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Using your miles and points to book free flights is one of the most satisfying parts of participating in rewards programs.
Whether you’re heading out on a short trip to visit family or a big adventure to explore new destinations, rewards currencies like United MileagePlus miles are a great way to save money and travel further.
In this article, we’ll show you the steps for booking award flights with your United miles so that you enjoy free or discounted flights to destinations around the world.
United MileagePlus is the loyalty program for United Airlines, offering members the ability to earn miles with flights, co-branded credit cards, travel partners, and more.
Once you’ve got some miles saved up, you can redeem them for award flights around the world using United’s large network of destinations. You can also book award flights on routes with United’s Star Alliance partners (such as Air Canada) and with its many other partner airlines.
You can learn more about earning and redeeming miles on the United MileagePlus program page.
The process to book an award flight with your United miles is very straightforward. Regardless of whether you’re looking to book a flight with United Airlines or with one of its many partner airlines, your first step is to head to the United Airlines website and sign into your MileagePlus account.
Next, click on the “Book” tab and check the box for “Book with miles.” You then need to fill in your search criteria, including origin, destination, and preferred travel dates. Then click “Find flights.”
On the next page, you’ll see the search results for the dates you selected, with the cost in points (+ taxes/fees). You’ll also see results for a few days before and a few days after your selected date.
You can also see the cost in Money + Miles, using the dropdown menu at the top of the page. However, this option is only available for select flights so you may not always see it.
As you can see above, the price in points can fluctuate (thanks to United’s use of dynamic pricing). Given this, it can be helpful to see how the costs range across many days, especially if your travel dates are flexible.
To see more travel dates and prices, click on “Advanced search” at the top of the page, and then select “Flexible dates” checkbox. On this page, you can also adjust other variables to narrow down your search results further.
Within this results calendar, you can see that the lowest cost award flights are indicated in green. In this case, the cheapest flight is coming in at 40,000 United miles plus $113 in taxes and fees.
The available flights for any selected day will be listed on the same page, below the calendar graphic.
Once you find a flight that suits your search parameters, you can select the route and cabin class that you’d like. This will take you to the booking page where you will add your traveller information and redeem your miles.
As you get ready to book your next United MileagePlus award flight, there are a few things to note:
United Miles can also be redeemed for the following, though the value available through these options is notably lower than when you redeem your miles for flights:
The best ways to earn United Miles in Canada are as follows:
Redeeming your miles for award flights through United MileagePlus is easy and gives you the ability to explore destinations across the globe.
Although United miles are not the easiest to earn in Canada, they can still play a role in your loyalty program strategy, especially thanks to the new United MileagePlus Neo World Elite Mastercard coming in April 2026.
Of course, you can also access award flights within United Airlines’ network using your Air Canada Aeroplan points thanks to the Star Alliance partnership between these two carriers.
Check out the following Aeroplan guides to learn more on earning and redeeming this top travel currency:
Savings are this way (if you don’t see the signup form, click here):
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