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 flights | Partner flights | |
---|---|---|
US49 | 5K-15K Coach 30K Business | |
Canada | 9K-15K Coach 30K Business | 20K Coach 33K Business |
Hawaii | 10K-25K Coach 50K Business | |
Mexico and Caribbean | 5K-20K Coach 35K Business | 20K-22K Coach 38K-39K Business |
Central America | 10K-20K Coach 35K Business | 20K-22K Coach 38K-39K Business |
Northern South America | 20K-30K Coach 55K Business | 22K-33K Coach 51.2K Business |
Southern South America | 41K-45K Coach 80K Business | 49.5K Coach 88K Business |
Europe | 30K-40K Coach 80K Business | 30K-45K Coach 88K Business 140K First |
Northern Africa | 34K-38K Coach 80K Business | 49.5K Coach 88K Business 140K First |
Central/Southern Africa | 45K Coach 80K Business | 49.5K Coach 88K Business 165K First |
Middle East | 34K-40K Coach 80K Business | 44K Coach 88K Business 165K First |
Central Asia | 31K-45K Coach 80K Business | 49.5K Coach 88K Business 220K First |
South Asia | 55K Coach 100K Business | 60.5K Coach 110K Business 220K First |
North Asia | 50.9K Coach 100K Business | 53.1K Coach 110K Business 220K First |
Japan | 55K Coach 100K Business | 60.5K Coach 110K Business 220K First |
Oceania | 45K Coach 85K Business | 49.5K Coach 93.5K Business 220K First |
Australia and New Zealand | 37.5K-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"
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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.
True, though I do get excellent value from Hyatt. And now I’m pretty usually locked into United when I want to fly them domestically, as partners have very little United space.
Plus there are bonus offers to Air Canada, Avios, Flying Blue, and Virgin that have good values, though those aren’t exclusive to Chase.
Good points
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
That’s the only language the airlines understand.
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.
True, definitely worth considering!
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!
Tell your friends and colleages 🙂
But the price for partner flights in eco from Israel to Europe went down
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
Yup, United wants you to use United miles. And you need a United card to get good pricing and award space.
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/ouch-united-blocking-award-space-partner-airlines/
Or use 6K Qatar Avios to LGA/JFK.
all true points but the truth is that its quite difficult to book aircanada flights with other miles besides aeroplan
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?
That’s usually what “race to the bottom” means, unfortunately.
United has considerably better award availability on Thai
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
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.
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
What’s best way to use miles from ewr to Panama in business classshould I use Amex,chase,United?