3 cents per mile seems like a pretty high valuation to me. I usually use 1.5 cpm. You can do better, as you mentioned, but this is a good EV for me.

It's not crazy, though. I was just looking at SFO-TXL round-trips in business. 115k miles… instead of $8k. Values the miles at around 7c/mile.

I made a calculator to answer the question: should I pay cash or spend miles. I set the "good value" threshold at 2c/mile: https://kballenegger.github.io/miles-or-cash/

True.

Another gem in the ToS: "You are responsible for any tax implications that apply based on your country of residency and citizenship."

I know miles earned from credit cards are not taxed, but I do know for a fact that Citibank sends out a 1099 for new checking accounts that come with bonus miles.

If United sends you a 1099 based on the market value of a mile (likely between 2-3 cents each), then you're looking at non-trivial tax implications as well.

United doesn't send out 1099s.