How much is 1 united mile worth? Anybody know?

[SamsungHDTV]

How do you calculate this? What are the variables? Has anyone ever tried to calculate this?

[Anonymous]

I think it's notoriously difficult to calculate the cash value of a reward point, but here's what I'd do:

Pick a random United flight, or better yet, average five or so... Total up the cost of them and divide by the number of points needed to take them. Should at least give you some kind of metric.

[longhorn11]

It all depends on what you use it for, I'll give a few examples.  These are made up numbers based on a round trip just fyi.

Domestic Coach Ticket - 25k miles for a $400 flight your value would be about 1.6 cents a mile.

International Coach Ticket - 60k miles for a $1,000 flight your value would be about 1.67 cents a mile

Here's where the value increases...

International Business Ticket - 100k miles for a $3,000 flight your value would be about 3 cents a mile

International First Class Ticket - 150k miles for a $6,000 flight your value would be about 4 cents a mile

[Repo-ed]

boardingarea.com

[CreditScholar]

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@longhorn11 wrote:

It all depends on what you use it for, I'll give a few examples.  These are made up numbers based on a round trip just fyi.

Domestic Coach Ticket - 25k miles for a $400 flight your value would be about 1.6 cents a mile.

International Coach Ticket - 60k miles for a $1,000 flight your value would be about 1.67 cents a mile

Here's where the value increases...

International Business Ticket - 100k miles for a $3,000 flight your value would be about 3 cents a mile

International First Class Ticket - 150k miles for a $6,000 flight your value would be about 4 cents a mile

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+1.

The real value for united miles is in premium-cabin international redemptions. I wouldn't bother using them for anything else, except MAYBE transcontinental economy tickets (for 25k) when the price is already high ~$500+. You can get some great values in business/first redemptions to Asia and Europe.

The other occasion where I might consider using it is with stopovers/open-jaws to avoid paying for an additional domestic ticket.

Overall I'd say they're worth ~2 cpm, but as always YMMV.