United MileagePlus Exclusives

MileagePlus Exclusives (exclusives.mileageplus.com) is United's marketplace for spending miles on experiences instead of seats, and it runs two formats side by side: auctions you win by bidding miles, and fixed-price Redeem Now lots debited immediately on redemption. The split is roughly even in our archive, and United tends to run a handful of big experiential auctions at a time rather than a deep always-on catalog.

Auctions use proxy bidding - United's system increases your bid on your behalf, using only as much of your maximum as required to keep you winning. Any bid placed in the last minute extends the auction by an additional minute, so there is no sniping; auctions end when bidding genuinely stops. Bids are legally binding, miles are debited at the close, and if your balance is short when an auction ends, the lot goes to the next highest bidder.

United's signature lots are the ones it alone can offer, led by the recurring flight-simulator package at its Denver Flight Training Center. PointAuctions.com tracks every live Exclusives listing and archives closing prices; United is one of the cleaner programs we track, with most closes carrying winning bids verified after the auction ended.