What to do with 14,000 in United Miles?

For those of you experienced in United mileage program, what should I do with 14,000 in soon to expire United miles?

I have no intention of flying United in the future.

Said another way, what’s the best value among the myriad options: gift certificates, magazine subscriptions, etc?

Thank you in advance

magazine subscription for what… 2000 pts? then u will extend expiration for another year

alternatively, get a chase united card… 50K bonus… u’ll have 70K after u meet spend…
return ticket to europe :wink:

You can occasionally get a hotel stay for 14k, and sometimes they have miles + money for hotels. Worth checking if you’re going somewhere.

But just in case, you can fly UA on a 1 way award domestically. You can also use these miles for partner redemptions on any of the StarAlliance partners. You can fly within Asia, Europe, South America etc if you’d like. Plenty of options. Home - Star Alliance

Using your miles for a magazine (as noted above) is a good way to extend your miles, but usually a bad redemption.

More here https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/awards/default.aspx

Another way to extend time before miles expire is to join their dining program. Eat at one of the restaurants in the program, get a handful of miles, and you’re alive for another year.

What’s the easiest way to swap miles? I have about the same number of Delta miles I would swap for United miles.

I am pretty sure you can exchange these for gift cards. 12,500 miles gets you $100 at Wine.com

See here. There’s Williams Sonoma, LL Bean, etc…

https://secure.unitedmileageplus.com/redeem/giftcardredeem.jsp?Partner_name=GTG

Just have some non-flying activity (dining for miles is a good suggestion) to extend the expiration date of the miles.
They have the most value used for a flight when you NEED them. 12.500 miles is the low UA one-way redemption.

If you have iTunes, go through the united shopping portal and buy one song . That will extend the expiration date for 99 cents.

Otherwise give someone a one way ticket somewhere.

Donate them -

I just donated some miles to extend my balance.

Brilliant. Now I just need to decide why I’d want to extend them.

“I liked her so much I bought her a one way ticket to Cleveland…”

I need to try this trick. Easier that going to a restaurant.

Based on experience, I have to ask: how are you going to avoid flying on United in the future.

I wish I could, but it would be very difficult to avoid flying United.

depends where you are based… i haven’t been on a united flight for nearly 10 years.

that said i will take united miles… can use for other people… or more importantly use partner airlines…

I live in Portland so Virgin plus Alaska covers much of the US. United, especially out of SFO has left me on the tarmac for multiple hour delays for the last time. I was trying to keep this positive though. I’m sure other folks have had good experiences with them. Just not me.

Unfortunately, from DC to Portland, for example, the only nonstop is United.