Originally Posted by
Awtas
I assume they would drop the close-in booking fee, not sure if they would drop the need for additional miles if standard instead of saver award becomes available.
The close-in booking fee only applies for new bookings (does it even exist anymore?) and not for changes to existing bookings, which AFAIK is what you're trying to do.
Awards on partner airlines are only available at the saver level. And as previously noted, UA can force open saver space on its own flights due to the schedule change, so no need to worry about standard award prices in your case.