Award availability is declining pretty much universally among frequent flyer programs. There are many causes for this, but the two main ones are high demand for paid air travel and the explosion in credit card miles. More miles chasing fewer seats.

Consistent with the overall trend, United saver award availability has been in steady decline, as discussed many times in this forum over the past five years or so. For 1Ks (and Plats) relative to other UA flyers, we're actually doing better because the difference between IN and I inventory is now actually meaningful. For years that was not true. But on an absolute basis, yes, it's harder to find saver awards. On some routes (SFO-EWR) saver business is basically nonexistent (and has been for years).