United TravelBank: The Complete Guide (2026)

United TravelBank is prepaid cash you load into your MileagePlus account and spend on future United flights. Think of it as a gift-card balance for United, not a refund credit from a canceled trip.

Every dollar of TravelBank cash is worth exactly $1 US, with no conversion or redemption rate to decode. You buy it in fixed chunks, it posts to your account, and it pays for United and United Express tickets at checkout.

Two details separate the people who use it well from the people who lose money to it. The balance runs on two separate expiration clocks, and card-earned deposits die far sooner than the cash you buy yourself.

What is United TravelBank cash?

TravelBank is a prepaid stored-value account built into MileagePlus, and United treats it as a wallet you fund and draw down over time. It is not a 'travel credit' in United's own vocabulary, where that phrase means Future Flight Credits and Electronic Travel Certificates from changed or canceled trips.

You may see it written as United Travel Bank or United TravelBank. United's own spelling closes it into one word, and that is what you will see at checkout.

That distinction matters because the three currencies follow different rules and never mix. The full FFC-vs-ETC-vs-TravelBank taxonomy lives in the guide to United flight credits; this page is the deep dive on the TravelBank side.

You need a MileagePlus account to hold it, since TravelBank is a feature of the account, not a separate program. You earn no interest on the balance while it sits there.

How do you add money to TravelBank?

You fund TravelBank three ways: buy it yourself, receive it as a gift, or earn it from a United co-branded credit card. Bought cash behaves the most simply, so start there.

Buying it yourself

You buy TravelBank cash in six fixed denominations of $50, $100, $250, $500, $750, and $1,000, up to $5,000 per day per MileagePlus account. Reference guides at NerdWallet and Upgraded Points list the same denominations and cap.

Sign in, choose 'Buy TravelBank cash,' pick the amount and a payment method, and the funds post to your account within seven business days. Purchases often code as travel on your card statement.

Gifting it

You can also buy TravelBank cash as a gift at checkout. Both the sender and the recipient need to be MileagePlus members.

Choose the gift option, enter the recipient's MileagePlus number and last name, add an optional message, and pay. Gifted cash follows the same rules as cash you buy for yourself, including the five-year-per-deposit expiration.

Earning it from a United card

Some United co-branded cards deposit TravelBank cash automatically, and this is where the clocks get shorter. Card-earned deposits expire well before the five years that bought cash gets.

The IHG One Rewards Premier and Business Premier cards deposit up to $50 a year, split as roughly $25 around early January and $25 around early July, after a one-time registration. The United Quest Card deposits $200 on account opening and on each anniversary.

Other cards like the United Explorer and United Business earn TravelBank through spending, but those figures change often. Treat any specific dollar amount as card marketing and confirm it on the card's own page before you count on it.

When does TravelBank cash expire?

TravelBank cash runs on two separate clocks, and most guides only mention the first. Miss either one and you can lose money you already paid in.

Clock one is per deposit: purchased and gifted cash expires five years from the date of each deposit. That is a rolling set of dates, not a single account-wide deadline.

When you hold several balances, United automatically spends the value with the earliest expiration date first. So your oldest, shortest-lived money leaves before anything else.

Clock two is the one most competitors leave out. The entire account can be forfeited if it sits completely untouched.

The two clocks stack. Each deposit still dies at its own five-year mark, and the whole account can lapse after eighteen idle months, whichever comes first.

Card deposits expire much sooner

Card-earned deposits carry their own, shorter windows set by the card's terms, not the five-year rule. The IHG deposits run in roughly six-month windows, and the Quest deposit runs about twelve months.

The practical result is simple: check the date and expiration on every chunk in your account, because they will not all share one. For the miles-expiration contrast, see whether airline miles expire.

What can you buy with TravelBank cash?

TravelBank pays for flights on United and United Express, including the taxes, fees, and surcharges on those cash tickets. There is no minimum balance to redeem.

Beyond flights, it covers some United products, most reliably a United Club membership. The full non-flight scope is not spelled out on United's page, so treat the United Club membership as the documented example and expect the rest to vary.

What it does not cover is just as important to know before you load money in.

• Flights on other airlines or Star Alliance partners; TravelBank is for United and United Express only.
• Hotels and car rentals.
• Taxes and fees on a MileagePlus award (miles) ticket; those cannot come from TravelBank, though taxes on a cash ticket can.
• Baggage fees, based on current third-party reporting; plan to put ancillaries on a card.

One more rule lives in the fine print: once a ticket is issued from TravelBank, a service charge may apply for a later change or cancellation. The ticket then follows the fare's own rules, so check those terms rather than assuming any change is free.

Can you combine TravelBank with miles or flight credits?

No. TravelBank cash cannot be combined with miles, future flight credit, or travel certificates.

It can be combined with a debit or credit card, and United lets you pay a remainder that way. It also works alongside most other payment methods United accepts at checkout.

If your balance is smaller than the fare, you pay the difference on a card. If it is larger, the leftover stays in your account with its original expiration date.

The no-stacking-with-credits rule is the most-searched combining question. The airline flight credits compared hub shows how other carriers handle the same tradeoff.

Can you transfer or gift TravelBank cash?

You cannot move a balance from one account to another. United's terms prohibit selling, bartering, or otherwise transferring TravelBank cash, and attempting it can void the balance.

You can, however, book a ticket for another person with your own balance, for non-commercial purposes. United's terms allow a TravelBank Award to be issued in another person's name.

So the line is simple: you can spend your balance for someone else's flight, but you cannot hand your balance to someone else's account. For how another airline structures the same idea, see JetBlue's Travel Bank.

How do you check your TravelBank balance?

There is no separate TravelBank login. You sign in to your MileagePlus account on united.com or in the United app, and your balance lives inside it.

Your balance and the per-deposit expiration dates both appear under My United once you are signed in. That is also where you confirm which chunks expire when, which matters given the two clocks above.

1. Sign in to your MileagePlus account at united.com or in the United app.
2. Open My United, your account area.
3. Check your TravelBank balance and each deposit's expiration date.

How do you redeem TravelBank cash?

Redeeming is the easy part. You shop for a United or United Express flight as usual, then choose TravelBank as your form of payment at checkout.

1. 1

   Shop normally

   Search for a United or United Express flight on united.com or in the app.
2. 2

   Choose TravelBank at payment

   Select TravelBank as a form of payment on the checkout screen.
3. 3

   Apply and top up

   Apply your balance, then pay any remainder with a card. There is no minimum balance to redeem.
4. 4

   Let it draw oldest-first

   United automatically spends the earliest-expiring value first, so your shortest-lived money goes before anything else.

TravelBank is money you load toward United before you fly. Autopilot runs the opposite mechanic: after you book a United flight, if the fare drops, Autopilot reprices the reservation and you keep the difference as United credit.

The two are not the same currency. TravelBank is prepaid money you put in ahead of time, while a repricing credit is money recovered after a drop on a fare you already paid, and both simply live in the United ecosystem.

You add a trip in about ten seconds with your confirmation code, and Autopilot tracks the fare and claims the drop for you. Check a United reservation to see what a fare drop would return.

For how a fare-drop credit gets created in the first place, see how United repricing works.

Did the Amex change kill TravelBank?

No. TravelBank is active and selling in 2026, with an open buy flow, gifting, and current terms.

What changed in February 2026 was narrower. Some Amex Platinum and Business Platinum cardholders had used their $200 airline incidental credit to fund TravelBank deposits, and as of around February 5, 2026, those deposits stopped being reimbursed.

The reason is a card-side coding change: TravelBank purchases now code as general travel rather than an airline fee, so the Amex credit no longer applies. This was never an official Amex benefit, and it changed nothing about TravelBank itself.

The habit that keeps TravelBank simple is the same one that always has: note each deposit's date, and touch the account at least once every eighteen months. Do that, and it stays exactly what it should be, prepaid money ready for your next United flight.