Jun 29, 2017, 10:49 am

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Award redemption changes coming Nov. 1, 2017
http://mileageplusupdates.com/ (Thanks @joelfreak for providing link.)

Standard awards being replaced by "EveryDay Award" -- variable pricing
Some increases in longer haul international premium cabin saver awards (Generally 10% or less if any at all)
Some decreases on shorter non-stop partner saver flights outside the US
No changes for North America saver economy
No-show award redeposit fee $125 -- for everyone, no elite exemption.
Round the World awards are gone
No changes in UA/UX/Copa or *A mileage upgrades

*NEW* November 1, 2017 award chart

TPG has some tables showing changes to redemption costs.
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/06/uni...eryday-awards/

Quote:

What if I need to change my existing Standard Award on or after November 1, 2017?

Any changes will require a ticket reissue and new pricing and additional fees may apply.

UA MP award changes 1 Nov 2017 (Everyday award/dynamic price, No RTW, No Show fee,..)

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Jun 29, 2017, 12:02 pm

#31

restlessinRNO

Join Date: May 2001

Location: RNO, NV, USA.

Programs: UA 2MM

Posts: 5,063

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kacee

Agree, a fee for redeposit following a no-show is not unreasonable (though I almost had a heart attack when I first (mis) read Seth's post as saying that 1Ks will now be subject to redeposit fees).

This could have been much worse in light of what DL has done recently.

I agree. This is only reasonable. I didn't realize you could no-show an award tix and get your miles back after departure. How difficult is it to remember you have a flight and go on-line prior to departure to cancel?

Jun 29, 2017, 12:03 pm

#32

MY-OTHER-BROTHER-"TED"

Suspended

Join Date: Jan 2008

Location: LAS

Programs: 1K---2,909,450 BIS miles

Posts: 214

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duke787

We’re introducing Everyday Awards, an award with pricing that will vary from flight to flight. Everyday Awards will replace Standard Awards for all award travel booked on or after November 1, 2017. [/B]

...and when doing a search, "Everyday Awards" will be the only thing that will be obtainable, after your burnt out on seeking "RPU/GPU" availability!

Jun 29, 2017, 12:05 pm

#33

minnyfly

Join Date: Apr 2011

Programs: WN, AA, UA, DL

Posts: 1,313

I was expecting much worse. No blanket devaluations. No loss of an award chart. Economy saver redemption prices unchanged. The J saver awards that are changed are mostly small devaluations. And then there are a couple changes that are positive, such as the increase in saver awards, the no-show penalty, and the intra-Europe partner awards. And UA gives us plenty of advance notice. This keeps UA way ahead of AA and DL. It's not even close.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duke787

This is the most troubling thing I see. This is the first step to dynamic pricing and the AA/DL model of no Saver availability ever and highly dynamic price levels for everything else.

Dynamic pricing isn't always negative. Sometimes it's nice to have a "semi-saver" award available. Everyone wants a saver award, but if it's not available, there's no other good option (pretty much the story at AA right now). No one wants to pay full price. Dynamic pricing allows for award prices that fall in-between.

Jun 29, 2017, 12:05 pm

#34

haddon90

Join Date: Mar 2005

Location: DEN

Programs: UA1K

Posts: 4,044

Quote:

Originally Posted by ron187

This is the last straw after a lot of issues during my 2 years as a UA Plat. I'll be matching to AS this fall. Goodbye 40k TG First awards.

i made the switch to AS in october '15. fly primarily AS/VX now unless UA is cheaper/more convenient.

Jun 29, 2017, 12:10 pm

#35

SunLover

Join Date: Apr 2003

Programs: UA *G 1MM LT United Club & Global Entry

Posts: 2,756

Quote:

Originally Posted by restlessinRNO

Not very. Folks were gaming the system.

SL

Jun 29, 2017, 12:11 pm

#36

DetroitFlyer

Join Date: Nov 2005

Location: DTW and ORD

Posts: 667

Why hasn't anyone given UA credit for still having a chart where you know the most number of miles you'll pay? I think that deserves kudos.

Jun 29, 2017, 12:24 pm

#37

OnceARunner

Join Date: Jan 2017

Programs: Hilton Gold

Posts: 44

When was the last change to the award chart before this one?

Jun 29, 2017, 12:25 pm

#38

kevinthirtykevin

Join Date: Jun 2017

Posts: 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by milypan

That cannot possibly true – I'm pretty sure UA just doesn't understand numbers. An 11 percentage point increase would imply that saver award availability went from, say, 9% of seats to 20% of seats (i.e., more than doubled in that example). Even if it were 0% initially, I doubt that 11% of seats are available for saver awards on the average flight.

Presumably what they meant to say is that availability increased by over 11 percent. It's a pretty meaningless statistic though since we have no idea how they're calculating it, what the baseline is, whether they're accounting for seasonality, etc. etc.

Agree that the statistic isn't useful without knowing the baseline, but there's no reason to doubt them on this one. Revenue management professionals would know the difference between percent increase and percentage point increase. However I would wager that the 11 percentage point increase did not impact all routes equally, so YMMV.

Jun 29, 2017, 12:31 pm

#39

slivrflyr

Join Date: Nov 2014

Location: USA

Posts: 1,084

At least we don't use AA. good luck trying to find saver domestic flights. Completely choked off even when one way cash fares are $100 or less

Jun 29, 2017, 12:33 pm

#40

restlessinRNO

Join Date: May 2001

Location: RNO, NV, USA.

Programs: UA 2MM

Posts: 5,063

Sadly I'm going to miss those TG F redemptions BKK-SYD for 40K miles. I note South Asia to Australia / New Zealand will be increasing to 65K. I think this is the best use ever of UA award miles. I love the Thai F lounge at BKK. So the Dom Perignon on Thai's B747s will be going up in price!

Jun 29, 2017, 12:44 pm

#41

WineCountryUA

Moderator: United Airlines

Join Date: Jun 2007

Location: SFO

Programs: UA Plat 1.995MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat

Posts: 66,857

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnceARunner

When was the last change to the award chart before this one?

effective dates
06 Oct 2016 -- mostly fee changes ("simplified chart") & excursion awards

06 June 2015 --

3 February, 2014 -- partner premium cabin increases

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jun 29, 2017 at 12:50 pm

Jun 29, 2017, 12:45 pm

#42

eng3

Join Date: Aug 2008

Location: PHL

Programs: UA 1K 1MM, Marriott Gold, IHG Platinum, Raddison Platinum, Avis Presidents Club

Posts: 5,271

I havent had enough time to fully digest this change but to me, it does not seem too bad. I only redeem saver awards and never for premium cabins (as I never thought it was worth it in the first place). The no show fee doesn't matter much as long as you remember to cancel. My concern will be how they will change the available saver award inventory. I am sitting on over a million RDM. I've always been pretty close on PQM every year so I haven't been using RDM. My fear is always a massive devaluation.

Jun 29, 2017, 12:46 pm

#43

DCA writer

Join Date: Aug 2008

Location: DCA, IAD (not BWI if I can help it)

Programs: UA 1MM 1K, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Explorist, status-free on AA, AS, B6, DL, WN, Amtrak, etc.

Posts: 1,481

Having an award chart and a ceiling to any possible mileage redemption matters. That way, you can look at your balance and know that if you need go somewhere today, you're set. As for the rest, I'll have to see. I've had decent luck finding saver awards on WAS-SFO flights in the past; if those continue, or if these Everyday Awards translate to some running less than 25,000 miles, I won't mind.

I will admit that today, there is a bit of a donut hole in award redemption where you can can feel like a chump for using miles but also not be happy about the ticket cost. Especially if you're booking for a spouse or kid, so you have no PQM or PQD at stake.

Jun 29, 2017, 12:46 pm

#44

Duke787

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 2013

Programs: DL PM, MR Titanium/LTP, Hilton Diamond

Posts: 10,130

Quote:

Originally Posted by slivrflyr

At least we don't use AA. good luck trying to find saver domestic flights. Completely choked off even when one way cash fares are $100 or less

For now. This is where I fear UA is going with the everyday awards especially with the variable pricing - UA is a copycat so it's not a stretch to look at what DL and AA are doing and expect UA to follow.

Especially with Kirby at the helm - I'm certain he was involved in the decision making that led to the current AA award situation, he hasn't been gone that long.

Jun 29, 2017, 12:47 pm

#45

Smiley90

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: May 2015

Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH

Programs: *G

Posts: 17,399

It looks like international J saver award redemptions throughout the board went up by ~5k per one-way?

e.g.

NA-Europe: 57.5k ->60
NA-South Asia: 70k ->75k
NA-South Asia Partner: 80k -> 90k
NA-Japan: 65k -> 70k
NA-Japen Partner: 75k -> 80k
NA-Australia: 70k -> 80k
NA-Australia Partner: 80k -> 90k

I guess it could be worse, but United's really not doing themselves any favours this year in terms of attracting people to it&the program.