You have caught yourself reviewing your MileagePlus balance, the figure, it looked rather impressive, just sitting there and staring at you. And once the little machine inside your brain gets cranked up, you really start to think, “If I could turn these points into real money, well then, I’d buy that Nespresso machine / pay off my credit card / support my obsession with vintage record players”. So, the thought occurs. In 2026, can we redeem United miles for cas h (in large numbers)? That question seems a little bit like asking whether or not you should eat a gourmet steak with a white plastic spork. One can very well proceed on that, but one will also obliterate the purpose of the occasion. We can break down the values of your miles and leave you to decide whether cashing out is genius or a dumb move at best. The Value Gap: Seeing the Numbers Okay, let's get down to brass tacks—or centigrams per mile. A cursory estimate of airline redemption miles, be it United or another t...