The Next Shoe Drops: Here Is United’s Newly Devalued Unpublished Award Chart #UnitedUnfriendly

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United devalued their elite program and killed their partner award charts yesterday.

But they really want to make sure they have no loyal members to help them get out of the current mess, as have already devalued partner awards today. This is straight out of the Scott Kirby playbook!

Good thing we just bailed them out to the tune of $5 billion!

That’s the primary purpose in removing award charts. United still has internal award charts, but they hide them so that they can devalue without needing to provide any notice.

I’ve checked rates to destinations across the globe and compiled the chart below based on rates going up 10%. Partner award flights that depart by 6/30 are still pricing at the old rate, while partner awards for flights departing on 7/1 or later have increased in price by roughly 10% across the board.

Note that there are occasional partner awards pricing at the old rate, but those are typically on sub-optimal routings.

I’ve also included the current close-in mileage surcharge at the top. Note that the you’ll want to book travel as 2 one-ways to avoid paying the surcharge on the return leg when it wouldn’t apply when booked separately. However if you do that you would lose your ability to take a free stopover.

Prices below are for one-way flights from the mainland US:

 United flightsPartner flights
Close-in surcharge within 7 days2.5K-3K miles
1K-3.5K miles
Close-in surcharge 8-21 days in advance2K-2.5K miles1K-3.5K miles
Mainland US/Canada12.5K Coach
25K Business
35K Premium Business
14K Coach
27.5K Business
Alaska17.5K Coach
30K Business
40K Premium Business
19.5K Coach
33K Business
Hawaii22.5K Coach
40K Business
50K Premium Business
25K Coach
44K Business
Mexico17.5K Coach
30K Business
19.5K Coach
33K Business
Central America17.5K Coach
30K Business
19.5K Coach
33K Business
Northern South America20K Coach
35K Business
22K Coach
38.5K Business
Southern South America30K Coach
60K Business
33K Coach
66K Business
Europe30K Coach
60K Business
33K Coach
77K Business
121K First
Africa40K Coach
70K Business
44K Coach
88K Business
143K First
Middle East42.5K Coach
75K Business
47K Coach
93.5K Business
154K First
Central Asia42.5K Coach
75K Business
47K Coach
93.5K Business
154K First
South Asia40K Coach
75K Business
44K Coach
99K Business
154K First
North Asia35K Coach
70K Business
38.5K Coach
88K Business
132K First
Japan and Oceania35K Coach
70K Business
38.5K Coach
88K Business
121K First
Australia and New Zealand40K Coach
80K Business
44K Coach
99K Business
143K First

As I always say, don’t store excessive amounts of miles with any individual airline or hotel program where they are subject to devaluation. Keep them with banks that can transfer them to miles on demand or use them with cards that give a bonus value for your points when they’re used for paid travel.

HT: blug, via FT

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20 Comments On "The Next Shoe Drops: Here Is United’s Newly Devalued Unpublished Award Chart #UnitedUnfriendly"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Pol

So I guess you were wrong when you said you don’t see united raising prices for partner awards anytime soon.

united

When did United flip the saver award availibility? Just checked many dates in Jan-Feb from EWR to TLV and there is tons of saver seats available (and they are bookable through other mileage programs as well). Hopefully travel to TLV should return to normal by then.
But I’ve been searching for business class saver awards from EWR to LAX (direct), and they are non existant! Even for flights in the next few days, which are completely empty, there is nothing available
???

Jew

Wow! Definitely takes all motivation away (if there was any beforehand) to use united miles to Europe or Israel (my 2 main star alliance routes )

united

What changed on United flights to TLV? Unless you specifically want a stopover, why would you use United miles to redeem for a partner airline flight to TLV?

Jew

Much much much Much more availability on Lufthansa and Swiss etc etc (including first class on Lufthansa)
And I am usually buying to/from LA which is anyhow stopover

CtownBin

Right, but those flights would still be bookable using other airline miles and be cheaper, even before this devaluation.

Jew

Yep! That’s why I wrote united miles!

KSMH

crazy prices to TLV

Tex

Classic move after dumping miles by pumping 100K credit card offers

David

They really don,t like there loyal custumers.

Dov

Dan, Does someone in united review your posts?

Jonathan

Yes, we certainly do, we’re currently working on having him excommunicated

Maier A

Guaranteed AA and Delta will follow suit! a) Either they cahooted together about this, or b) DL & AA will just copy, thinking they won’t get labeled as the ‘shlechteh”.

Yanky

And now they canceled flight 84 for the rest of Aug… what’s wrong with them? I have a tik saver awards on that flight, any idea?

Ted Striker

Any chance they bring back the value in the long run if they survive, or are the devalue points here to stay? Just wondering if I should cash out my balance now at the devalued rate or wait and see…? Its a substantial balance (learned my lesson) and would hate to lose it all or its value be further eroded.

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