ft4lyf

Found BOM-LHR in AI-F (September) -- price is now 165K miles via UA!

Used to be 61K or so.

Almost 4x increase in price. Close to 2.7x increase

Sad that UA has increased rates so dramatically

WineCountryUA

Actually 2.7x, less than 3x.

probably still close to 3 cpm

ft4lyf

My math is not mathing today

Yes, 2.7
still a great increase from before.

Gorcos

Hello

I am new in the forum, i have a question almost 2 months ago they had a standard price for the ticket with a range amount of miles but now that i am checking i am seeing that they have increased the amount a lot almost twice of what used to cost before, is there any reason? any clue?

Regards

fishleafer

Welcome to devaluation of miles, I too just found out that a ticket cost 8800 miles now is 12500 miles standard.

Gorcos

Mine from 42,000 jumped to almost 90,000

I have compared to other FF and they have stayed with the same price why United do this to their customers mainly their FF.

jsloan

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Because they can. Nobody will be able to give you a better reason than that.

mduell

Award ticket prices are dynamic, and have been for ~5 years now, just like revenue ticket prices are.

Gorcos

It looks even cheaper to buy the ticket than using the miles
What a shame i would have to look into canceling my Credit Card and use another one.

theroz

I found this to be Only on the Upside, if UA has say a $79 EWR-MIA fare for a winter date be prepared to see 25K for a 1 way, since its Peak time for MIA , un like DL,AA or B6 who will want next to nothing for the flight

cfischer

just not for partner awards. They are still not dynamic, they just got a lot more expensive.

tth6133

We seem to use the term "dynamic" pricing too broadly. To me, dynamic award pricing means the award prices are roughly tied to revenue ticket prices (as with WN or B6 awards). For UA partner awards, nothing is really "dynamic". First, UA pays predetermined prices to its partners for redemptions. Second, partner award prices are really more-or-less fixed on given routes at any given time, even when underlying cash fares vary. UA does, can, and will, change those award prices at any time, because it no longer publishes an award chart. Even though there's no published award chart, partner award pricing is clearly based on some algorithm/award chart that UA hides from us and changes from time to time (and recently, more drastically).

jsloan

I'm a pragmatist. If UA really does have a secret chart that they update as often as they want, and seemingly daily, then the award prices are essentially unpredictable. There is no practical difference between a dynamic system based upon parameters that we can see but can't control and a "algorithmic" system based upon parameters that we can't see and can't control.

Incidentally, "more-or-less fixed" means "not fixed," and it's quite clear that UA does not have a secret award chart for partner awards. They might still have one for IN awards. The reality distortion field around this board is as powerful as Steve Jobs's was: when people are coming every day and reporting different prices for the same city pair, the mental gymnastics necessary to call that a "hidden chart" seem pointless.

Finally, I noticed on my UA flight last night -- they've changed the sales pitch on the horrific, "let's make our airline look cheap" credit card offer. 60,000 points was, accurately, called '$600 off when using the miles + money feature," (paraphrased), rather than "enough for a round-trip to Hawaii" or whatever. So, if you need another reason to earn-and-burn, take this as a sign that $0.01 cpm is UA's near-term target redemption rate, and don't be surprised if it slips further after a few years: the things to watch for will be Chase adjusting the Pay Yourself Back feature and UA adjusting the Miles + Money multiplier.

rankourabu

DL redemptions are under a penny (obviously with exceptions). It would indeed be foolish to assume that in a few years time, United wont be worth a penny either.

tth6133

Any mileage currency is really a financial option: you have the right, but not the obligation, to redeem the miles for something (i.e. to exercise the option). As with any other option, its value is determined by how you optimally exercise the option. There have always been plenty of ways to blow your miles (e.g. below 1 cpm), and UA, like DL, has created even more ways for you to blow your miles. But you don't have to. For those of us in the miles/points game, we want to figure out ways to optimally redeem our miles/points (i.e. exercise our options).