My theory on how & why United award availability changed
This is purely speculation on my part, but let me explain what I think is going on. Obviously loyalty programs are huge businesses for airlines, particularly for carriers in the United States, where much of their
profits are generated from the programs.
Back in the day, United released saver level award availability consistently, whether you were a member of MileagePlus, a member of a partner frequent flyer program, etc. However, it increasingly seems like United wants to keep award space for its own MileagePlus members, and not just any members.
Going back a couple of years, we saw United start to only make a subset of saver level award space available to members of partner frequent flyer programs. Then we’ve also seen some partner programs introduce dynamic pricing for United awards, and I have to imagine that’s something that was pushed by United.
So do United MileagePlus members have access to better award availability? Well, sort of. For most MileagePlus members, Polaris business class award availability is virtually non-existent. But here’s where it gets interesting…
United MileagePlus has special types of award and upgrade inventory for select members. For example, while “I” is the saver level business class award fare class, United also has “IN” inventory, which is extra saver business class award availability reserved for a subset of members. However, the airline has recently updated which members have access to this availability:
- Until early August 2025, “IN” inventory was reserved for Premier Platinum, Premier 1K, and Global Services members
- Since this change, “IN” inventory is now seemingly available to all Premier members plus all MileagePlus co-brand credit card members
So I think what’s going on here is that United is basically trying to limit Polaris business class award availability to those with a co-branded credit card and elite members, and restrict it from those booking through partner programs. For MileagePlus members, restricting award availability is now being used as a further tool to drive credit card sign-ups, and encourage earning status.