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Very generous new £350 United Airlines cashback offer on American Express cards

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An impressively generous new cashback offer has returned on American Express cards (except British Airways ones!) from United Airlines.

You will get £350 back when you spend £700 with United Airlines – a 50% rebate if you find a ticket priced at exactly £700.

You can fly direct from London Heathrow or Edinburgh. Other gateways may be available if you can get the United Airlines website to price them up with a connection. Cumulative spend is ok.

United Airlines American Express offer

The rules say that you need to book a flight by 31st December which is departing from the UK. I am guessing that non-UK departures may divert you to a different version of the United website which is why this rule is in place. It appears there is no ‘travel by’ deadline so you can book to late next year.

Package holidays, cruises, lifestyle and clothing purchases from the United Shop site and purchases of miles will not trigger the bonus.

Where can you fly with United Airlines from the UK?

Here is the current direct schedule for Winter 2024 which runs until the end of March. Other destinations in the US, Canada etc are available with connections on United or partner carriers.

London Heathrow

  • New York/Newark – 7x daily
  • Washington/Dulles – 2x daily
  • Chicago O’Hare – 2x daily
  • San Francisco – 2x daily
  • Houston – 2x daily
  • Denver – 1x daily
  • Los Angeles – 1x daily

Edinburgh

  • New York/Newark – 1x daily

This is the summer 2025 schedule, added into this article in April 2025:

London Heathrow

  • New York/Newark – 7x daily
  • Washington/Dulles – 2x daily
  • Chicago O’Hare – 3x daily
  • San Francisco – 3x daily
  • Houston – 2x daily
  • Denver – 2x daily
  • Los Angeles – 1x daily

Edinburgh

  • New York/Newark – 1x daily
  • Chicago – 1x daily
  • Washington/Dulles – 1x daily
United Airlines American Express cashback offer

What is United Airlines like?

We did a review series with United last year. Here is what we published:

Where can you credit your miles?

Weirdly, you can earn Avios on United Airlines flights when you credit them to an Aer Lingus AerClub account. You can then use the ‘Combine My Avios’ functionality online to move them to your British Airways Executive Club account. You will not earn any tier points, however.

Alternatively, as a Star Alliance member, you can credit your flight to any of their frequent flyer schemes. Whilst United MileagePlus or Lufthansa Miles & More are obvious options, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer has the benefit of being American Express Membership Rewards transfer partners if you need to top up your account.

(The HfP article looks at the best way to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards. This article looks specifically at how to earn United Airlines miles from UK credit cards.)

£700 should be enough to get you an economy flight to the US in peak season – possible premium economy out of season – and £350 would represent a chunky saving.

If you are booking for two of you, see if you have the offer on another Amex card, or on the supplementary card to your main card. You can then book your tickets separately in two transactions.

As usual, you need to check the ‘Offers’ section on the Amex website or in the app for each American Express card you own, and then click ‘Save To Card’ to register if you can see the deal.

Only 15,000 registrations will be allowed for this offer so register NOW. If you don’t, you run a high risk of the offer no longer showing if you try to sign up next month. When this offer last ran there were 40,000 registrations accepted.

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How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Star Alliance miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

None of the Star Alliance airlines currently have a UK credit card.

There is, however, still a way to earn Star Alliance miles from a UK credit card. 

The route is via Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy hotel loyalty points convert to over 40 airlines at the rate of 3:1.

The best way to earn Marriott Bonvoy points is via the official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. It comes with 20,000 points for signing up and 2 points for every £1 you spend. At 2 Bonvoy points per £1, you are earning (at 3:1) 0.66 airline miles per £1 spent on the card.

There is a preferential conversion rate to United Airlines – which is a Star Alliance member – of 2 : 1 if you convert 60,000 Bonvoy points at once.

The Star Alliance members which are Marriott Bonvoy transfer partners are: Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points for signing up and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

Category

United Airlines and MileagePlus

Comments (49)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Gordon says:
    26 Nov26 November 04:23

    Great offer, shame about the exclusion of BA cards.

    • Reney says:
      26 Nov26 November 06:01

      Probably should never expect an airline card to give offers on other airlines that fly similar routes. Same to Marriott card never give offers to other hotel chains.

  • TomB says:
    26 Nov26 November 05:14

    Brilliant, book a work flight early next year with United and reap the benefits from recently matching my BA status to SAS Gold. HFP is brilliant!

    • ianM says:
      26 Nov26 November 08:32

      Not really…..United isn’t in SkyTeam !

      • Jonathan says:
        26 Nov26 November 10:21

        Delta wouldn’t tolerate the idea even it came up as remote possibility !

        A bit like two of any of the big three Middle Eastern carriers being in the alliance…

        It does half baffle me is to how China Eastern managed to join SkyTeam when China Southern were part of the group, the latter left a few years later and haven’t joined any other alliance since then, a bit weird that they didn’t opt for OneWorld, especially as OneWorld severely lack any presence in mainland PRC

        • Sean says:
          26 Nov26 November 16:20

          The founding members of Oneworld have a veto on new members. So the rumour is that Cathay vetoed China Southern joining because of the closeness of their hub to HKG.

  • ianM says:
    26 Nov26 November 07:24

    I’ve used this twice in the past on EDI-EWR and credit appears fairly quickly. Good flight but EWR not a great airport.

  • Stian says:
    26 Nov26 November 07:32

    I’ve used this offer in the past, including for Lufthansa and Air Canada flights ticketed by United.

    • David says:
      26 Nov26 November 07:55

      Interesting.. Were the flights in question also available as a code share under UA code?

      Were the flights part of the transatlantic North America joint venture?

  • Jake says:
    26 Nov26 November 07:50

    I booked with this offer a couple of months ago to go to LA in June, now got it again on both cards, wonder if the credit would work towards an upgrade on the same flights?

    • blue_wolf says:
      26 Nov26 November 09:08

      I paid an extra $375pp to upgrade to PE on LHR-EWR and it did not trigger the offer unfortunately. Queried with Amex and it went to their “back office” team void and I never heard back.

  • zapato1060 says:
    26 Nov26 November 08:21

    Slight mentions of being able to book refundable flight and get credit to use within a year.

    • Vit says:
      26 Nov26 November 08:34

      Did you mean book refundable flight, cancel the flight but ask UA for credit (I assume in the form of voucher code) instead of full refund to the card?

      • Richmond_Surey says:
        26 Nov26 November 11:43

        As long, as nothing goes back to the credit card, you should be good. I cancelled my flight last year (because I had to) and got future travel credit and used it on another route later.

        • Vit says:
          26 Nov26 November 14:39

          Thank you. Just to double check — it needs to be refundable ticket, correct?

          • Rob says:
            26 Nov26 November 15:48

            NON refundable ticket – a refundable ticket would just be refunded! US airlines give credit for cancellations of non-refundable tickets under certain scenarios.

  • Dan says:
    26 Nov26 November 08:24

    Just to be clear – any Star Alliance connection booked via United.com and originating in the UK should work for this offer? For example MAN-FRA-SFO, ticketed by United but flown with Lufthansa?

    • AA says:
      26 Nov26 November 10:06

      I would think so. However, I’m struggling to find flights on ‘partner’ airlines. When I search for e.g. MAN > IST I would expect to see some Turkish Airlines flights as they are a Star Alliance airline. However it just doesn’t show up in the results.

      Is there a specific page/link to use to search partner flights?

      • Rob says:
        26 Nov26 November 10:21

        Airlines don’t sell ‘partner’ flights unless they are codeshares, and even then often only in conjunction with a flight on their own metal. They are not travel agents.

        Try booking Malaysia Airlines or Royal Jordanian for cash at ba.com – not happening.

        • Jonathan says:
          26 Nov26 November 10:38

          It’s frustrating at best, I once needed to book an RJ flight, and had BA voucher issued during Covid, and couldn’t use my BA voucher annoying, but it’s understandable why this sort of thing is in place. From the airline group perspective it’s a good idea as it keeps more custom to their group

          For those who’ve got BAPP, it’d also be even more great as you’d collect 3 Avios points per £1 spent !

        • Odd says:
          30 Nov30 November 19:26

          I see a flight codeshared on the United website on Swiss to the US. Should I interpret this as not being eligible?

      • Nick says:
        26 Nov26 November 12:07

        UA has no legal right to sell MAN-IST flights so it’s hardly surprising you can’t find it. Being in an alliance doesn’t automatically waive competition law. The only standalone options they sell are where they have a joint business (e.g. with LH and AC across the Atlantic, which as above are fine).

  • Rob says:
    26 Nov26 November 08:46

    If it’s back on your card, yes.

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