once you are authenticated, and it can differ from the advertised rate.
2. Check your rolling 90-day room. If you bought or gifted miles recently, subtract those from the 50,000 allowance before you plan a purchase size.
3. Confirm saver award availability. Search the exact route and date on united.com and filter for partner-operated flights where relevant. Do this before you spend anything.
4. Compare the award to the cash fare. Divide the cash price by the miles required, then multiply by 100. If the result is above your cost per mile, proceed.
5. Buy in a single transaction. Bonuses are calculated per transaction and cannot be combined, so a split purchase will not earn you a better tier.
6. Expect posting within minutes, but allow up to 72 hours before the miles appear in the account.

How this compares to other 2026 sales

United’s buy-miles offers have been consistent but not extraordinary through 2026. Most months have topped out at a 100% bonus, which at United’s base rate produces 1.88 cents per mile — barely better than this month’s 1.93 cents at the 95% tier. In other words, October is a good round but not a once-a-year event, which removes the urgency argument for buying speculatively.

Against its peers, United miles bought at 1.93 cents are the weakest relative bargain of the three — a direct consequence of United’s own valuation sitting at the bottom of the US airline pack. That does not make the purchase wrong, but it does mean the redemption has to do more work.

Rules worth knowing before you pay

United’s full terms run to eighteen clauses. These are the ones that change the decision:

• Bonus miles count against both caps — the 50,000 rolling limit and the 200,000 annual limit.
• No retroactive application. Purchases made before the offer opened are not eligible.
• Transactions cannot be aggregated to reach a higher bonus tier.
• Your card is charged immediately and the miles are non-refundable.
• Purchased miles do not earn Premier status.
• Canadian residents pay GST/HST; Quebec residents also pay QST, which shifts the effective cost per mile upward.
• Pricing is only valid through United’s official buy-miles portal at buymiles.mileageplus.com.
• Buying miles codes as a United purchase if you use a co-branded MileagePlus card, so you earn card miles on the transaction as well.

Frequently asked questions

Verdict

A 95% bonus is close to the ceiling United offers, and at 1.93 cents a mile it is genuinely the cheapest rate the program will sell at this year. But cheap relative to United’s own base price is not the same as cheap in absolute terms.

Two numbers decide it. The first is your break-even: just under 2 cents per mile. The second is the cap: 48,750 miles, which is less than any long-haul premium award in the program. Together they point to one narrow, defensible use case — topping up an existing balance to complete a partner business or first-class award you have already found and priced against the cash fare.

Outside that scenario, this sale is a good price on a currency you probably do not need at a quantity you probably cannot use. Wait for the next round rather than buying speculatively; United runs these monthly, and the rate rarely moves much.