College Grads Get 10,000 Miles Travel Boost from United Airlines

Graduated from college recently, out of a job, eager to travel, broke. Or, overwhelmed by student loans. Sound like you? If so, this very thoughtful offer from United Airlines should make you feel better about wanting to escape on a round-the-world journey.

It came to our attention from former FTF editor, Susan Finch, whose whole family is in the airline industry, She writes, "I found this and thought of FTF:  If you send United Airlines a copy of your college degree within a year of graduating, you get 10,000 frequent flyer miles. Pretty cool!"

Susan's right, it is cool and why not get some payback from all that tuition right away?  Here's the deal in more detail.

On the United website, you can enroll in the College Plus Miles Program. Once you do that, you can earn miles toward free travel on United flights and with Mileage Plus partners and get other chances to use those bonus miles.

First, United will mark your college graduation with 10,000 Mileage Plus bonus miles, which is worth about one-half of a domestic USA ticket.  But, you must first send the following information to them at the address below.  They ask that you give them 4-6 weeks after receipt in order to put the miles into your account so you can use them.

So here goes -- mail them:

* A copy of your official, final transcript showing that you graduated as a full-time student from a U.S. college or university.

* Your United College Plus/Mileage Plus account number (which you registered for online prior to applying for this).

* Your e-mail address.

Remember, the offers stands for up to 12 months after your graduation date. Mail all the papers (and keep a copy for yourself just in case) to:

Mileage Plus, Inc.  P.O. Box 40  Rapid City, SD 57709  Attn: College Plus Graduation

As in any frequent flier program, you can also add miles to your account by staying at a hotel, renting a car, making long-distance phone calls or other purchases if you apply for a Mileage Plus Visa card, but we're not sure you should go into more debt at this time to do that.

The most important rule in all the fine print that we could find is that "We are unable to accept a copy of a diploma or letter from the college" so if you graduated a while ago, you have to act fast to get an official transcript now.

To find out more, visit the United Airlines page for College Students and begin counting those frequent flier miles.