zombietooth

Look, every US corp has been all about increasing margins and decreasing expenses these last 7 years. Sure, they are raising the temperature slowly so as to not scare too many frogs out of the pot, but everything they are doing is about giving FFs less perks so they can increase their profit. Eventually, UA will probably go to full monetization, but why worry about it now.

I only use awards for international J and F, and it has been a very good program for me. These minor changes are fine so long as there isn't a big reduction in available "Saver" awards.

MojaveFlyer

Pretty blatant devaluation for me, but one I've been expecting for a long time.

All my redemptions are for domestic travel. Saver is never available. I try to use award travel on routes where domestic fares are high. I'm sure I'm going to be paying the max of 32.5K vs. 25K ow. That's a 30% devaluation, plain and simple.

In fact, looking at the new award charts, only one rate, 32.5K ow, is shown for "everyday" awards.

When I tried to use miles on a domestic award around last Christmas on AA, I thought I had enough miles to cover the 3x 60K miles needed - until I double checked and saw that was 60K one way! At least these levels are not quite that bad, but it's still a serious devaluation, very serious.

Oh there "might" be more saver awards (doubt it) and some routes "might" be cheaper, but the routes for which miles are most useful will most certainly go up. Happens every time we see one of these "changes you won't really like".

Saver awards must be good for someone. Retirees on vacations where they don't really need to be on a weekend-to-weekend trip due to work / vacation days? People who don't mind taking redeyes, or who don't mind reaching their vacation destination late enough to lose all of the first day? Or those who want to take the 5AM departures?

But I've stopped flying UA for the miles. I do it for the E+ exit row seating, and a chance to board the plane while there is still space in the overhead bin. On a recent trip my priority tagged bags actually came out first (in LAS) and within the first 3 minutes (BOS - usually very bad). Otherwise, I'll fly any legacy carrier who has better fares and schedule.

escapefromphl

What actually happens in each case will be anyones guess. A schedule change surely wont cause an increase. Online changes may or may not trigger the increase? If you have free award redeposit you may as well try your luck.

wco81

So where to go now that the big 3 are regularly devaluing?

AS?

Kacee

That's a bit over the top.

Loyalty programs are being devalued across the board. That's just the industry trend. In that context, this change is milder than many.

schley

Airline devaluation is inevitable, however what really hurts is the RDM scheme they implemented a couple years back. This itself hurt many international economy fliers who used upgrades, because we are getting 11x's base fare instead of 2x distance if elite. This was a huge ax that in some cases maybe beneficial, but in my case and quite a few on this board it cut into my RDM's.

Now if you use the Chase CC, which is really where a huge amount of their miles lie on their books as liabilities, this move is I'm sure is largely considering this aspect. The good ole days was around 2008-2012 before all the gutting of FF programs in general, but specifically UA MP. Great partner resumptions and earning rates which were more generous.

schriste

Unless saver awards are gutted like at AA

Kacee

I don't see much point in speculating about what "might" happen. My comments are based on what we actually know.

And as previously mentioned, I personally care much more about *A partner awards. The UA routes I might redeem for (t-cons, and TATLs ex-SFO) have already been totally gutted for saver availability.

GeorgeJ

And both Mainland Saver First and Evereyday First have taken big jumps...65,000 for Saver First and 140,000 for Everyday First. Geez.

economyplusfan

The whole point of FF programs, when they were conceived, was to increase profits. Why, now, do you assume they are a liability?

Hipplewm

See, I don't see it that way at all.....

If I take what I was earning prior to the change making RDM=spend. I am getting roughly 4.5 times as many miles. Yet during that same time period, the amount of miles I need for an award ticket has been stagnant until this change and even if we tag it at 20%. I am way ahead.


Fact is, we don't know how many miles United hands out on a yearly basis, we don't know the patterns of now vs when RDM were based on distance flown. This may just be a correction for the extra miles they are doling out based on spend and not distance.

Either way, even with the devaluation, I am doing far far better here than where I was......

PaulInTheSky

Been doing that since earlier this year. Got way more AS miles than UA.

Got a lot of points from Chase CSP too. Now, if you want to get award travel on Star partners, you may be able to start looking at other partner FFP. Redeeming on ANA or the killing sweet spot of ex-Asia to Oceania have been the best redemption options with UA miles, but this may change.

SQ F isn't cheap at all, but SQ J is still very good at a substantial discount at online redemption.

Now that UA has restricted more redemption routes, pricing, and *A blocking for their redemption, killing the RTW award is absolutely crazy.

SQ FFP redemption is not as bad now.

Kacee

You're not taking into account reduced saver award availability, far more limited upgrades, stricter award routing rules, fee increases, etc. All those changes "devalue" the program. And that's just UA. Pretty much every loyalty plan out there has devalued over the past five years. It's the industry trend.

PaulInTheSky

This is also another inevitable thing. When you need to pay $1-$1.2k USD for W/V fares to TPE/HKG, and you can just pay double for P fares ex-YVR/YYZ, and occasionally ex-UA hubs? The premium class travel has become more and more of mainstream to a point that people just start paying for premium travel. I gotta tell you, if UA counts LT miles like CO did in the past, I would have just got P fares already. The old business model won't work for the majority of customers especially in Premium cabin sales, which was why the award travel provided a sweet spot to capitalize your spend.

Hipplewm

well, maybe I am too plain or don't try to push the edge enough. So far this year I have spent 865,000 miles for flights. I am 4/4 on getting IN when XN was available at booking, 2 on Hawaii lie flats no less. I got all saver business awards for trip to Singapore.

As far as savers, they may be less in the future, but the award charts still work, that is just the maximum you pay. so if saver isn't avail, you may still get a discount over full fare.