tonykline1947

I cannot say from personal experience that redemption got worse.

Just the other day I booked an OJ to Vienna and Toscana for a relative on my favorite *A carrier. May and June 2015 were wide open. The only sting is 140K for what used to be 100K not that long ago. Snapshots are not the exact dates, just few I saved during the planning process..

Kacee

Yes, as I said a few posts back, OS to VIE is one of the remaining bright spots for UA/*A redemptions. Try to book that itinerary on UA or LH metal and you'll be singing a different tune.

spin88

This is exactly the strategy to use with the "new United" But it (1) only works for certain elites (no change fee), and (2) really only works if you are willing to pay for a "standard" award or are flying *A in coach (where the price increase by Jeff is no usurious) and obsessively check. Even then, it works best for Y awards.

I am usually doing a family vacation, and frankly the deal I am getting with my VX points (50K points +$820 fees RT SFO-LHR for VS upper class; 95K points in J, 130K points in F RT SFO-Asia on SQ) is a hell of a lot more valuable than the dreck that Jeff is serving up at that point.

integrinB4

Oh, I agree that it is a cumbersome strategy and not convenient at all. But being "stuck" with united miles and I would rather use them up, it will have to do. It is only 2 of us, so easier than a family...and Gold, so no change fees. And we were fine with Y. Have not tried with other fares.

tonykline1947

Why would I? OS J vs LH/UA J - i do not think so.

But yes, point taken. Sorry I missed your post. Thank you.

I simply do not pay a lot of attention to LH/UA availability in J for TATL segments. I'm only interested in LX and OS J for Europe, unless TK gives me a worthy "free" 20-23 hr stopover somewhere along the way.

Kacee

An excellent point

Agreed there is still solid value with certain of the *A partners.

spin88

Well, since its what is on offer, MP has no pulling power for me any longer, would much rather have AS or VX miles. I put up with a lot of stuff from UAL post merger, because the miles (and my history with them) had some value, but if the miles have no value (other than for Y with a lot of effort) that is partially the reason why UAL is getting almost none of my business anymore.

You and I have a vastly different view of "solid value" A J award to Europe on *A is 140K miles, 220K in F. IF YOU CAN FIND IT. That is not "solid value" in my book (I would rather use 50K VX miles and just pay the $820 that go with it, less if I am not stopping in London). Likewise 160K UA miles for J on *A to Northern Asia (240K in F) is not "solid value" compared to 95K with VX miles in J, 130K in F on SQ in my book.

nwflyboy

No, he didn't.

I read the original blog posts. There was no reference to "relative to other programs", nothing about devaluations, not a word about other programs. Not one. He plainly stated that Delta points had become "more valuable" in absolute terms. Which of course is self-serving nonsense. It was part of a push to get sign-ups for the Delta Amex card that every blogger is now pushing.

He was called out on this blatant lie. Only then did he go back and alter the post to add the qualifiers - later.

I think that only serves to highlight how dishonest he (and the rest of them) are. To me, it's blatant. You can be the judge of what motivated him in his original posts and then revisiting to edit, and his whole 11th hour conversion to becoming an advocate for Skymiles…what a shocking coincidence that it occurred when Amex was pushing a new Delta card offer.

It's a simple, fundamental conflict of interest. Not complicated. He's no different from any of the other bloggers who live off credit card sign-ups.

Wait, I take that back. He does really know his Hello Kitty stuff. On that, he's an expert.

andrewwm

GMAFB. You'd rather have VX miles? What do you plan on doing with those to get to Europe? VA and pay $1000 in surcharges? Then how do you get from London to another city? Swim? Book separate tickets and risk misconnects? No thanks. Saying things like this make people not take you very seriously.

AS miles are definitely useful, but only if you ever go NA->some other location. They have very little value going from some other location>some other location, or even on the mixing partners aspect.

Yes, like it's so hard to find award availability




Moreover, on VX you're locked into VA or SQ. Want to go somewhere they don't fly (like, say, anywhere in Europe or mainland China or Taiwan)? Too bad.

I feel like you must be a Delta plant that is purposefully trolling this forum.

spin88

You obviously did not my post as carefully.

A United award to LHR in F/J has roughly $360 in taxes on it, plus the miles, using VX miles its 50K miles plus $820. So the ticket costs 50K VX miles plus about $460 in cash. Not bad in my book. I can take my family to London in UpperClass for 200K VX miles and $3400 vs. taking them on "BusinessFirst" on UAL for 115K miles and $360 per ticket, 460K miles and $1400 . But since there is no change ever of actually getting saver awards, what UAL is really offering if 300K miles RT which would be 1.2M MP miles plus $1400 bucks. Give me a break.

And a SQ award using VX miles? Well in J it is 95K miles RT, in F, 130K miles RT. Getting a *A award is more expensive, and with worth availability.

Where else do I want to go? Well For 20K VX miles I can flly SFO-Hawaii, for 50K miles I can go SFO-Hawaii in F. On Hawaiian.

All of these are far better awards than anything your friend Jeff is offering.

Cargojon

My experience has been that March or so would be much better for availability in July than now. The old 330 day thing is gone.

Kacee

I've comparison shopped both within *A and against various OW programs. UA is still competitive. It's better for some things and worse for others. That's not just my conclusion, it's what most people who attempt to compare the various programs objectively have concluded.

It's definitely worse than it was prior to Feb. 3. The *A award levels are a real sore spot. These are to some degree balanced out by the absence of fuel surcharges and the ability to book one-way awards on both UA and partner metal. The reduction in availability on UA and LH metal is also a real bummer, as are the increasingly restrictive routing rules.

andrewwm

Ok so what if you want to go to any other city in Europe. How do you plan on accomplishing that with VX miles?

And let's say you never, ever want to visit a city besides London.



How often are there 4 saver awards on a VA flight SFO-LHR in the middle of peak travel season??

Ok so you can routinely find 4 saver awards in C on SQ business transpac during peak season. Good to know - the rest of the FF community would love to know where you found them. As I just showed you, you can find 4 seats in premium cabins from SFO to TYO with UA miles if you book far enough out pretty much every day of the week.

VX has a few strategic uses. But if you only ever go to the same two destinations (pretty much same story with SkyPesos actually), then sure, lock yourself into those programs.

But if you actually, you know, travel the world, MileagePlus is still a much better program.

briank1973

I had looked for savers for MEL-EWR return for June for a long while (didn't care if it was E or C). Nothing! Looked all the time too. Looks to me like UA isn't opening up seats in peak season. You can get off-peak saver awards though from what I can see. I did manage to get my parents some LH awards in C for this past May.

I ended up paying for MEL-EWR and I'll now make 1K this year because of it.

Dieuwer

Will this worsening award redemption options hurt Chase? What's the point of getting the explorer card if the miles are almost worthless...