nevansm

Obviously we all know what it is... but is it a good deal? I used it once... mainly because I was a n00b. Funny thing is... it was a Full-fare Y ticket and I canceled the ticket, but the miles stuck in my account (cool bug). I'm thinking of using it next year until (hopefully) a DEQM promo comes along.

What are your opinions?

futureacnp

but award accelerator gets you RDM, not EQM, no?

MatthewLAX

Wasn't there a separate charge for the Award Accelerator purchase?

nevansm

Yeah. I realized that fact after posting.. I wish it got me EQM!

Yeah there's a separate charge, but does it add up... does it make sense....

MatthewLAX

I meant a separate charge on your credit card. Were both charges refunded or was there only a single charge?

uastarflyer

I could see if it needed to "top up" the account in order to redeem an award - I haven't studied it closely but it looks cheaper than buying miles via the Mileage Plus account process.

kb1992

It's only slightly cheaper (about 3.3 c/mile)

haiku

I think it is a pretty poor deal.

For example, I just booked ORD-SFO-ORD today. Below is the AwdAcc offer for this flight:

3,692 Award Accelerator miles 111.00 USD
7,384 Award Accelerator miles 222.00 USD

3600 RDM miles for $110 is cheaper than buying them straight through MP, where 3k RDM costs $131.75. So the AwdAcc offer is hardly a discount.

Now, looking at the second offer, for $222, what could 7k RDM possibly get me? Upgrading a flight within the lower 48 will cost 15k miles, and that offer is barely half that amount. 4 eCerts cost $200 (assuming you're 3p or higher) so for $200 you can upgrade a flight and get a better EQM bonus and be way ahead of where you would be spending $222 on 7k measly RDM miles.

Essentially, there is only a very rare occasion where AwdAcc would be worth it and it would be in a dire situation where you needed to top off for an award in a tight time frame. I thought AwdAcc was cool option when they first started doing it, but after more carefully looking at the deals and through all of the learning I have done from the awesome people here at FT, I can safely say that AwdAcc is a noob option for impulse buyers who aren't thinking strategically.

Happy to be proven wrong though!

Edit: Shouldn't have been using AA for Award Accelerator. Changed it to the aptly suggested "AwdAcc".

FoundInRNO

I propose that we don't use AA for Award Accelerator. Maybe AwdAcc??

MarkedMan

Try this - SFO-LHR Z class $3500 (sometimes a lot less, but this is fairly typical). SFO-LHR H class $1100 + 900 for 30k AwdAcc miles = $2k, +30k more miles = a biz class ticket. Depending on the relative value you assign to miles this could be considered a saving of 1000 to 1200 dollars, though of course you lose COS bonus on EQMs.

If you value approx 5.5k EQMs at less than 1000 dollars, it would seem that AwdAcc is not such a bad deal on a really long flight. Of course if you are swimming in miles you would hardly want to do this, but if you have somewhere around 100 to 150k miles and want to keep your MP account a bit more padded, perhaps AwdAcc is not such a bad idea? It offers 3x miles quite regularly on international itins, and the numbers line up nicely if you want to upgrade, and not burn too many miles.

joefiro

At 3 cents a mile, it's like buying a Ford for a price of a Mercedes. Way overpriced.

mobilebucky

I rather use the money to fly another TPAC trip to get even more RDM along with EQM at the same time.

uastarflyer

Which is typically the situation for buying miles via MP. By the way it might not be a tight timeframe, it might be in order to snag a seat if you fear it may disappear if you wait.

FreFly

And every time you check in online or using a kiosk, you have to refuse paying a Mercedes price for a Ford. Come on UA, stop pushing this so aggressively!

endrond

I emailed them asking whether I could have the option of not being stuck with the offers for this and United's various other stupid options.