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United is giving away one billion miles to Untited Mileage Plus members in a sweepstakes.
The only condition is that you are a United Mileage Plus member.
How to Enter the Sweepstakes
Between August 1, 2016 and September 30, 2016, you can enter:
1. automatically via purchases on your United Mileage Plus Explorer Card.
2. by logging in here on the billion mile giveaway homepage (not active yet, will be on August 1, 2016) and follow the instructions (fill out a form, I assume). Each entry has to be manually keystroked.
You can win up to one million miles if you’re a grand prize winner, or 25,000 or 5,000 miles if for first or second prize.
Also, note:
Grand prize winners are technically responsible for paying taxes on the winnings, which is why United is giving away $7,500 cash to them along with the million miles. Considering the numbers above, they are valuing the miles from the grand prize at 2 cents each (total retail value is $27,500, less the $7,500 cash portion of the prize is $20,000). However, as View from the Wing points out, United sells miles for 1.88 cents a piece relatively often, so you could at least make a case for that valuation and possibly pay less taxes on your winnings.
The lower tier prizes have retail values lower than the threshold that requires taxation.
Bottom Line
This is somewhat of an incentive to use your United card more often over the next couple of months, however I wouldn’t see at as a large one unless you have no other travel credit card that earns better category bonuses and you aren’t trying to meet a minimum spending requirement for a sign-up bonus.
If you were already thinking of signing up for United’s co-branded card, then you might as well now to boost your chances of winning that grand prize.
The current sign-up offer is 30,000 United miles for spending $1,000 within the first three months of opening the account.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
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