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How to set up a United Airlines account — the easy first step to free travel

  • Meghan Hunter

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    If you travel for work or leisure, you should, of course, always try to use a card that earns travel rewards, and you should always enter your frequent flyer loyalty number to earn reward miles for your paid flights. If you don’t yet have a United Airlines frequent flyer account, you can set one up in just a few minutes.

    In this post, I’ll show you how to set up a United Airlines account and offer a few reasons why having an account is both strategic and easy. Once you start earning United Airlines miles, you’ll be one step closer to a free award flight on United Airlines or one of its Star Alliance partners.

    I’ll show you how to set up a United Airlines account so you can start earning and redeeming award miles. (Photo by Noppasin Wongchum/Shutterstock)

    How to set up a United Airlines account

    United Airlines loyalty accounts are free and easy to create. You can one in just a few minutes if you follow the simple instructions below. If you have any other questions, let us know in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

    Step 1. Go to the United Airlines website

    First, navigate to United.com where you can search for United Airlines flights, redeem United Airlines miles for award flights or view your account. This is also where you can sign up for a new account.

    To sign up, hover over the “MileagePlus” option in the top right of your screen until you see the drop-down menu appear.

    Then click “Join MileagePlus” to be taken to the United Airlines registration page.

    Step 2. Enter your details and contact information

    From the “Join MileagePlus” link, signing up for a United Airlines account is straightforward. Enter your full name, date of birth, gender and contact information (including your home address, email and phone number).

    You can specify a home airport if you want to — but this field is not required. Then create a secure password (and don’t forget it) and choose security questions for recovering your account. You will be required to select five security questions with unique answers (such as your favorite ice cream flavor) in order to complete enrollment.

    After completing the personal information section, click on “Accept and Enroll” and you’re done. I registered my newborn daughter in less than three minutes — although it was hard to know her favorite flavor of ice cream.

    Step 3: Receive confirmation

    After a few minutes, you should receive an email from United Airlines confirming your enrollment. This email will also contain your new frequent flyer number which you can input for any future flights on United Airlines (or their Star Alliance partner airlines) to earn frequent flyer miles. Write this number down in a safe place; you’ll need it in the future.

    Once you have your confirmation number, you can log into your loyalty account at United.com to view your mileage balance, upcoming travel reservations (if you have any), progress toward earning status or redeem your award miles for free award flights. You can begin to transfer points to your United Airlines account from Chase Ultimate rewards, for example. And you can enter your new United Airlines account when applying for a new United Airlines credit card.

    Bottom line

    Signing up for a United Airlines MileagePlus account takes just a few minutes — and it’s simple and free. Every traveler should open a free loyalty account with the airline they’re flying to maximize their rewards and begin to save up frequent flyer miles for award flights. Plus, if you have any of the United Airlines credit cards, you’ll be able to track the miles you earn all in one place.

    If you have questions about setting up your United Airlines MileagePlus account, leave us a note below. And be sure to check out our United Mileage Plus program review here.

    For the latest tips and tricks on traveling big without spending a fortune, please subscribe to the Million Mile Secrets email newsletter.
    Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)