United Continues Devaluing Hidden Award Chart

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Is anyone surprised?

Last April, United hired a new CEO of MileagePlus from Comcast with no airline experience.

What has happened since then is deplorable. The airline repeatedly  increased  mileage  rates in 2023. Again in 2024, and now there have been more big changes over the past few weeks to first class awards worldwide and for coach and business awards outside of the US.

As members flocked to book United awards with partner airlines, the airline started blocking partner airlines from booking most awards. Of course, if all airlines reciprocate, it’s the end of alliances and mileage programs as we know them.

Want to let United know how you feel about mileage devaluations and the lack of an award chart? You can write to customer care here or sound off on X/Twitter.

In middle of Pesach, United massively increased partner first class award rates. Rates from the US to Europe and Northern Africa went from 121K/143K to 154K miles each way. The US to Southern Africa and the Middle East went from 143K/154K to 181.5K. The US to Asia and Oceania went from 121K to 242K.

Those are insane increases!

A week later, United partially walked back those changes.

Rates from the US to Europe and Northern Africa are now 140K miles each way. The US to Southern Africa and the Middle East are now 165K. The US to Asia and Oceania are now 220K.

Either way, those are some absurd increases.

Here is the current United hidden award chart that I’ve put together:

United flightsPartner flights
US495K-15K Coach
30K Business
Canada9K-15K Coach
30K Business
20K Coach
33K Business
Hawaii10K-25K Coach
50K Business
Mexico and Caribbean5K-20K Coach
35K Business
20K-22K Coach
38K-39K Business
Central America10K-20K Coach
35K Business
20K-22K Coach
38K-39K Business
Northern South America20K-30K Coach
55K Business
22K-33K Coach
51.2K Business
Southern South America41K-45K Coach
80K Business
49.5K Coach
88K Business
Europe30K-40K Coach
80K Business
30K-45K Coach
88K Business
140K First
Northern Africa34K-38K Coach
80K Business
49.5K Coach
88K Business
140K First
Central/Southern Africa45K Coach
80K Business
49.5K Coach
88K Business
165K First
Middle East34K-40K Coach
80K Business
44K Coach
88K Business
165K First
Central Asia31K-45K Coach
80K Business
49.5K Coach
88K Business
220K First
South Asia55K Coach
100K Business
60.5K Coach
110K Business
220K First
North Asia50.9K Coach
100K Business
53.1K Coach
110K Business
220K First
Japan 55K Coach
100K Business
60.5K Coach
110K Business
220K First
Oceania45K Coach
85K Business
49.5K Coach
93.5K Business
220K First
Australia and New Zealand37.5K-55K Coach
100K Business
60.5K Coach
110K Business
220K First

There are much better ways to book these awards.

Lifemiles charges 120K miles for US-Japan first class awards on ANA:

 

Or better yet, Virgin Atlantic charges 72.5K points to fly one-way from the west coast to Japan or 85K points to fly one-way from the east coast to Japan in first class. Plus, they often offer 30% transfer bonuses, as they currently do from AMEX and Chase to drop that down to just 55.7K/65.3K points each way!

That sure beats 220K United miles:

 

Lifemiles charges 87K miles for US-Europe first class awards on Lufthansa:

 

Or you can use 90K Air Canada miles:

 

Either way, that beats using 140K United miles:

 

Lifemiles charges 120K miles for US-India first class awards on Air India:

 

Or you can use 130K Air Canada miles:

 

Either way, that beats using 220K United miles:

United has also massively increased mileage requirements within other regions, by insane percentages.

For example, a flight from the Middle East to Europe will now set you back 22.5K United miles in coach or 65K miles in business class:

You’ll save a fortune by using 12.5K Air Canada miles in coach or 20K in business class:

 

 

A flight from Johannesburg to Ethiopia has skyrocketed up to 35K United miles in coach and 90K in business class:

 

Or use 25K Air Canada miles in coach or 45K in business class:

 

A flight from Bangkok to Tokyo has gone way up to 35K United miles in coach and 90K in business class:

 

Or use 25K Air Canada miles in coach or 45K in business class:

 

 

A flight from Melbourne to Perth has jumped up to 22.5K United miles in coach and 65K in business class:

 

Or use 12.5K Air Canada miles in coach or 30K in business class:

 

 

Of course, you can still segments like any of those via a United Excursionist Perk for free, which can now save 90,000 miles…

Economy:

Business class:

 

Excursionist perk pricing:

In addition to saver award rates, the standard award rates have also climbed to unheard of levels.

For example, The Island Hopper jumped from 110K in business to 400K miles each way!

 

Of course, these aren’t quite an Apples to Apples comparison, as United allows free cancelations on awards, versus hefty fees from programs like Air Canada and Lifemiles. But in general, those programs are now much more attractive than United for booking Star Alliance saver award travel.

Unless it’s for travel on United, which may or may not be made available for partners to book, you’ll just have to try and see. In those cases, United has made their own miles more valuable, not by lowering rates, but by throttling partner access.

For that reason, I have been writing for well over a decade to accumulate bank points and not airline miles whenever possible.

That way when an airline devalues, you aren’t stuck with that airline’s miles and have other options to choose from. You can open airline cards for the signup bonus, but your everyday cards should earn flexible points over an airline card. Then you can decide how to use those points when you’re ready to redeem them.

If you do use a United card for everyday spending, you should stop now. The cards are fine for free bags, discounted mileage awards, expanded availability, and other benefits, but they are a poor value for spending.

Not all airlines are taking this path. Many have kept their award charts. We have even seen Air France/KLM Flying Blue and Qatar improve their award charts to make their programs more attractive. But US programs are truly racing to the bottom. Will any of them realize they’re going to have to step up their game?

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21 Comments On "United Continues Devaluing Hidden Award Chart"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Cb

Writing was on the wall with all the massive cc SUBs incl. Ink cards as Chase is a big UA partner so I see it as a devaluation of chase points too.

UA Premier

I used to be a big fan of premier status, even argued in a comment on one of your posts the benefits of having status,

but now with all the devaluations and the situation with United TLV route which is a real shame on United,
I must say that I’m going to vote with my united cards,

Will not use it anymore for any status accumulations
Becoming what you stressed so many times

#FreeAgent

FBR

You can do flexible awards with Air Canada for free cancellation and changes and those are still cheaper than booking with United. For example, I recently booked Europe to US tickets in business class. United wanted 88k vs Air Canada 60k for Lowest award which have change and cancel fees or 74k for Flexible which don’t. I did the Flexible and later on I was able to change it to a better direct flight at which point I booked into Lowest for 60k because i knew I’d be flying that and got back 14k per ticket. But even if I’d keep AC Flexible for 74k I still feel like I got a better deal especially because they’re a transfer partner of Amex and those points are much easier for me to come by than Chase UR (or united itself). I have plenty of both but more than double in Amex so for me booking with AC wins.

DD fan

Dan, thanks for a great write up, as usual. The problem is that most frequent flyers don’t read this blog, and the airlines are relying on the losers for their business. The only way to stop the airlines from devaluing their miles is by increasing Dans Deals readership. Double gain!

JBLA

But the price for partner flights in eco from Israel to Europe went down

Ralph

I live in detroit and used lifemiles all the time to Newark there’s absolutely like nothing available these days !! Insane even months far out has like 1 6am flight that’s it

excited

all true points but the truth is that its quite difficult to book aircanada flights with other miles besides aeroplan

Sam

United make money when consumers transfer points into their mileage program or use their branded credit card.

Is the plan to devalue the program till they see a loss in revenue?

Moishebatchy

That’s usually what “race to the bottom” means, unfortunately.

YX

United has considerably better award availability on Thai

Moshe the Flying Jew

Great piece Dan Thanks….

When booking United Ewr to TLV rewards business…used to get a bunch of options Swiss, POT, Austrian, Lufthansa….all these are gone.

What is the best way to get access to these biz reward options?

Thanks Dan

Shmu

Are there any decent partners for Australia? I’ve looked several times over the past six months but doesn’t look like they’re offering partner awards much, if at all.

Yitz

United miles are dead. They are basically just tied to the price of the ticket and you get a value of about .01 each. Youll never find a $300 one way ticket for 7500/10k miles

Nate

What’s best way to use miles from ewr to Panama in business classshould I use Amex,chase,United?

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