Guides · Buy miles or pay cash?

Buy miles or pay cash?

Airlines sell miles. Sometimes that's a steal, sometimes a trap. The difference is arithmetic, and we show our work.

When you're short and no transfer can cover it, the chip prices the rescue: buying exactly the miles you lack. Here it is live, 17,000 United miles held against a 60,000-mile award:

The actual component, live. In the product, hovering the chip shows each price's real source and as-of date; the figure here uses an illustrative example price, not a live quote.

Where the prices come from

A curated catalog of live purchase promos and always-available base rates across 18 programs, sourced from public trackers and refreshed with dated provenance (the figure above is an illustrative example: 43,000 miles at a 1.88¢ promo = $808.40; $814 all-in with taxes, an example price, not a live quote).
Promos have expiry and freshness gates: a stale price is dropped, never quietly served.
Purchase mechanics are modeled for real: 1,000-mile increments, per-transaction minimums, annual caps. If a cap means buying can't fully cover you, we say so instead of pretending.

Cash is always in the picture

Buying miles only makes sense against the cash fare and against what your miles are worth. That comparison is exactly what the Effective cost row in Weigh my picks computes, all-in dollars per option, side by side.

Price your own shortfall →