Exchange Unwanted Gift Cards For United MileagePlus Miles

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I don’t necessarily recommend it because the value is not great, but if you are sitting on unwanted gift cards you can trade them in for United MileagePlus miles.

Guide: How To Exchange Unwanted Gift Cards For United MileagePlus Miles

United has a MileagePlus Gift Card Exchange page and once there, the process for converting gift cards into cash is straightforward.

Step One: Enter some basic card information for a quick trade amount offer. In less than 10 seconds you can see how much we will give you in exchange for your gift cards.
Step Two: Enter your card information, such as card numbers and pin, along with some basic personal information. Your card balance will be checked and verified behind the scenes to ensure the fastest and most secure process possible.
Step Three: Your MileagePlus miles will be added in to your account within 5 business days.

Card values will be converted at the following rates:

While United provides the following list of accepted retailers, if your company is not on the list you can try it anyway…there have been reports of other companies working as well:

American Airlines
American Eagle
Armani Exchange
Athleta
Barnes & Noble
Bass Pro Shops
Best Buy
Brooks Brothers
Cheesecake Factory
Columbia Sportswear
Cracker Barrel
DSW
Fye
GameStop
Home Depot
Hot Topic
J. Crew
JoS. A. Bank
Kohls
Macys
Nordstrom
Office Max
Overstock
Pottery Barn
Puma
Saks 5th Ave
Sears
Southwest Airlines
Starbucks
Sur La Table
Target
Ticketmaster
Toys R us
Urban Outfitters
Victorias Secret
Walmart
West Elm
Williams-Sonoma
Yankee Candle

I value United miles at 2 cents each, so the 3.7 cents per point is not a good deal at all (this is the same price United will sell you points for when not running a discount or bonus promotion). But I realize that if Aunt Mildred bought you a gift card to Kohls that you are simply not going to use, better to have some miles than let the gift card gather dust.

Keep in mind when comparing options you can also look into services like CardCash or GCX which purchase unwanted gift cards or provide a forum for bartering them for other gift cards.

I didn’t receive any gift cards for Christmas this year, but thought this might be helpful to some of you.

image: LaniElderts / Flickr