An Easy Way to Get 3K Copa ConnectMiles
A few months ago Copa broke off from United’s MilagePlus program and formed their own. When Copa’s new program ConnectMiles was launched, they were offering new members 4,000 miles for signing up and filling out their profile. They are also offering 3,000 miles for your first flight.
Currently the sign-up bonus is down to 2,000 miles but the 3,000 mile first flight bonus is still in tact. No matter if you signed up at the beginning or now, it is very easy to get your 3,000 free miles. Why? Because it seems that flights on United are counting towards that bonus.
My Quick United Flight
A few days ago as part of my AA elite fast track crazy mileage run to Panama, I had to reposition to SFO. Since I had a voucher from the falling roof panel incident, I used it to book a roundtrip flight from LAS-SFO on United. A short flight, which would only earn a couple of hundred miles in United’s program.
Fortunately I status matched my Alaska status to Copa earlier this year, so I decided to add that number to the United flight to get my Star Alliance Silver benefits. (Which basically meant priorirty boarding.) With my Copa number on the reservation, the flight naturally credited to Copa. I didn’t care much since I have 4,000 miles there anyway and figure I might as well earn a little here and there until I can redeem them for something.
While I was expecting a modest bump to my balance, I was surprised the other day when the flight credited. I had received 3,000 bonus miles as per the sign-up special and 207 miles each-way since my fare class only earned 50%. I admit that I had thought it would earn 100%, so that was a lucky mistake.
Recommendations
If you have any sort of a short flight coming up on United, it might make more sense to credit that to Copa, especially if you have thousands of other miles there already. In my case it was a happy mistake since I only earned 50% for the flight distance, but that was more than made up for by the bonus. Now I have almost 7,500 miles which is starting to be a balance I can work with!
Conclusion
Conventional wisdom says that I should have credited the flight to United and I probably would have if I had known at the time it would only earn 50%. With that said, I know a lot of you signed up and have this same 3K bonus offer, which means a short United flight should trigger it. If you haven’t signed up, you can still get 2K for joining and the same 3K first flight bonus!
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I enrolled back in june and received the welcome email on july 1, 2015 saying that my first flight bonus is 2,000 miles. will I still be able to get the bonus for my united flight in december? Also, how did you get 3000 miles instead of 2000, is there a way I can get 3000 first flight bonus too? thanks