HAHA... I love UA trying to basically gouge you with this. Long story short, I had a ticket that was supposed to leave yesterday but was ill, FLU big time, and couldnt’ travel from ORD. Still recovering and although agents said you can appeal after Jan 15th??? (Why I dont know) if I travel I can credit for 2017 even if after Jan 1. I didnt’ want to jack around with all that so I was about 15k short of my 100k miles ths year for 1k. I played with award itineraries for a couple hours and checked pricing during the purchase, then after ticketing and I wished I could tell you there was a standard CPM I received as a 1k, with all this recon, but there isn’t.
I ended up doing an award ORD-IAH-SJO and back for 11k accelerator miles for $990 plus I think less than 200 for the actual award miles. I was jacked after getting 19 CPM all the way up to 33 CPM.
Needed 4K more and boom.... ORD-IAH one way and offered me 4K exactly for $360!
Gamed the system and BOOM I’m 1k again after some fiddling around and playing by their rules.
Obviously cancelled the itineraries after purchasing the accelerator.