United devalued their elite program and killed their partner award charts yesterday.
But they really want to make sure they have no loyal members to help them get out of the current mess, as have already devalued partner awards today. This is straight out of the Scott Kirby playbook!
Good thing we just bailed them out to the tune of $5 billion!
That’s the primary purpose in removing award charts. United still has internal award charts, but they hide them so that they can devalue without needing to provide any notice.
I’ve checked rates to destinations across the globe and compiled the chart below based on rates going up 10%. Partner award flights that depart by 6/30 are still pricing at the old rate, while partner awards for flights departing on 7/1 or later have increased in price by roughly 10% across the board.
Note that there are occasional partner awards pricing at the old rate, but those are typically on sub-optimal routings.
I’ve also included the current close-in mileage surcharge at the top. Note that the you’ll want to book travel as 2 one-ways to avoid paying the surcharge on the return leg when it wouldn’t apply when booked separately. However if you do that you would lose your ability to take a free stopover.
Prices below are for one-way flights from the mainland US:
| United flights | Partner flights | |
|---|---|---|
| Close-in surcharge within 7 days | 2.5K-3K miles | 1K-3.5K miles |
| Close-in surcharge 8-21 days in advance | 2K-2.5K miles | 1K-3.5K miles |
| Mainland US/Canada | 12.5K Coach 25K Business 35K Premium Business | 14K Coach 27.5K Business |
| Alaska | 17.5K Coach 30K Business 40K Premium Business | 19.5K Coach 33K Business |
| Hawaii | 22.5K Coach 40K Business 50K Premium Business | 25K Coach 44K Business |
| Mexico | 17.5K Coach 30K Business | 19.5K Coach 33K Business |
| Central America | 17.5K Coach 30K Business | 19.5K Coach 33K Business |
| Northern South America | 20K Coach 35K Business | 22K Coach 38.5K Business |
| Southern South America | 30K Coach 60K Business | 33K Coach 66K Business |
| Europe | 30K Coach 60K Business | 33K Coach 77K Business 121K First |
| Africa | 40K Coach 70K Business | 44K Coach 88K Business 143K First |
| Middle East | 42.5K Coach 75K Business | 47K Coach 93.5K Business 154K First |
| Central Asia | 42.5K Coach 75K Business | 47K Coach 93.5K Business 154K First |
| South Asia | 40K Coach 75K Business | 44K Coach 99K Business 154K First |
| North Asia | 35K Coach 70K Business | 38.5K Coach 88K Business 132K First |
| Japan and Oceania | 35K Coach 70K Business | 38.5K Coach 88K Business 121K First |
| Australia and New Zealand | 40K Coach 80K Business | 44K Coach 99K Business 143K First |
As I always say, don’t store excessive amounts of miles with any individual airline or hotel program where they are subject to devaluation. Keep them with banks that can transfer them to miles on demand or use them with cards that give a bonus value for your points when they’re used for paid travel.
HT: blug, via FT
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20 Comments On "The Next Shoe Drops: Here Is United’s Newly Devalued Unpublished Award Chart #UnitedUnfriendly"
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So I guess you were wrong when you said you don’t see united raising prices for partner awards anytime soon.
That’s not what I said.
I said I don’t see United switching to dynamic pricing on partner awards anytime soon. That would entail calculating the cost of the ticket and assigning a different amount of miles for each ticket.
I also said that the removal of the award chart would allow United to devalue at will. And that’s what they did. There’s still an award chart, it’s just hidden.
Ok sorry i misunderstood.
Did they start with dynamic pricing on there own metal yet? Cuz you list there own metal to Israel for 75k.
The everyday price is dynamic, but the saver price hasn’t really gone dynamic yet.
Got it. Thanks!
When did United flip the saver award availibility? Just checked many dates in Jan-Feb from EWR to TLV and there is tons of saver seats available (and they are bookable through other mileage programs as well). Hopefully travel to TLV should return to normal by then.
But I’ve been searching for business class saver awards from EWR to LAX (direct), and they are non existant! Even for flights in the next few days, which are completely empty, there is nothing available
???
Wow! Definitely takes all motivation away (if there was any beforehand) to use united miles to Europe or Israel (my 2 main star alliance routes )
What changed on United flights to TLV? Unless you specifically want a stopover, why would you use United miles to redeem for a partner airline flight to TLV?
Much much much Much more availability on Lufthansa and Swiss etc etc (including first class on Lufthansa)
And I am usually buying to/from LA which is anyhow stopover
Right, but those flights would still be bookable using other airline miles and be cheaper, even before this devaluation.
Yep! That’s why I wrote united miles!
crazy prices to TLV
Classic move after dumping miles by pumping 100K credit card offers
They really don,t like there loyal custumers.
Dan, Does someone in united review your posts?
Yes, we certainly do, we’re currently working on having him excommunicated
Guaranteed AA and Delta will follow suit! a) Either they cahooted together about this, or b) DL & AA will just copy, thinking they won’t get labeled as the ‘shlechteh”.
And now they canceled flight 84 for the rest of Aug… what’s wrong with them? I have a tik saver awards on that flight, any idea?
Any chance they bring back the value in the long run if they survive, or are the devalue points here to stay? Just wondering if I should cash out my balance now at the devalued rate or wait and see…? Its a substantial balance (learned my lesson) and would hate to lose it all or its value be further eroded.
Whats the difference between regular business and premium business on usa to usa routes