<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JerryFF:
I suppose no one counts the fact that most airlines have "standard" awards with no capacity controls at higher mileage levels than the lower mileage level awards.
UA is particularly good on non-Hawaii domestic awards because their standard award is 40,000 miles, whereas most other airlines require 50,000. Also, on UA if you book a standard award, the reservation is booked in Y, which means you get E+ seating even if you are not premier or for everyone in your party, even if they are not premier. Also, changes follow the same Y class unrestricted rules.</font>
40K is also the rate for a "saver 1st". once i couldn't get a 25k award, decided i needed the seat, and when they searched for a standard seat found me a saver 1st class seat instead.
the other UA perk is never a service charge to redeem or change dates, no matter how close to travel. can't say same for AS or AA or DL. (there is a charge to redeposit miles though on UA).