Originally Posted by
jsloan
For the time being, anyway, mileage costs are capped -- Everyday Y can go no higher than 32.5K per person each way.
If OP has status or a United-branded Chase credit card, that includes last-seat availability at the Everyday award level. If not, the bigger risk is that award space may be eliminated. That said...
OP: You're attempting to travel during a busy period, on nonstop flights, with little flexibility. That is not the way to get a high-value redemption. For the miles involved to get two tickets to MSY, you could get one roundtrip business class ticket to Europe -- if you have flexibility, to look for a saver award, and a desire to go to Europe.
. Ultimately, the question is yours -- whether you'd value the miles more or the $1700 more. Personally, with the constraints that you mentioned, I'd probably bite the bullet and pay for the tickets -- but it also depends on what else you'd use the miles for in the future.
BTW -- before you decide, make sure you price out one-way tickets. If you're lucky, you may find that the fare is $200 in one direction and $600 in the other, in which case I'd buy two separate tickets.-- cash for the cheap date and miles for the expensive date.
Thank you for this post. there's a lot i've been taking into consideration from what you've said. I'd just like to try confirm that these 2 key things you've said are correct or not, but haven't been able to verify for sure.
I have the $95 per year fee United card, not the $450 fee card. If that allows me to book with miles as long as there are still seats it's huge to know, along with the info that mileage costs are capped at 32k for one way? So if the award fare can't get any higher than that, and knowing i could wait to book allows me to watch the prices for a while. But i wasn't sure if all that is true.