I have been using the MileagePlus app for years. What I usually do is anytime I’m going to purchase anything I double check and see if the vendor is on the app. If I was going to spend money anyway buying from that vendor, I always go through the app and get miles for it, no matter how small the amount, my miles have been adding up. I think this is a great app if you are like me and travel occasionally, but do a lot of shopping and there are a lot of different vendors as options so anyone is bound to be able to use lots of them. I have all my payment info and I have never had a security issue with this app, and I’m very happy that I have never had an issue using any of the gift cards purchased to make payments anywhere that I go shopping. this is the best mileage earning app, and I think it puts United at the forefront of this type of service.

Previously app users were able to search by location, or even search by an expanded Map View for merchants and particularly MileagePlus Dining program restaurants outside of one’s immediate/home territory. This was a very useful integral feature to expand one’s search beyond your immediate area, which of course is necessary for selecting MileagePlus Dining restaurants when planning ahead for travel, while on road trips or when visiting locations outside of your immediate area. In recent updates to the Mileage Plus-X app, this functionality has been lost. I even tried turning “location” off on my device, in hopes that it would show ALL options on an expanded map view or show merchants/restaurants in the current expanding map view as I moved it to areas I’m interested in seeing options in, as it previous did… but it no longer does so. It now defaults to the same “Nearby” options based on current location, which when home, users are generally already familiar with. I don’t need an app to help “discover” businesses I’m already familiar with. What WAS formerly helpful was finding options in areas I’m LESS familiar with. Due to the LOSS of this feature, my use of MileagePlus Dining restaurants has significantly declined.

I like the app purely for the fact that I can earn miles for everyday purchases. The customer service on the other hand is pretty bad. I had an issue once where I purchased 1 gift card and they charged me for 2, it took them a week to respond to my initial email, then they tried to tell me I actually purchased 2 gift cards for the same amount. Like why would I do that? 🤦🏻‍♀️ Then most recently my app had a major glitch when I attempted to purchase a gift card it kept telling me that the app was not able to complete my purchase and my transaction was declined. For every establishment, not just 1. I emailed them as the error message directed, it took them 4 days to respond to my initial email, but they didn’t respond with anything useful, just a snip of my request being escalated but at the bottom it said to attach any useful evidence. So I responded with a screen shot of the error message. And still a week later no response. This customer service is not a good look for United.

I love using this app, and it’s a very easy way to earn bonus miles at retailers where I already shop!However, the big glitch is that you have to log in every time you purchase an e-gift card. This is extremely frustrating when shopping in person, because the app won’t let you log in until you enter the amount of the -gift card, a.k.a. when you’re standing in line at the store. It’s embarrassing and excruciating to have to wait to login and verify and then for the app to approve the gift card, which sometimes takes three or four minutes, when you’re standing in front of a cashier and there’s a long line of people behind you.To the developers: please make a way so that we can either login ahead of time, or stay logged in, so I don’t have to waste everyone’s time standing there with my phone in my hand, waiting for everything to load so I can purchase a gift card and check out. Thanks.