First Class UA award seats cheaper than Economy
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: New Jersey
Programs: UA MM 1K, AA MM Gold, Marriott LT Platinum
Posts: 3,234
First Class UA award seats cheaper than Economy
Strange to see an inverted award chart, with FC less expensive than Y? These are flights from EWR-GSO in October, with wide open seat maps but 0 paid fare availability below E fares around $620. Skip the first offered flight and note the other three. Normally Y saver fares are as low as 7.5k miles. Also not sure what my Premier and Cardmember status is getting me.
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 11,446
Strange to see an inverted award chart, with FC less expensive than Y? These are flights from EWR-GSO in October, with wide open seat maps but 0 paid fare availability below E fares around $620. Skip the first offered flight and note the other three. Normally Y saver fares are as low as 7.5k miles. Also not sure what my Premier and Cardmember status is getting me.
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The message about Premier / Cardmember means you're accessing XN or IN when X or I is unavailable. In this case obviously not XN.
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 14,878
Yes, Ive seen this before. Specifically [relatively] recently when I was almost doing a last minute trip to Canada around Xmas - the week before. Y seats were something like 65K miles OW, but got F (with the majority on a lie flat 777) for something like 53K. Yes - all of these numbers are high - in lighter travel season, and with chart pricing was a 12.5K/25K for a OW award. But given the requisite F fare was something like $3K, and even the Y fare was something close to 1K, miles was the easy choice, and in F. Return I booked something around the same price for PP, which was only a couple of thousand more miles than Y.
High leisure and low business demand will bring this kind of pricing - so this will happen on many kinds of holidays.
High leisure and low business demand will bring this kind of pricing - so this will happen on many kinds of holidays.
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, MR LTT, HH Dia, Amex Plat
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I see it a lot with 763 high-J ... just not a plane with a config that makes a lot of sense with business travel still very depressed. UA got these for the business-heavy routes and it made sense when that investment was made. Currently that's tough to 'fill'
#9
Join Date: Jan 2022
Location: CMI
Programs: AAdvantage Platinum
Posts: 106
Inventory-demand mismatch could explain J pricing approaching Y pricing, but not actually crossing it. For that to make sense, there must be some market that actually prefers Y over J and I don't think any of us would buy that.
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, MR LTT, HH Dia, Amex Plat
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that is only true for cash pricing and not for award pricing. There can be high Y demand and UA does not open X/XN and only offer YN whereas there is IN available. Actually happens not too infrequently, depending on the routes you are searching. I have seen a lot when searching (and finding/booking) 40k IN to Hawaii when YN was 60k. Without access to IN it will happen very very rarely.
#11
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Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,384
If award fares are not, then it is fairly straightforward for an "empty" premium cabin to price lower than Y for award tickets.
#12
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: West Michigan
Programs: DL, UA, AA, B6, BA (airline status-free leisure traveler), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,963
Lessons to learn from OP's observations?
I do not fly UA a lot, but do have the MP Explorer Card. I currently have award flights booked to OGG over Christmas.
My takeaway from the OP is that I should occasionally scan award availability to see if FC awards pop-up later.
Correct? Can't hurt, since all that I have to lose is a little of my time. If so, thanks for the observations, OP!
My takeaway from the OP is that I should occasionally scan award availability to see if FC awards pop-up later.
Correct? Can't hurt, since all that I have to lose is a little of my time. If so, thanks for the observations, OP!
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, MR LTT, HH Dia, Amex Plat
Posts: 31,962
I do not fly UA a lot, but do have the MP Explorer Card. I currently have award flights booked to OGG over Christmas.
My takeaway from the OP is that I should occasionally scan award availability to see if FC awards pop-up later.
Correct? Can't hurt, since all that I have to lose is a little of my time. If so, thanks for the observations, OP!
My takeaway from the OP is that I should occasionally scan award availability to see if FC awards pop-up later.
Correct? Can't hurt, since all that I have to lose is a little of my time. If so, thanks for the observations, OP!
#14
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: BNE/OOL temporarily-permanently at CAK/PIT
Programs: UA*1K & UA Club, National Ex. Elite, Hertz Pres. Circ., Amex Plat., CLEAR
Posts: 1,703
The short answer is that MileagePlus partners pay more for IN awards than XN awards. (Generally speaking it’s hard to book YN awards via partners although not necessarily impossible.)
The glitch is that United doesn’t block this situation off from its own customers. Let’s not give them any ideas though.
The glitch is that United doesn’t block this situation off from its own customers. Let’s not give them any ideas though.
#15
Join Date: Apr 2016
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, AA Gold, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 692
Happens for cash fares as well. It makes sense when there is a scarce commodity like economy seats and some businesses have a mandatory economy booking policy, it's in United's best interest to extract more value from the economy seat although most leisure or sensible travelers would definitely choose the premium seat.