United credit card holders: Earn bonus miles with the Mile Badge Game promotion

If you have a United Airlines credit card, there’s a new promotion where you might be able to earn thousands of bonus miles.

This is a targeted promotion, and the number of miles you can earn — as well as how you earn them — will vary depending on which credit card you have. Let’s take a look at the United Mile Badge Game to understand how you can earn these bonus miles.

United Mile Badge Game promotion

This promotion requires that cardholders complete selected activities to earn virtual badges for bonus miles. Registration is required, but not all cardholders will be able to enroll since this promotion is targeted. At this point, we have seen offers for the following United cobranded credit cards:

United Club Infinite Card.
United Gateway Card.
United Explorer Card.
United Quest Card.
United Business Card.

If you did not receive an email about the promotion, you can check your eligibility by trying to enroll here, using the last four digits of your credit card number and your United MileagePlus account number. Among TPG staff members, we have seen offers to earn up to 9,250 bonus miles.

ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

Qualifying activities

Your bonus miles-earning activities will vary depending on which United Airlines cobranded credit card you have. However, you will likely see some of the following:

Earn bonus miles after making a set number of purchases on your card: 250 bonus miles after using your card 15 times, 500 bonus miles after using your card 30 times, or 750 miles after using your card 45 times.
Make five purchases with your card in a digital wallet to earn 500 bonus miles.
Book a flight with Money + Miles to earn 500 bonus miles.
Add an authorized user to earn 250 bonus miles.
Use the Chase app to earn 250 bonus miles.
Use your eligible card for a foreign purchase and earn 250 bonus miles.
Additional mystery bonuses will be available in November and December.
Additional bonus miles for completing five, seven and nine different activities.
Sign up to receive United Airlines offers by email and receive 250 bonus miles.

All activities are restricted to the period of Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. Cardholders will also see bonus miles available for spending thresholds. We have seen the following offers:

Earn 1,000 bonus miles after spending $600 on your card.
Earn 4,500 bonus miles after spending $4,500 on your card.
Earn 4,000 bonus miles after spending $6,500 on your card.

Related: How to get maximum value from the United MileagePlus program

Is it worth it?

Most of these activities should be easy to accomplish for most people. These activities can net bonus miles on top of your everyday earnings. Before making purchases, be sure to compare what you can earn through this promotion to our guide to bonus-earning categories, since other cards in your wallet may provide a better rate of return.

However, the spending thresholds are a different story. TPG values United miles at 1.21 cents each. Depending on your bonus offer from the Mile Badge Game, you may receive as much as a 2% or as little as a 0.7% return on spending. Other cards in your wallet likely earn at better rates than this.

Related: Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights

Bottom line

United’s Mile Badge Game offers targeted cardmembers the ability to earn bonus miles by completing certain activities and earning badges — including bonuses for earning multiple badges. Many of the activities should be quite simple to complete, assuming you can enroll in the promotion. However, the earning rates for the bonus spending requirements are not that great, so consider whether you could earn more valuable rewards by using a different credit card for your purchases during the promotional period.

Enrollment for the promotion is live now, and qualifying activities take place Oct. 1-Dec. 31.