Originally Posted by
JayhawkCO
Yes and no re: dynamic pricing. Of course they can charge whatever they want since there's no chart anymore, but for at least 4-5 years, business awards from US-Southern Africa which didn't involve a UA flight have been 88k each way, without any exceptions that I've seen. The price only goes up (at the moment, which may or may not be new) when adding a 4Z segment as well.
I think the critical point of the dynamic pricing of awards is that the old award chart costs have been scrapped and UA has the flexibility of charging whatever they want to. There could be some additional cost that UA runs into when they add a 4Z segment and they are simply passing this along. I am not defending UA, just attempting to describe what is likely happening.