Originally Posted by
fzwinter
Have you checked to see if there's any AC award availability for your wife's flight? You can use UA miles to book an award on AC. Also, occasionally when you can't find a saver economy award on UA, you might be able to book a first class award for the same miles as the standard economy flight. It's always worth it to have a look at XF availability.
OP - the advice fzwinter offers is very sound, and I definitely recommend you look in to it!
Especially the part about looking at Saver F availability... If you are paying standard Y, sometimes for just a few miles more you can get in to F...
PS The new UA award interface has nothing to do with whether you get a saver (25,000) or standard (50,000) award. That is strictly based upon availability of these award buckets, which is the same as it was with the old award interface...
With UA's flexibility in allowing one way awards, you can often fly one way in saver (12,500) and the return standard (25,000 miles) and save yourself 12,500 miles...
I am getting used to the new award interface, and at this point I like it better than the old one.