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 14, 2019, 11:53 pm
#976
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,141
Not sure the phrase "counter-argument" is the right phrase here.
First, we don't have the full details of UA plan / implementation-- we can speculate, we can use the DL as a model, .... but that's only speculation (maybe informed speculation, but speculation).
Second, if UA plans to continue waitlisting, they could create a process -- much would depend on how the basic plan is structured. Is there the concept of inventory? Will there be caps? or is this a simple X cpm conversion?
A potential implementation for one case -- domestic leg on an international award, could be the waitlist clears for no additional miles if a certain inventory situation exists.
But the real point, to make such a definitive statement before UA releases further information is hasty,
First, we don't have the full details of UA plan / implementation-- we can speculate, we can use the DL as a model, .... but that's only speculation (maybe informed speculation, but speculation).
Second, if UA plans to continue waitlisting, they could create a process -- much would depend on how the basic plan is structured. Is there the concept of inventory? Will there be caps? or is this a simple X cpm conversion?
A potential implementation for one case -- domestic leg on an international award, could be the waitlist clears for no additional miles if a certain inventory situation exists.
But the real point, to make such a definitive statement before UA releases further information is hasty,
While my mind is not creative enough to envision a scenario that would involve the waitlisting Saver Awards, I will say that if such a system could be implemented, it would be a benefit to UA. They could design a system with a variable ratio reward schedule which sucks money and provides a glimmer of hope from passengers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinfo...tio_scheduling
Oh wait! That is exactly what makes the MileagePlus program as lucrative as it is....
Apr 15, 2019, 7:33 am
#977
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Bay Area
Programs: UA 1k now; AA (no status); HY Diamond; SPG Platinum
Posts: 707
Buying tickets on better airlines and move my mileage accrual to other star carriers.
bye UA.
what quality are you talking about? polaris seat + polaris lounge, brand new planes plus brand new interior on old planes, 788 and 789 retrofit are right around the corner. what else are you looking for?
\and savvy customers don't ever redeem standard award anyway. by that logic, what are we talking about here anyway?
foreign carriers can perform better is a myth. if that is true, why is OZ almost bankrupt now? why did CX keep losing money for the last few years? despite the change at MP, i can tell you MP is still vastly superior to most of the foreign FFPs out there for the great majority of people in this country and a lot of people in foreign land even, i can assure you that.
\and savvy customers don't ever redeem standard award anyway. by that logic, what are we talking about here anyway?
foreign carriers can perform better is a myth. if that is true, why is OZ almost bankrupt now? why did CX keep losing money for the last few years? despite the change at MP, i can tell you MP is still vastly superior to most of the foreign FFPs out there for the great majority of people in this country and a lot of people in foreign land even, i can assure you that.
2. I can say BR, OZ, NH are much better than MP.
Please do actual research.
I would lay odds that there isn't any.
To make a broader claim- if your main reason for choosing an airline loyalty program is to receive free travel in longhaul J, or heavily discounted longhaul J travel, the conduct of UA and DL is making clear that US carriers feel they can sell that space for big money and have little interest in giving it away to you even as a reward for being an excellent customer.
And this absolutely should cause people to reevaluate their participation in FF programs.
Intellectually, I understand why UA is doing this, but the only way the airlines will ever be scared off of this sort of thing is if they start losing significant business from frequent flyers.
To make a broader claim- if your main reason for choosing an airline loyalty program is to receive free travel in longhaul J, or heavily discounted longhaul J travel, the conduct of UA and DL is making clear that US carriers feel they can sell that space for big money and have little interest in giving it away to you even as a reward for being an excellent customer.
And this absolutely should cause people to reevaluate their participation in FF programs.
Intellectually, I understand why UA is doing this, but the only way the airlines will ever be scared off of this sort of thing is if they start losing significant business from frequent flyers.
1. UA J both soft and hard product are horrible across the pacific. I am already taking the minimum required UA flight to keep travel desk from giving me hard time.
2. The only saving grace about UA is it’s SAUA and award space for my family has been good.
Now i will accrue either BR or NH for the UA flights. End result is the very premium passenger United is after will actual leave for better program and better product offer at better price.
An entry-level GS earns ~550K miles/yr. This devaluation is roughly 30%, so you lose ~150K miles. Big deal. A single C class ticket can accrue 75K miles. The bet UA is making is:
1. GS - will be mildly annoyed, but no big deal. The quest for $50K PQD/yr on UA metal will march right along...
2. 1K - generally happy, as the entry-level 1K only earns ~140K miles/yr, so only a 42K mile hit. Making it easier to use GPUs and RPU will be much appreciated by 1Ks.
3. Some of the casual credit card mile earners will leave the eco-system, but many will stay and simply pay the new premium award amounts.
Overall a win for UA and especially for #2 .
1. GS - will be mildly annoyed, but no big deal. The quest for $50K PQD/yr on UA metal will march right along...
2. 1K - generally happy, as the entry-level 1K only earns ~140K miles/yr, so only a 42K mile hit. Making it easier to use GPUs and RPU will be much appreciated by 1Ks.
3. Some of the casual credit card mile earners will leave the eco-system, but many will stay and simply pay the new premium award amounts.
Overall a win for UA and especially for #2 .
1K in UA hub still won’t get GPU or RPU cleared. There are just too many 1K/GS where I am.
The only saving grace about entire UA experience was the MP program.
UA soft/hard product are disaster. Heck even Air China is getting much better than UA.
I see no point in staying with UA.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Apr 15, 2019 at 7:12 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member; please use multi-quote
Apr 15, 2019, 7:58 am
#978
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
...And let's not forget CoUnihound declared bankruptcy how many times? It's a small miracle they still acknowledged lifetime status once they emerged from it!
For what? If you fly UA regularly and purchase the lowest K fares or fly Economy Basic as I do, then having the UA benefits like E+ seating, 3 checked bags, CPUs, etc. are worth it. If you fly the lowest fare EuroWings flights within Europe and back to North America, UA and NH are good because they'll grant you LH lounge access, something BR and OZ don't offer. In terms of accruing status every year, as it stands, UA is the better program. I can hit UA Gold with a $2K in spend across a couple K fare TPACs. Heck if I was really keen I could probably qualify for 1K for around $3K in spend across UA and * partners.
On the other hand, if you don't purchase the lowest K fares and strictly care about the *Gold status, what you are saying is correct. OZ will give you Lifetime Gold with 500,000 miles across all * partners, not just OZ. That's a huge discount for lifetime status! You can also get up to 4 years of *Gold with them if you play your cards right (i.e. hit 50,000 at the beginning of your programme year). Let's also not count out A3 which has significantly reduced re-qualifying criteria.
Safe Travels,
James
Apr 15, 2019, 8:07 am
#979
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Bay Area
Programs: UA 1k now; AA (no status); HY Diamond; SPG Platinum
Posts: 707
...And let's not forget CoUnihound declared bankruptcy how many times? It's a small miracle they still acknowledged lifetime status once they emerged from it!
For what? If you fly UA regularly and purchase the lowest K fares or fly Economy Basic as I do, then having the UA benefits like E+ seating, 3 checked bags, CPUs, etc. are worth it. If you fly the lowest fare EuroWings flights within Europe and back to North America, UA and NH are good because they'll grant you LH lounge access, something BR and OZ don't offer. In terms of accruing status every year, as it stands, UA is the better program. I can hit UA Gold with a $2K in spend across a couple K fare TPACs. Heck if I was really keen I could probably qualify for 1K for around $3K in spend across UA and * partners.
On the other hand, if you don't purchase the lowest K fares and strictly care about the *Gold status, what you are saying is correct. OZ will give you Lifetime Gold with 500,000 miles across all * partners, not just OZ. That's a huge discount for lifetime status! You can also get up to 4 years of *Gold with them if you play your cards right (i.e. hit 50,000 at the beginning of your programme year). Let's also not count out A3 which has significantly reduced re-qualifying criteria.
The key thing people miss is that there's a big difference between accruing miles and accruing status. The former can is typically accomplished with credit cards and can be transferred to whichever airline you prefer. The latter is accomplished when you are actually forced to pay out of pocket for a fare you want and the decision where to credit to should be based primarily on which program is the easiest to hit status. Hence, I accrue status to UA but accrue miles to Aeroplan, BA, AE Travel, etc. Sometimes I'll combine miles and status to get what I want. Case in point I flew LAX to DTW on UA using Aeroplan points collected, but applied my MilagePlus status to the ticket after booking to get my E+ seating, lounge access and CPU which cleared for the IAD > DTW segment.
Safe Travels,
James
For what? If you fly UA regularly and purchase the lowest K fares or fly Economy Basic as I do, then having the UA benefits like E+ seating, 3 checked bags, CPUs, etc. are worth it. If you fly the lowest fare EuroWings flights within Europe and back to North America, UA and NH are good because they'll grant you LH lounge access, something BR and OZ don't offer. In terms of accruing status every year, as it stands, UA is the better program. I can hit UA Gold with a $2K in spend across a couple K fare TPACs. Heck if I was really keen I could probably qualify for 1K for around $3K in spend across UA and * partners.
On the other hand, if you don't purchase the lowest K fares and strictly care about the *Gold status, what you are saying is correct. OZ will give you Lifetime Gold with 500,000 miles across all * partners, not just OZ. That's a huge discount for lifetime status! You can also get up to 4 years of *Gold with them if you play your cards right (i.e. hit 50,000 at the beginning of your programme year). Let's also not count out A3 which has significantly reduced re-qualifying criteria.
The key thing people miss is that there's a big difference between accruing miles and accruing status. The former can is typically accomplished with credit cards and can be transferred to whichever airline you prefer. The latter is accomplished when you are actually forced to pay out of pocket for a fare you want and the decision where to credit to should be based primarily on which program is the easiest to hit status. Hence, I accrue status to UA but accrue miles to Aeroplan, BA, AE Travel, etc. Sometimes I'll combine miles and status to get what I want. Case in point I flew LAX to DTW on UA using Aeroplan points collected, but applied my MilagePlus status to the ticket after booking to get my E+ seating, lounge access and CPU which cleared for the IAD > DTW segment.
Safe Travels,
James
2. BR give you 2 year gold status after 50,000 miles where UA gives you only one.
3. BR also give you LH lounge access once you hit gold.
4. Unless you are based overseas- $2k won’t get you gold. It’s $6k PQD. For 1k care to check?
So why would I want to spend money on worse experience, in exchange for mileage pesos, GPU/RPU that never clears.
Apr 15, 2019, 9:15 am
#980
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: LAX/TPE
Programs: United 1K, JAL Sapphire, SPG Lifetime Platinum, National Executive Elite, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 42,201
I doubt this. Limited saver availabity already means that most of the seats affected by this will be seats that are already set at standard award levels. So no 12k seats.
This is really about (1) increasing the cost of STANDARD awards in peak times and on peak routes, and (2) making it extremely difficult to fly transoceanic J for free.
This is really about (1) increasing the cost of STANDARD awards in peak times and on peak routes, and (2) making it extremely difficult to fly transoceanic J for free.
Delta no longer offers anything resembling "saver" awards unless you're flying between two points they never sell out on Saturday at midnight and you *might* be able to snag a decent deal. Pretty much anything remotely desirable is now at least 5x higher, with many options 10x higher or more. Any aspirational destinations are going to be priced way out of reach unless you are planning on liquidating your 500K account to fly a family of 4 from LA to HNL in coach off-peak.
Apr 15, 2019, 9:30 am
#981
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In between
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, SPG/Marriott Plat, Hertz PC
Posts: 564
This seems like the relevant thread for this, but my search parameters didn't turn up any wiki or reference:
Like many others in this thread - I'm likely going to can my Chase United Club card before my renewal later this year and move to a card that's program agnostic. That said, I'm still likely going to be flying United given my travel patterns so what I'd like to do is credit PQM/PQD to United, but credit RDM to another *A program like NH or SQ. Is that even doable? If yes, what do I need to do?
Like many others in this thread - I'm likely going to can my Chase United Club card before my renewal later this year and move to a card that's program agnostic. That said, I'm still likely going to be flying United given my travel patterns so what I'd like to do is credit PQM/PQD to United, but credit RDM to another *A program like NH or SQ. Is that even doable? If yes, what do I need to do?
Apr 15, 2019, 9:38 am
#982
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,454
Apr 15, 2019, 9:42 am
#983
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: PHX
Programs: AS 75K; UA 1MM; Hyatt Globalist; Marriott LTP; Hilton Diamond (Aspire)
Posts: 56,454
Apr 15, 2019, 9:43 am
#984
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In between
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, SPG/Marriott Plat, Hertz PC
Posts: 564
Figured. So, let's assume I credit everything to a different *A program on which I have no current status - I'm guessing there's no way to concurrently enjoy 1K benefits while flying UA? I'd love to hear everyone's strategies around this.
Apr 15, 2019, 10:13 am
#985
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Bay Area
Programs: UA 1k now; AA (no status); HY Diamond; SPG Platinum
Posts: 707
You will end up surprised. We already know Kirby takes every customer-negative move by Delta, dreams up a way to make it worse and more punishing towards customers, then implements it at United.
Delta no longer offers anything resembling "saver" awards unless you're flying between two points they never sell out on Saturday at midnight and you *might* be able to snag a decent deal. Pretty much anything remotely desirable is now at least 5x higher, with many options 10x higher or more. Any aspirational destinations are going to be priced way out of reach unless you are planning on liquidating your 500K account to fly a family of 4 from LA to HNL in coach off-peak.
Delta no longer offers anything resembling "saver" awards unless you're flying between two points they never sell out on Saturday at midnight and you *might* be able to snag a decent deal. Pretty much anything remotely desirable is now at least 5x higher, with many options 10x higher or more. Any aspirational destinations are going to be priced way out of reach unless you are planning on liquidating your 500K account to fly a family of 4 from LA to HNL in coach off-peak.
i had to fly to Singapore late last year from SFO- sea- nrt- sin in J.
I got about 34k miles and can’t even get a free one day ticket to Detroit from SJC.
Apr 15, 2019, 10:20 am
#986
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
:
Delta no longer offers anything resembling "saver" awards unless you're flying between two points they never sell out on Saturday at midnight and you *might* be able to snag a decent deal. Pretty much anything remotely desirable is now at least 5x higher, with many options 10x higher or more. Any aspirational destinations are going to be priced way out of reach unless you are planning on liquidating your 500K account to fly a family of 4 from LA to HNL in coach off-peak.
Like many others in this thread - I'm likely going to can my Chase United Club card before my renewal later this year and move to a card that's program agnostic. That said, I'm still likely going to be flying United given my travel patterns so what I'd like to do is credit PQM/PQD to United, but credit RDM to another *A program like NH or SQ. Is that even doable? If yes, what do I need to do?
Safe Travels,
James
Apr 15, 2019, 11:36 am
#987
Join Date: Feb 2015
Programs: united
Posts: 1,636
2. This is about standard awards as well as savers. They can charge as much as a million miles for a J seat.
Apr 15, 2019, 12:21 pm
#988
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,359
-James
Apr 15, 2019, 1:00 pm
#989
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Pacific Northwest
Programs: UA Gold 1MM, AS 75k, AA Plat, Bonvoyed Gold, Honors Dia, Hyatt Explorer, IHG Plat, ...
Posts: 16,846
2. This is about standard awards as well as savers. They can charge as much as a million miles for a J seat.
Apr 15, 2019, 1:10 pm
#990
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In between
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, SPG/Marriott Plat, Hertz PC
Posts: 564
Given the enhancements to United Club access combined with the reward redemptions, why would anyone want to sign up for that card nowadays? Aside from heavy UA loyalist who have a sadistic need to access UCs whilst travelling domestically I really don't see the point anymore!
Safe Travels,
James