Originally Posted by
docbert
You've said this multiple times, but I disagree.
eg, on the route I pasted above (SFO-SYD) there is generally a fairly clear distinction between the prices for Saver and normal awards. Yes, the price of saver awards isn't 100% fixed like it used to be, but there's a clear price difference between what is normally available as Saver awards (40-44K for business, 80K for business) and non-Saver awards (100/150K for economy, 200/350K for business). I'm aware this isn't always the case, especially for domestic routes, but on at least some international routes saver still very much exists in at least some form.
At least until a few hours ago the website still referred to these as Saver awards during the booking process. I'm not sure if that's still the case after this change, but it was on a booking I made this morning.
Awards are dynamically priced and with different access requirements. Some members can get a lower price than others but this latest change is clear that you will see just one offer for a particular itin-- the concept of saver and standard / everyday for the same itin is gone and the idea of a fixed price award levels are gone. Yes, some might be at the previous saver level or even lower but it is dynamic and can range -- and different folks (such as based on status) will get different offers. To continue to call a "lower pricing" a saver just confuses the matter and infer things no longer true -- a fixed award chart. As we can see UA is not using that term on the flight search (remnants may exist in some documentation but we all know that exists for other items -- old, dated documentation).