AndyInSaigon

Booked IAD-FRA F yesterday

hookthem

Give me Airports and Dates, will run through awardnexus and see if I can prove you wrong

blug

DL = much worse than UA since forever ago.. DL miles is called skypesos for a reason.
While AA is not that bad, I doubt there's much saver availability for thanksgiving and Christmas at this time of year, especially domestically.

channa

Not anymore.

The gap has narrowed, and in many cases, DL miles are easier to use than UA miles.

DL also does not charge a premium for partners.

I used to value my UA miles as worth more than DL, but now I find them to be roughly equal.

airb330

I seem to have no issues finding LH (not UA though) availability to Europe; it's almost all Y class though but LH is tolerable in Y. Almost all domestic flights are gone now that US has left. uA domestic saver availability is really pathetic and I try from PHL IAD DCA BWI and EWR.

Phoenixtinct

I'm not seeing what others are. Plenty of availability on LH for intra-European travel. Also, when searching Europe-US routings, routinely see UA availability - not always premum cabins but Economy for sure.

People have to realize that MP is a huge program belonging to the former biggest carrier in the world and millions of members are competing for few award seats available per flight. Other *A carriers are wising up to that and probably placing some restrictions. One example would be removing SQ availability from online searches.

I've looked at other *A FFP programs and they don't have the generous bonuses UA offer to its Premiers. Most of the time they are no more than 25% even at the highest level. Also, a lot of travel outside the US doesn't always earn credit in the lowest classes and the rest may not earn 100%, so it takes quite a long time for members to accumulate sufficient miles for award travel that has redemeption levels almost equal.

With UA, you get at least 100% credit even on the cheapest tickets and with Premier bonuses as high as 100%, one can accumulate quite a number of miles from a single trip. So, with all of that factored in, don't be surprised that other *A carriers may be limiting inventory to UA MP members. It's just not a leveled playfield, so it's their way of trying to balance that out.

Totoro

Don't worry about this "problem." UA has already implemented a solution to level the playing field effective March 2015.

jmanirish

With PQD requirements, they actually implemented phase I to the "problem" already....

Boghopper

I've had pretty good luck finding availability on tk through ist. A bit out if the way, but gets you there.

kirkwoodj

Good chance that some availability could be diminished by folks booking awards before devaluation...

HeadInTheClouds

Totally accurate. My latest (GS) strategy is to just book a standard coach award + a GPU. Then, close in, switch to either the business seat or saver coach seat that inevitably opens up. 100% on this so far in the past year.


Also correct. I wouldn't yet say I value them equally (especially as a UA GS with the aforementioned GPU option combined with DL's utterly oppressive 72 hour rule), but what used to be a 90/10 equation is now closer to 60/40.

DL seems to realize they had a problem here (my guess is that Amex pressured them), and is definitely getting better. If DL would get rid of the hateful 72 hour rule, when added to the upcoming one way awards, they might fully eliminate this gap.

Cargojon

I seem to be able to find biz awards to Europe (saver) all over the place from the East Coast this summer when we went, but couldnt sniff UA metal on a bet. Some UA F available though. OS J to UA F wasnt worth the extra 10k to me though.

halls120

Exactly. For example, if you want to fly IAD-SYD this Sunday, there is standard and saver economy, standard business, and standard and saver first seats available. Forward to July 2015 on the same route, no saver at all.

chinatraderjmr

plenty of LH seats in F from us to india and combo LH/TG to BKK

enviroian

All I can say is this time last year there was a lot more blue on the page than there is now. Last year at this time I had multiple ORD-LHR choices in business during the Christmas week on UA and many other star alliance. Now if I'm lucky you might see an AC option with crazy times or EI.

I'm moving to Orange County next month and award flights in business to LHR from SNA/SBD/LAX airports are abysmal.