Do you have a stash of United MileagePlus miles and no immediate plans for travel? Spending your miles on something other than airfare may sound appealing, but while United offers the option to do so, you probably shouldn’t.

Why? It can be a terrible use of miles, especially when doing so at United’s shopping portal. Don’t believe us? Let’s take a look.

What is United’s shopping portal, and how does it work?

United has two forms of shopping portals. The first acts as a tracking service; when you click through United’s website to shop online elsewhere, you’ll earn miles for every dollar you spend.

The second option allows you to redeem your miles in a variety of ways, including for Apple products, gift cards, show tickets and other merchandise.

The first is fine to use if you’re looking to build up your United miles. The second, however, should be avoided at all costs — not just because airline miles can be difficult to earn in the first place, but because the United shopping portal gives you a terrible value for your miles.

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United’s shopping portal markup

After extensive analysis of actual redemptions, NerdWallet values United miles at 1.2 cents each, which means that in an ideal world you’ll be receiving at least 1.2 cents of value on every mile that you redeem.