16 March 2026

On April 02, United will make its MileagePlus program a bit more interesting for holders of one of its co-branded credit cards – but practically useless for everyone else.

As a credit card holder, you will earn one more mile per USD on United flights (so 6 miles per USD as a basic member), but otherwise 2 miles less (so 3 miles per USD as a basic member). At Basic Economy fares, non-cardholders will no longer earn any miles at all as a basic member, and even cardholders will only earn 3 miles per USD.

At the same time, flight awards on United will be discounted by 10% for credit card holders.

All of this aims, of course, at forcing customers to use a credit card, which is a huge source of revenue for United, as it is for other U.S. carriers.

The small problem with that, however, is that United currently serves 73 countries outside the U.S., but only offers a credit card in 13 markets (eight of which are in Central America). Even if you wanted to play the game, members in key markets like Germany, Spain or China simply don’t have that option.