I don’t necessarily recommend it because the value is not great, but if you are sitting on unwanted gift cards you can trade them in for United MileagePlus miles.
Guide: How To Exchange Unwanted Gift Cards For United MileagePlus Miles
United has a MileagePlus Gift Card Exchange page and once there, the process for converting gift cards into cash is straightforward.
- Step One: Enter some basic card information for a quick trade amount offer. In less than 10 seconds you can see how much we will give you in exchange for your gift cards.
- Step Two: Enter your card information, such as card numbers and pin, along with some basic personal information. Your card balance will be checked and verified behind the scenes to ensure the fastest and most secure process possible.
- Step Three: Your MileagePlus miles will be added in to your account within 5 business days.
Card values will be converted at the following rates:
While United provides the following list of accepted retailers, if your company is not on the list you can try it anyway…there have been reports of other companies working as well:
- American Airlines
- American Eagle
- Armani Exchange
- Athleta
- Barnes & Noble
- Bass Pro Shops
- Best Buy
- Brooks Brothers
- Cheesecake Factory
- Columbia Sportswear
- Cracker Barrel
- DSW
- Fye
- GameStop
- Home Depot
- Hot Topic
- J. Crew
- JoS. A. Bank
- Kohls
- Macys
- Nordstrom
- Office Max
- Overstock
- Pottery Barn
- Puma
- Saks 5th Ave
- Sears
- Southwest Airlines
- Starbucks
- Sur La Table
- Target
- Ticketmaster
- Toys R us
- Urban Outfitters
- Victorias Secret
- Walmart
- West Elm
- Williams-Sonoma
- Yankee Candle
I value United miles at 2 cents each, so the 3.7 cents per point is not a good deal at all (this is the same price United will sell you points for when not running a discount or bonus promotion). But I realize that if Aunt Mildred bought you a gift card to Kohls that you are simply not going to use, better to have some miles than let the gift card gather dust.
Keep in mind when comparing options you can also look into services like CardCash or GCX which purchase unwanted gift cards or provide a forum for bartering them for other gift cards.
I didn’t receive any gift cards for Christmas this year, but thought this might be helpful to some of you. 😉
image: LaniElderts / Flickr
I have received religious peace , helpful friends , pleasant women , cute animals , and the enjoyment of reading and reasoning as gifts ;
which all happily substitute for any gift cards .
Thanks for another great post, it finally nudged me to sell my gift cards that have been gathering dust for years! I went with CardCash though I also checked out prices on ebay. CardCash was the better choice.
You started the new year on fire, Matthew!
How about an option to go the other way?
I’d happily (gleefully) convert my greatly devalued United miles into Visa or Mastercard gift cards if I could…
Matthew, On an unrelated United Airlines news, it seems that UAL will add a new 3pm departure banks at Washington Dulles airport. From April, one can book UA flights depart from IAD to popular cities like Las Vegas, Austin, Tampa, Boston, Montreal, as well as 6 UA hubs between 3pm-4pm. This is good news for *alliance travellers.