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Earn United miles on every Marriott stay, and vice versa
Marriott and United has had a long-term partnership which allows members to receive reciprocal benefits when staying at a hotel or taking a flight. They have taken a step further and launched a Dual Currency promotion.
It appears that the following members are eligible for the offer:
- Marriott Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite
- United Premier Gold, Platinum and 1K
You need to link your Marriott and United accounts first if you haven’t done so yet. Once completed you can register to the offer, and:
- Earn 500 United miles for every Marriott stay
- Earn 750 Marriott points for every United flight
The flight and stay must be taken by December 9th. Only paid stays and flights count. You don’t need to change your earning preference, as the bonus is on top of what you normally accrue.
It is a great offer, even though for us who live outside the U.S. only the first offer is likely to be useful. Remember that you earn 1,500 bonus points for each stay as well in the current Marriott promotion.
In the United program it costs only 6K – 9K miles to redeem a short-haul flight in Europe and Asia, which is quite good especially since BA is constantly devaluing its partner redemptions. There is an ongoing offer to transfer Marriott points into United miles too.
Great offer preview: Marriott to United 30% conversion bonus
United MileagePlus are about to launching a great incentive for converting points in October, so hold on if you need some United miles!
The offer page is here. As it hasn’t started yet you will be redirected to a placeholder instead, however in Terms and Conditions you can see all the details already.
- Registration: To qualify for this offer, members must register for the promotion between October 1, 2023 and 11:59pm EST on October 31, 2023 (“Promotional Period”).
- Qualifying activity: A member must earn award miles as a result of one or more points to miles conversion transactions from any combination of MileagePlus hotel partner programs that offer a points to miles transfer program that are conducted during the Promotional Period (“Qualifying Activity”) in order to qualify for MileagePlus Hotel Points-to-Miles bonus miles (“Bonus Miles”). Qualifying Activity must be completed by 11:59pm EST on October 31, 2023.
- Posting of Promotional Miles: At the conclusion of the promotion, all miles earned by each member from Qualifying Activity will be multiplied by 30% to determine the eligible bonus up to a maximum of 25,000 bonus miles. Bonus miles will be credited into the member’s account on or before January 31, 2024. The maximum bonus miles that can be earned by a member under this promotion is 25,000. MileagePlus will not be responsible for technical problems with partner miles postings, or failures or delays in miles postings by hotel partners, that would render any points to miles converted as ineligible under this promotion.
Basically you’ll earn 30% bonus when any hotel points into United miles in whole October, after you’ve registered to the offer. The bonus is capped at 25,000 miles under this promotion.
Although a few hotel programs will be participating, the true value lies only in converting Marriott Bonvoy points.
3 Marriott points converts into 1 United mile, and as a permanent offer you are awarded 10,000 bonus miles when converting 60,000 Marriott points. With this new promotion on top, you earn 39,000 United miles when converting 60,000 Marriott points, which is an excellent deal. If you convert 180,000 Marriott points, you’ll get 115,000 United miles in total.
Unfortunately United devalued their U.S. – Europe redemption recently, and now a one-way flight in business costs at least 80,000 miles.
Good news is however, there’s no carrier-imposed surcharges. For the same route BA wants 80,000 Avios + £175, and 47,500 points +$977 from Virgin Atlantic!
Rocketmiles promotion: earn 5,000 United miles after the first stay
If you haven’t heard of Rocketmiles, they are an online travel agency for hotel bookings. Unlike its rivals they don’t really have a membership program, instead you earn miles or other reward currencies with airlines and loyalty programs that they’ve partnered with.
They also run lucrative promotions from time to time, especially to new customers. If you are a collector of United miles, here’s an opportunity for you: book your first stay by June 30 and earn 5,000 bonus United miles. This is in addition to the standard miles you earn, starting from 500.
The cheapest night you can find in London is just under £50, for 5,500 United miles:
Whereas it’s closer to the £20 mark in many Asian countries:
It is a brilliant way to purchase cheap United miles, although valid once only. I wouldn’t recommend booking via Rocketmiles in general, as they tend to be more expensive and you are not entitled to elite benefits or points as they are a travel agency.
United miles are very powerful and hard to come by for UK residents, so the deal is worth considering if you are already a collector.
My review of United Polaris business class, Boeing 789
I’m hoping to top off my U.S. trip with a United flight, which is a first for me. My original plan was to depart from Houston due to inventory issues, but at some point San Francisco suddenly opened up, which works perfectly to my plan.
To redeem for a flight from U.S. to Europe, United miles work out so much cheaper than any European airlines. Here is an exemplary comparison for a one-way flight from San Francisco to London in business:
- United miles: 62.4K + £5
- BA Avios: 90K + £225
- Virgin points: 67.5K + £721
It’s simply insane how much BA or VS are trying to charge here, especially for taxes and fees. The only hurdle is how to accrue United miles in the UK – I exchanged my Marriott points, the ratio of which is decent but I had to wait 8 days for the miles to arrive. Some people reportedly waited up to three weeks.
Having spent some quality time in the Polaris lounge, it is time to board my flight. The flight is operated by the Boeing 787-9 Dreamline, with the reputable United Polaris business class. United’s old business class configuration is eight abreast, which looks like to total disaster.
The Polaris cabin is divided into two parts by the gallery. The front cabin has 32 seats and the rear 16, but they don’t feel any different to each other.
The Polaris seats are all staggered. Odd middle seats are the “lover seats”, which offers the best intimacy and privacy for a couple.
The even middle seats are for single travellers who failed to grab a window seat.
Windows seats in odd rows are forward-facing and semi-enclosed, which is no doubt the best option if you are travelling by yourself.
Window seats in even rows are angled and aisle facing, which isn’t as ideal unless you want more open space.
The Polaris gives me a great first impression. The cushion, pillow, sheets and vanity bag are ready on my seat.
Unlike most other airlines, the inclination of your seat is adjusted by a scroll wheel instead of a button, which in my opinion is a better user experience.
I think it’s the first time I get a hard-shell amenity bag, which is very cute.
This is a conventional design for storage:
The seat converted into a lie-flat bed:
Although it doesn’t feature the door, my window seat feels much closer to a proper mini-suite than Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class Suite. The Do not disturb sign lights up when you’ve pressed the button which is fancy.
The IFE:
This is probably the simplest menu I’ve ever seen on a long-haul business class flight, which is only one page. It doesn’t say what drinks they offer, and you need to enquire the flight attendant.
They serve hot nuts which is a plus. I ordered braised beef short ribs for my main:
Which is incredibly good! The beef is very well cooked so you barely need to chew and the seasoning is great. It is one of the best dishes I’ve had on any flight.
The service is a bit lacking (which I think is normal for a U.S. airline?), but I love the Polaris seat design, and catering is amazing, which makes it one of the best flights I’ve had in the last three years or so. I’m flying from New York to London on American Airlines later this year (thanks to a “flash sale”), and that should tick all three major U.S. airlines for me.
Virgin Australia’s status match: benefits with United, Etihad, Singapore and more!
Virgin Australia launched a status match program last year, which might entitle you to special benefits with them and partner airlines for up to 15 months!
- Elite members from select airlines can apply for a status match
- If granted, you commence a three-month Gold trial
- Fly one qualifying sector and earn 80 tier credits to extend your Gold status for one year
In general, S* Gold, Skyteam Elite Plus and Oneworld Sapphire / Emerald qualify, excluding Virgin Australia’s partners. Some minimum requirements include:
- British Airways Silver
- Lufthansa Senator
- Air France Gold
- Finnair Gold
- Delta Gold
- American Airlines Platinum
- Emirates Gold
The list is very extensive so you have high chances of being eligible. There is no direct link to apply – you need to click Member Support and submit a feedback form to apply.
Even if you don’t fly Virgin Australia, the Gold card is still useful with a bunch of other airlines.
| Priority Check-in | Priority Boarding | Additional Baggage Allowance | Fast Track | Lounge Access | |
| Hainan / Tianjin / Capital / Hong Kong Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Singapore Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| United Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Air Canada | ✓ | ||||
| Virgin Atlantic | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Etihad | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Qatar Airways | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| South African Airways | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Details of the lounge access policy is here, but in general you need to be on a flight operated by the partner carrier and can bring one guest.
If you are based in the UK, there’s a good chance that you’ll fly Virgin Atlantic some day, as well as some of the other partners. I value Priority Check-in and Lounge Access the most in terms of the aforementioned elite benefits.
80 tier credits are very easy to accrue, but you can’t possibly accomplish the one qualifying sector unless you travel to / within Australia. According to the program rules, your status will be re-evaluated at the end of the three months, which normally means you’d drop to a non-status member.
However, from the reports we’ve seen so far it seems that everyone has been downgraded to Silver instead post the Gold trial. It comes with two lounge passes for VA’s domestic lounges, and more importantly most of the partner benefits (barring lounge access) still apply for another year!
If you plan to fly Virgin Australia or their partner airline soon, it’s worthwhile signing up for the Gold trial beforehand.
My review of the United Polaris Lounge, San Francisco
At the end of the U.S. west coast trip, I’m heading back to London from San Francisco. In sheer contrast to the abundance of lounges at LAX, SFO is almost barren. United is the only Star Alliance airline that has any lounge here, and the same awkwardness applies to Skyteam and Oneworld too.
I arrived at the airport three hours ahead to make sure I have enough time to review the United Polaris Lounge. As it is the only decent Star Alliance lounge at SFO, the entry rules are quite strict: only business and first class passengers on a long-haul Star Alliance flight are allowed.
If you are a Star Gold member but flying economy, sadly you can only visit the United Club, which is like an average dull lounge that you expect in this country. Interestingly, anecdotes from my readers suggest that you may be invited to the Polaris Lounge if you are under 21, as you cannot enter the United Club due to alcohol restrictions.
The lounge is huge, occupying two floors and measuring about 2,600 square metres. The ground floor is a very nice area itself, but usually pretty quiet as the main food offerings are on the upper floor.
The armchairs are probably one of, if not he best I’ve ever seen in any airline lounge. it is very wide, with a small side table and sockets included.
The views are nice.
Shower rooms, and the Quiet Suites for resting are also on the ground floor. However, make sure you reserve enough time to explore the upper floor!
Turn left for the business zone, which offers private booths for phone calls and video calls.
And there are more desks and sofas inside.
If you turn right, you will pass the very beautiful bar first. There’s no self-service so you have to order your drinks instead, just like a regular bar 🙂
And then you’ll enter the dining area.
The buffet options are:
- Lobster corn bisque
- Ginger lemongrass ramen bowl
- Roasted broccoli and cauliflower
- Dakjjim Korean chicken braised chicken
- Miso glazed cod
- Brown basmati rice
I’m impressed that they offer lobster soup! You may also notice that the majority of the cuisine are Asian, which I quite enjoy. There are even tofu and shitake mushrooms in the salad area.
I’m not particularly hungry, so just had a taste of a couple of dishes but they are nice. Don’t miss out on the Dining Room though, which gives you a full dining experience!
I came around at about 5 o’clock and was told of a waiting time of 30 minutes. Fortunately an empty table became available in just five minutes.
Here’s the menu:
I ordered a small plate (octopus) and a glass of cocktail.
To be honest, the octopus is not to my liking. But the food looks posh enough to be served in a fancy restaurant.
Finally, a picture of the bathroom:
When I was leaving for my flight, the upper floor started to become really crowded. As most flights to Europe depart in the evening, it’s hardly a surprise.
The United Polaris Lounge at SFO is the best Star Alliance lounge that I’ve ever been to, and it is definitely worth visiting when you have the chance.