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Last episode I went deep on MileagePlus®, and today I'm following it up with the other half of the United puzzle: how to book United flights even when you don't have United miles, and when it might make sense to book that way even if you do. We're walking through Avianca LifeMiles®, Air Canada Aeroplan®, Singapore KrisFlyer, JetBlue TrueBlue® (through the new Blue Sky partnership), and a quick note on what happened with Turkish Miles&Smiles® after their December 2025 devaluation.

I'll cover the pros and cons of each program, share the workflow I actually use when I'm pricing a United route across partners, and give you my honest ranking for short flights, medium flights, and Hawaii trips. Everything in this episode is also going up as a blog post, and if you want the most current info going forward, my Saturday email is where I put it first.

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RESOURCES
Here is our article on this topic with charts and tools to help you decide which United partner is best for your specific situation: https://katiestraveltricks.com/how-to-book-united-flights-with-partner-miles-even-if-you-dont-have-united-miles/ 

New Here? 

Hi, I’m Katie from Katie’s Travel Tricks! I am here to help you learn the secrets that my family has been using for over a decade, using everyday expenses and welcome offers to supercharge your points earning. When you learn to do this, you can cover entire vacations every year.

Our family has been to Hawaii, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe — and more — all thanks to strategically earning and redeeming points. We've done this on a limited travel budget and now want to help you do it, too.

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Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the card links and other products that appear on this podcast are from companies which Katie's Travel Tricks will earn an affiliate commission. Katie's Travel Tricks is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. The content in this podcast is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone...