Originally Posted by
jimmc66
40+ year high-mileage MP member, Life Platinum. We lived in Australia for 10+ years, and business class R/T mileage bookings were generally 120K. Haven't used mile for sometime, and we looked at going to ATH (Athens) in mid-September 2025. Stunned speechless when we discovered an ORD/ATH Polaris R/T award booking was over 400k!
What strategies should we use to vacation without such an abusively high Mileage Plus airfare? Is this in the normal range now? Is there a way to monitor this routing for specials?
Thoughts?
It’s November, 2024. You’re trying to travel in September, 2025.
UA has absolutely no reason to offer you a discount now for taking a seat out of inventory for travel ten months from now. If the flight doesn’t meet its sales expectations, they can drop the fares.
It’s also not “abusive.” It’s an offer — you can take it or can you leave it, but you’re not harmed in the least by its existence If you’d like to use fewer miles, then monitor the route, add flexibility, consider connecting airports — all of the usual stuff.
Originally Posted by
IAH-OIL-TRASH
120k is long gone. You won't see anything near that. Maybe twice that (if you're lucky) and travel out of season.
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Don’t make stuff up. TATL to Europe is frequently available between 80-90K each way in J; it’s just not usually offered at that price ten months prior to travel.