United Airlines has an antidote for your winter blues: book travel. Backed by medical research, the Chicago-based airline argues the health benefits of booking travel and is offering bonus miles to 25 destinations this summer if you book today.
United Claims Double Benefit To Booking Travel: Earn Bonus Miles, Improve Your Health
It’s “National Plan for Vacation Day” and United argues you will be much happier booking a vacation than buying material goods.
According to a new survey commissioned by United Airlines, 70% of Americans say booking a plane ticket for a vacation brings them happiness and a majority of people say experiences make them feel happier than material goods. The survey data also showed that 73% of Americans said they would feel happier booking a flight to a new destination rather than a destination they have already been to. YouGov conducted the survey on behalf of United Airlines in January 2025 (sample size 1,323).
But wait, there’s more.
As a mood elevator, travel is surprisingly more effective than buying material objects. According to research reviewed by Dr. Laurie Santos, the happiness boost from a travel purchase has been shown to be over twice as large as the happiness effect from buying clothing, jewelry or home goods and more than four times as large as buying electronic goods.
“A vacation gives you a bigger and more lasting happiness bump because as humans, we are delighted by the novelty of the unknown. The thrill of a new handbag wears off quickly since you get used to them through a trick our mind does called ‘hedonic adaptation,’ but travel brings new experiences each day that delight and engage us,” said Dr. Santos. “And then we build on that through social connections by traveling with other people and talking about our trip with them later.”
Dr. Santos is the host of The Happiness Lab podcast and a Yale professor.
As easy as it is to dismiss this all as self-serving (it d0ubtlessly is), I can certainly attest to those results. My happiness may be tied to my faith and family far more than to my travel, but there is something thrilling and captivating about booking travel and yes, even more so when going to a new place.
I try my best not to collect “seashells” (as theologian John Piper once called it), but there is an inexplicable joy in travel and even now as I look forward to trips this year that are booked or will be booked, I smile. So many of my greatest moments have come while traveling and my recent trip around the world with my son Augustine merely reinforced how powerful travel is as a means to connect with others.
Double Miles To 25 Destinations – Today Only
To celebrate today’s “holiday” United is offering bonus miles when you book travel to 25 destinations, including:
- Tickets must be booked today, January 28, 2025
- Enter promo code PVAC25 when booking
- Travel must occur between January 29, 2025, and be completed on or before November 15, 2025
- if your inbound journey falls after that date, you can still earn bonus miles on the outbound
- Bonus miles will be calculated as two times the fare for the qualifying flights
- Connections are also eligible for bonus miles
- Bonus does not apply to any upper cabin fare multiplier
- All economy class revenue fares except basic economy (N) count toward this promo, but award travel is excluded
- Members can earn a maximum of 50,000 bonus award miles via this promotion
So–to use simple math–a trip to Greenland that would have earned 2,000 miles will earn 4,000 if booked today.
I wouldn’t rush out to book summer travel if you are not ready, but if you are going to do it anyway, today is not a bad day to do it.
CONCLUSION
I believe there is truth to the idea that travel brings more happiness than most material objects do. If you’re looking at booking travel today to many of United’s new destinations, do not forget to add the promo code above and earn bonus miles on your trip.
image: United Airlines
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