May 1, 2021, 4:06 pm
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
This is an archive thread, the active thread is "Dynamic Award Pricing" by UA; questions, experiences, .... {Archive}
The details:
Award travel updates
Introducing a broader range of award prices
Updates to award travel are on the horizon. For flights on or after November 15, 2019, we’ll no longer publish an award chart listing the set amount of miles needed for each flight.The details:
- Some award prices will be lower than what’s currently published in our chart. You may have already seen these prices, and you’ll be able to get them immediately.
- Other award prices may be higher than what you see today, especially if you’re traveling at a popular time. These prices will take effect immediately for travel November 15 or after.
- Starting November 15, we’re removing close-in fees, so you won’t be charged the extra fee of up to $75 for booking last-minute award travel.
- A flexible award travel calendar is available on united.com or in our app.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is changing?
For travel on or after November 15, we will no longer publish an award chart listing the set amount of miles needed for award flights. Award pricing will now fluctuate based on a variety of factors, including demand. Additionally, starting November 15, we will no longer charge a fee of up to $75 for award flights booked within 21 days of departure.When will these updates take effect?
The award pricing changes apply immediately to flights on or after November 15, 2019. Until then, award prices will be the same as or lower than what’s currently published in our award chart.How many miles will I need for award travel after November 15?
Award prices will now fluctuate based on a variety of factors. Some air awards will be available for less than what’s listed in our chart, which you may have already noticed. After November 15, award prices may also be higher, especially if you’re traveling at popular times. Use our flexible award calendar to get a monthly view of the award prices for a specific destination.Why are you making these changes?
Increasing award prices for the most in-demand flights allows us to offer better returns for our shareholders. If your award travel is flexible, these updates will help you make the most of your miles.How will these updates affect award travel availability?
United MileagePlus members with Premier® status and qualifying United Chase Cardmembers can continue to book award travel without blackout dates. For other members, most award flights that are available today will continue to be available after these updates take effect.Do the lowest-priced awards have any extra flight restrictions?
No. Our lowest priced awards do not have any added restrictions; the fare rules for all award travel apply.How can I find the lowest priced award for my travel?
The award calendar on united.com or in our app will continue to show the lowest available price for your destination.Will I earn miles on my flight if I book an award?
No. As with current award bookings, award travel in the future will not be eligible to earn miles with MileagePlus or any other loyalty program.What if I need to change my existing award?
If you need to change your award ticket, you will be issued a new ticket for which new pricing and additional fees may apply.What if I purchase a close-in award before November 15
The close-in booking fee will still apply to all tickets booked within 21 days of departure prior to November 15, 2019. We will not refund fees paid prior to November 15, even if travel occurs on or after November 15.
"Dynamic Award Pricing" by UA; questions, experiences, .... {Archive}
Apr 13, 2019, 12:37 pm
#931
Join Date: Jan 2018
Programs: UA LT GS | UA LT Club | Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 1,250
Mild cc usage isn't a problem. It when small business earn hundreds of thousands of miles through CCs, where it becomes a problem. The entry-level 1K FF earns about 140K miles per year. A small business can earn millions of miles, without even flying. That's a poke in the eye to high-volume UA FFs. It floods the market with a currency that was originally only held by FFs, but is now held by anyone with a credit card...
Apr 13, 2019, 12:47 pm
#932
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pasadena, California
Programs: UA 1K, 1MM
Posts: 10,412
As far as the dynamic awards are concerned, I'm just wondering if this will simply increase the pressure to book summer travel sooner. We're never quite settled on our plans until about ~3-4 months out. Maybe if we worked these plans further in advance, we'll find that we won't get dinged too badly ... at least the first couple of years????
Apr 13, 2019, 12:52 pm
#933
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
Mild cc usage isn't a problem. It when small business earn hundreds of thousands of miles through CCs, where it becomes a problem. The entry-level 1K FF earns about 140K miles per year. A small business can earn millions of miles, without even flying. That's a poke in the eye to high-volume UA FFs. It floods the market with a currency that was originally only held by FFs, but is now held by anyone with a credit card...
If I were UA I'd create two versions of the award booking system. One for Premier elites that works like the current system where you can enter origin and destination and another which I'll call Mickey Mouse for the non-elites. In this Mickey Mouse system, they can't enter destinations, instead they are given a list of destinations they can "afford" with their milage balance from their origin. Hard for the kettles to complain if you give them more destinations than they can handle!
Safe Travels,
James
Apr 13, 2019, 12:54 pm
#934
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 7,904
No offense intended, but you are the poster child of who UA is targeting with this devaluation. There are countless UA frequent flyers who are unable to upgrade to int'l business because seats are taken by folks like you. At the end of the day, these are called 'Frequent Flyer' programs, not 'accumulate a ton of miles without flying' programs.
Apr 13, 2019, 1:00 pm
#935
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 11,462
How do you know the coveted seat is taken by an award ticket in the first place? When I'm shopping for an award, it seems like UA hardly ever releases a pair of US-EU J. If I'm lucky I end up on a partner. UA controls inventory anyway, so if they want 0 awards on a flight they're empowered to do so. By the way, the airlines seem to have decided "accumulate a ton ...without flying" is profitable.
Apr 13, 2019, 1:09 pm
#936
Join Date: Jan 2018
Programs: UA LT GS | UA LT Club | Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 1,250
Simply change the inventory seen by non-Premier members or multiply the number of miles required for them. Want that J flight from SFO to SYD? No problem, that's just 1,000,000 roundtrip! That being said, I suppose it must be a tight balance for UA. They can't be seen as shafting their CC members...
1. Make award travel more expensive to wean people of CC mileage heroin. 2% cash back is looking more attractive or spray your miles into other airlines via AMEX or Citi Prestige...
2. Make 1K qualification more difficult. Annual spend requirement increasing to $15K this year. Should cut 1Ks in 2020 by at least 10-15%.
3. Slash new RPUs awarded in 2019 by 50-70%+, thereby eliminating flood or RPUs in marketplace
The net result will hopefully be 1Ks and GS will have an easier time using their GPUs and mileage for upgrades starting later this year when the devaluation kicks in.
I think it's going to be a good time to be a 1K or GS starting in 2020...
Apr 13, 2019, 1:14 pm
#937
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Houston
Programs: UA Plat, Marriott Gold
Posts: 12,693
No offense intended, but you are the poster child of who UA is targeting with this devaluation. There are countless UA frequent flyers who are unable to upgrade to int'l business because seats are taken by folks like you. At the end of the day, these are called 'Frequent Flyer' programs, not 'accumulate a ton of miles without flying' programs. In the new world, your 300K points will earn you appx one business class RT every two years. If you simply switched to a 2% cash back cc, you would earn $4K over two years. That would fund two business class RTs if you shopped wisely. Frequent flyers win with this devaluation because you will be forced to do one of three things:
1. Stop accumulating UA miles via CCs
2. Continue to use your UA miles on business class travel, but consume fewer seats, because the flights are much more expensive. I loved the Delta example posted (1 million miles RT to the Middle East in biz!)
3. Switch to domestic short-distance travel and suck up seats from DEN-LAS. There is no shortage of seats and no desire to upgrade by frequent flyers on short routes like this, so have at 'em.
Again, no offense intended, but us frequent flyers are curious to see how folks like you respond to UA's chess move here.
1. Stop accumulating UA miles via CCs
2. Continue to use your UA miles on business class travel, but consume fewer seats, because the flights are much more expensive. I loved the Delta example posted (1 million miles RT to the Middle East in biz!)
3. Switch to domestic short-distance travel and suck up seats from DEN-LAS. There is no shortage of seats and no desire to upgrade by frequent flyers on short routes like this, so have at 'em.
Again, no offense intended, but us frequent flyers are curious to see how folks like you respond to UA's chess move here.
1. Stop accumulating UA miles via carcas dragging
2. Continue to use your UA miles on business class travel, but consume fewer seats, because the carcas dragging rebates are less lucrative.
3. Switch to domestic short-distance travel and suck up seats from DEN-LAS. There is no shortage of seats on these leisure routes, so have at 'em.
Again, no offense intended, but profitable customers are curious to see how folks like you respond to UA's chess move here.
Sorry, I just had to do it, because I think you've missed the real point of United MileagePlus and the associated credit cards for United. They make great money on the margin between which they sell the points to the credit card company at and the cost of providing an award ticket, even the coveted longhaul business class. MileagePlus is for loyalty marketing, not specifically the frequency of flying, in the contemporary era. That's the only substantive point I'm making, the rest is word play.
Apr 13, 2019, 1:20 pm
#938
Join Date: Jan 2018
Programs: UA LT GS | UA LT Club | Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 1,250
It is profitable, until it takes a toll on your core customer base (frequent flyers), and that's been brewing for the past several years. United is reacting by purging the eco-system of the frothy CC miles.
Apr 13, 2019, 1:37 pm
#939
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bay Area
Programs: DL SM, UA MP.
Posts: 12,729
They depend on a lot on credit card money.
Why would they discourage people getting credit cards, which would cause banks to stop paying UA for miles?
Why would they discourage people getting credit cards, which would cause banks to stop paying UA for miles?
Apr 13, 2019, 1:57 pm
#940
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Danville, CA, USA;
Programs: UA 1MM, WN CP, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Gold, IC Plat
Posts: 15,722
For those of us with lifetime status, who live in hubs or otherwise prefer UA the real question may be whether we continue credit miles to UA or another program. Unfortunately SQ and LH are worse options except for very frequent flyers but I have a feeling Avianca and others will be getting another look. I expect this decision will not be ripe until the partner saver biz awards are devalued, but that can’t be far off.
The credit card decision is the easiest one - will be interesting to see if Chase sees major reduction in UA card usage just as SPG Amex did after massive deval.
The credit card decision is the easiest one - will be interesting to see if Chase sees major reduction in UA card usage just as SPG Amex did after massive deval.
Apr 13, 2019, 2:00 pm
#941
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Northern California
Programs: I want to be free! Free!
Posts: 3,455
On the other hand, Delta just managed to get a decade long renewal of their Amex deal a couple weeks ago, and the skypesos devaluation has been amongst the most egregious.
Apr 13, 2019, 2:12 pm
#942
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: AS 75K, DL Silver, UA Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Platinum + LT Gold
Posts: 10,514
That remains to be seen. P fares will continue to be plenty for those with or without status. Given those generally sell for only marginally more than W fares, no need for prayers to be answered. Good luck.
Apr 13, 2019, 2:13 pm
#943
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Danville, CA, USA;
Programs: UA 1MM, WN CP, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Gold, IC Plat
Posts: 15,722
fools are born every day. But seriously I could see keeping cards that provide perks (ie priority boarding) that outweigh the AF (I keep AA card for this reason). But using them to charge at 1 mile per $1 is another matter.
Apr 13, 2019, 2:16 pm
#944
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 7,904
As she says in her post, her 300K miles get her a couple of RT biz class int'l trips per year. That means she's consuming two saver RTs in biz at 150K/trip. With the saver award gone, that trip will now cost 300K miles. At 300K, you'd be foolish to use CC miles. Those 300K miles could earn you $6K via 2% cash back. $6K can earn you a paid RT biz ticket to anywhere in the world on myriad wonderful airlines. Why lock into UA. Take the $6K and be a free agent...
It is profitable, until it takes a toll on your core customer base (frequent flyers), and that's been brewing for the past several years. United is reacting by purging the eco-system of the frothy CC miles.
It is profitable, until it takes a toll on your core customer base (frequent flyers), and that's been brewing for the past several years. United is reacting by purging the eco-system of the frothy CC miles.
I understand your point but am not sure if your case happens in reality. AA and LH are known for example to let cabins fly empty rather than release awards.
By the way UA already does release extra award inventory to some elites. Maybe you don’t like that either?
Last edited by rrgg; Apr 13, 2019 at 2:39 pm
Apr 13, 2019, 3:26 pm
#945
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,412
It is practically a FlyerTalk tradition for some people to anoint themselves as the Platonic ideal of the desired customer after pretty much any change. If DL is any guide, few people will really benefit from this change, no matter how much UA likes them. The idea that there are going to be all of these unsold seats suddenly available due to reduced competition from one group or another seems fanciful.
