The 8 Best Award Sweet Spots of United MileagePlus

Award Sweet Spots Series:

• Award Sweet Spots: American Airlines
• Award Sweet Spots: United Airlines
• Award Sweet Spots: Alaska Airlines
• Award Sweet Spots: Delta Airlines
• Award Sweet Spots: Air France/KLM
• Award Sweet Spots: Avianca
• Award Sweet Spots: Air Canada Aeroplan
• Award Sweet Spots: Etihad Airways

United MileagePlus

In my second installment in this series on the best award sweet spots of frequent flyer programs, I will be focusing on the best award sweet spots and the best uses of United MileagePlus of United Airlines. There are three main types of award programs for redemptions: award programs that have a fixed award chart between different regions (which is on average the best for redemptions), a distance based award chart, which charges based on cabin class and distance (like British Airways), and a dynamic award pricing, which means that the airline can charge whatever they want for awards (like Delta).

Unfortunately, United Airlines has a dynamic award chart, which means that they charge basically whatever they want for each ticket. However, United only recently got rid of their award chart and still pretty much follows an award chart, at least for most of their saver award availability, especially on long-haul flights. Because of this, there are a lot of great uses of United miles on United itself and also on partner airlines. You can earn United miles through flying United, their partner airlines, by spending on a co-branded United credit card, or through transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards or Marriott Bonvoy points to United.

United Airlines is in the Star Alliance, so you can redeem United Airlines miles on practically any Star Alliance airline. You can redeem United miles on Star Alliance partners (some of which are among the best airlines in the world), including All Nippon Airways, Lufthansa, Thai Airways, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Austrian Airways, EVA Air, South African Airways, among others in the Star Alliance. You can also redeem United miles on other partner airlines such as Azul Brazilian Airlines, Edelweiss Air, Juneyao Air, or Eurowings.

The 8 Best Award Sweet Spots of Untied Airlines

1. The United Excursionist Perk

I wrote about the United Excursionist Perk extensively in a previous article; I’m not going to explain all of it again, but it can come with some incredible value. The basics of it is that if you have two award flights on a multi-city itinerary, you can get an award ticket for no miles within the same region. Here’s a little snippet of that article which I wrote last year:

1. You can only use the United Excursionist perk withif you book multi-city award tickets. 

2. Typical Use: You book the multi-city entire ticket with three flights. The first flight is from Region A (United used to have so-called Regions – I know that it got rid of its award chart, but it still does in some ways use the Regions) to Region B at destination A. This first flight is booked at the regular United award price and can be in any cabin class. Typically, the second flight is within Region B at destination B and costs 0 miles, but only for the same class of service that you booked the first flight in. The third flight is from Region B at destination B back to your origin in Region A. Throughout this itinerary, you booked the flights from your origin to destination A and from destination B to your origin (both in Region B) and got the flight from destination A to destination B for 0 miles (for free)!

3. You cannot use the Excursionist Perk for three flights solely within one region.

4. The class of service that the second flight (the free flight) is in is solely dependent on the flight that you actually paid for with miles (the first flight) and sometimes is lower, especially for intra-US flights.

5. I did write this up above, but just to clarify: the originating region (where the origin of the first flight is) must be the same as the ending region (the region where the last flight ends).

Overall, the United Excursionist perk can give you some incredible value, and you can even get free flights in business class with it! Some ways to maximize the Excursionist Perk are to get free flights in business class from West Africa to Southern Africa (which are technically in the same region) or to fly business class within Southeast Asia on airlines such as Singapore Airlines or Thai Airways. Again, if what little I wrote here sounds confusing, please head over to my detailed post on it for clarification.

2. Short Haul Economy Class (Within & Outside The US)

Since United no longer has an award chart, they can basically charge whatever they want for award prices. While this might mean some higher prices on the upper end, it also sometimes means lower prices on the short-haul end in economy class. United has some fantastic award prices for short-haul flights in economy class, both on United itself and on partner airlines outside of the United States. Award tickets within the United States in economy class start at only 5,000 miles, which are valued from $70 to $75, which can be a fantastic deal, depending on the route.

For example, take this flight: United often charges only 5,000 miles for flights from Newark to Orlando one-way: a 2.5 hour flight, meaning that you could take a family of four to Orlando in economy class round-trip for only 40,000 miles, valued at a about $580, which is a great deal. To be fair, United rarely has such awards during the peak seasons, although United regularly does have 7,500 mile priced tickets during the peak season.

Since United doesn’t have an award chart any more, they can charge whatever they want for award flights. This hasn’t reflected much in long-haul saver award availability, although it has shown on short-haul economy class flights, as prices fluctuate most on intra-US economy class flights. While that does mean that they can charge more for flights, they often now also charge less; while awards used to generally start at 12.5K miles, now they often go down to 5K miles.

United also has great short-haul economy class pricing on partner airlines. On short-haul flights on partner Star Alliance airlines, United generally charges 8,000 miles on flights less than two hours where there is saver availability, although sometimes only charges 5,000 miles, especially on intra-Japan flights. However, United often does charge more on short-haul flights within regions – they often charge up to 15,000 miles which still counts as being at the “saver” level on flights, especially those which have a connection. On most nonstop short-haul economy class flights around the world, United only charges 8,000 miles (or sometimes even less). This is evident on flights within Europe on Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, SWISS, etc., flights within New Zealand on Air New Zealand, flights within Japan on ANA, or on flights within Central and South America on Copa Airlines or Avianca. Unlike on intra-US flights, United still pretty much has a fixed award chart for partner airlines, meaning that there shouldn’t be many discrepancies in award pricing.

3. Fly United Polaris From The US To Europe/Eastern Asia For Only 60/70K Miles

Unlike other airlines such as American Airlines which charges the same amount of miles on American and partner metal for flights at the saver level, United charges less for saver flights on United than on partner airlines (usually 10K miles less on long-haul flights), which is why I’m listing awards on United and partner airlines separately, while I’m combining awards in this section from the US to Europe and Asia. On long-haul flights, United uses two business class seats: the fantastic United Polaris seats, which are fairly private staggered seats in a 1-2-1 or 1-1-1 configuration, and the Rockwell Collins Diamond seats, which are (at this point) sub-par fully flat seats in a 2-2, 2-1-2, or 2-2-2 configuration, depending on the aircraft.

When there is saver award availability, United only charges 60,000 (worth about $850) miles in business class from North America to Europe when flying (the long-haul segment) on United metal. While it used to be that United had little to no saver availability in the new United Polaris seats, now that a very large portion of United’s long-haul aircraft feature the new seats, saver availability is easier to find. Especially during the off-season (a.k.a not in the summer, spring break season, or Christmas/New Year season), United offers saver availability on quite a few, if not most of their Polaris routes to Europe, even sometimes on their nonstop Newark to London flights. United even often has some availability on Polaris equipped aircraft during the summer, such as their Washington to Frankfurt or Brussels flights, which generally have tons of saver availability in business.

United also has tons of award availability on aircraft which aren’t equipped with Polaris, although in a year from now, almost all long-haul aircraft should be equipped with Polaris. While United Polaris (even with the new seats) isn’t an industry leading product, the seats are very solid, even by international standards, the bedding is the best in the world for business class, although the food is on average probably mediocre at best, for business class. Please note that on all saver itineraries with a connecting flight within the United States, the domestic leg will place you in economy, not first class.

United also has some reasonably priced award availability on flights to Eastern Asia. On (United operated) flights to China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, United charges 70,000 (worth about $1,000) miles in business class for one-way flights when traveling on United metal. This isn’t an amazing deal, although it’s still very solid for flights that long. Unfortunately, a large portion of United’s transpacific flights are on aircraft with United’s old business class product (such as non on all 787-8s and 787-9s and some 777-200s, which make up a good chunk of United’s transpacific flights, although many will be retrofitted with the new seat shortly). However, some routes with the new Polaris seats do have occasional saver availability, such as United’s flight from Newark to Shanghai.

The same rules apply for transpacific flights: if you book a transoceanic flight in Polaris with a connecting flights within the US, you will be put in economy on the intra-US flight. United also charges 75K miles in business class for flights to Southeast Asia, which includes Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and surrounding nations, although United only currently operates aircraft without the new Polaris seats there. It would also cost that much if you fly to East Asia on United and then connect on a partner airline to Southeast Asia. You can tell if your flight is equipped with the new Polaris seats based on the seat map (the Polaris seats are labeled blue while the old seats are labeled orange), although all 777-300ERs, 787-10s feature the new Polaris seats, while the majority of 777-200s and 767-300s are equipped with the new seats.

4. North America to Africa For 80,000 Miles

Another one of the best uses of United miles is to fly from North America to Africa for only 80,000 miles. There aren’t that many ways to get to Africa on miles and points for a relatively good value, but there is a fair amount of saver award availability on partner airlines to fly from North America to Africa on United. United’s Africa ‘region’ is very big, as United places almost all of Africa (from South Africa and Mauritius all the way up to Senegal and Ethiopia) in one region, while North Africa (including Morocco, Egypt, etc.) are in a different region. That means that it costs the same amount of miles to fly from the US to Mauritius as it costs to fly to Ghana (it’s also a great sweet spot for the Excursionist Perk).

There are a number of ways you can fly to Africa on United miles. Obviously, the most convenient way is to fly nonstop from the US to Africa on either South African Airways (which flies to JFK and IAD, with the latter via Accra), Ethiopian Airlines (they fly to IAD, EWR, ORD, IAH, JFK, and YYZ), or Egyptair (to IAD, JFK, or YYZ). United’s sole nonstop flight from the US to Africa, Newark to Cape Town, doesn’t have much saver award availability in business class, so it will almost always cost more than 80,000 miles (although there have been a couple of dates with saver availability).

Another way to get to Africa (for the same price in miles) is by flying via Europe on a partner airline such as Lufthansa, SWISS, Turkish Airlines, or other Star Alliance airlines. Alternatively, you could do what I did last summer and fly via South America to Africa on United to Sao Paulo and then on South African Airways’ flight to Johannesburg (looking at a map, it actually is often shorter in miles than flying via Europe, although you will have to endure two red-eyes).

If you wanted to maximize this award redemption, you theoretically could fly from the US to Mauritius or South Africa, fly somewhere else in central Africa (i.e. Kenya or Ethiopia) for no miles using the Excursionist Perk (and then book another intra-US flight for later, because of the Excursionist Perk rules), and then fly home from there using money, which is an excellent redemption. Economy class on flights to Africa also are reasonably priced, at 40,000 miles one-way.

5. Oceania to North Asia For 50,000 Miles in Business and First

The first sweet-spot which doesn’t involve flights originating or arriving in the US, is to fly from Australia or New Zealand to Northern Asia for only 50,000 miles. For all flights from Australia and New Zealand to China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and other neighboring countries, business class award tickets only cost 50,000 miles and first class awards only cost 65,000 miles, which is a fantastic deal. Other countries in Asia such as Singapore, Malaysia, or Indonesia also have the same costs for awards, although it isn’t that great of a deal for flights there as it is for flights to Northern Asia.

United has some top-tier airline partners in Oceania and North Asia such as ANA, Air New Zealand, EVA Air, Asiana, Thai Airways, and Singapore Airlines (although they have limited availability on United), among a few other airlines in Asia. While other airlines such as American Airlines do charge less for flights from Australia to North Asia, having over 10 hours in business class for only 50,000 miles is a great deal. United generally does have availability on most of those airlines, including many of Air New Zealand’s flights to North Asia, Asiana’s A380 flight to Sydney, and most of Air China’s flights to Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, United only rarely has award availability on Singapore Airlines to Australia/New Zealand, although their Auckland route has a reasonable amount of award availability.

Unfortunately, as airlines get rid of first class on more and more of their aircraft, there aren’t many routes with first class within Asia anymore on Star Alliance. However, the two non-Singapore Airlines flights with first class to Oceania, Thai’s 747 flight from Bangkok to Sydney, and Air China’s 777 flight from Tokyo to Sydney generally do have a reasonable amount of availability for only 65,000 miles.

If your perception of a good deal is the amount of miles spent for the amount of hours spent in business class, then there is an even better deal. Because of United’s old region rules which are still (de facto) in use, United only charges 40,000 miles between Oceania and Guam. Since there aren’t any direct flights from Australia to Guam, you’ll end up most of the time being routed via Northern Asia, for example through Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Osaka, or a combination of them. While this is hardly practical for many, you might consider this given the amount of hours you’ll spend in business class, or if you want to take the United Island Hopper (which I’ll be reviewing this year!) back from Guam to Honolulu (or vice versa) after a vacation in Australia. Alternatively, this could be convenient for any of the daredevils wanting to save an extra 10,000 miles by not taking the final flight to Guam, using the Hidden City “strategy.”

6. North America To Europe/Asia On Partner Airlines For 70/80K Miles

United (most often) charges an extra 10,000 miles on long-haul flights when traveling on partner Star Alliance airlines. However, since some of United’s partner airlines are among the best airlines in the world (i.e. ANA/Singapore Airlines/EVA Air) and since they allow you to get to more exotic places in the world, this is still sometimes a good deal. To Europe, award tickets for this price (70K miles, valued at about $1,000) are bookable on Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, SAS, Brussels Airlines, TAP Portugal, LOT Polish Airlines, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines, Aer Lingus (they have a partnership with United, although they are not in Star Alliance). To Asia, award tickets for this price (80K miles, valued at about $1,150) are bookable on Air China, Air Canada, ANA, EVA Air, and Asiana Airlines (long-haul Singapore Airlines flights are usually not bookable on United).

Additionally, to those willing to take the long way to Asia, United often does have award availability on European airlines to Asia (such as on Lufthansa, SWISS, or Turkish Airlines), also for 80,000 miles. This can sometimes be a great deal especially if you can craft an itinerary with a stopover there, given the amount of hours you would spend in business class, although it obviously is hardly convenient. United also often posts award availability on Ethiopian Airlines for flights to Eastern Asia (which is quite the detour), meaning that it probably isn’t worth it (unless you’re looking for an Ethiopian stopover or if it’s the only thing available), given that it also isn’t exactly a top tier airline.

On average, there actually is quite a bit more partner saver award availability than there is saver availability on United metal, as United generally has almost full access to saver availability on partner airlines. That means that if you are looking for flights in business class using United miles, you often won’t have an option but to fly on partner airlines. If you are considering between flying on United metal and flying on a partner airline for 10,000 miles more (given that there is availability on both), I’d probably stick with United (given you are flying on a retrofitted aircraft), given that Polaris is not any worse than Lufthansa’s or LOT’s business class (although might be a half-step down from SWISS or Austrian). However, on flights to Asia, United doesn’t have much availability on Polaris equipped aircraft, meaning that it’s often best to fly on partner airlines such as ANA or EVA Air on flights to Asia, despite the additional cost.

Redemptions on partner airlines using MileagePlus are also great in the sense that United doesn’t pass on the high surcharges which partner airlines such as Lufthansa have in their own award programs, especially in premium cabins. In case you were wondering, economy class flights from North America to East Asia also are reasonably priced, at 35,000 miles in economy class flying on United or for 40,000 miles in economy class flying on partner airlines.

7. Flights Within Africa For 17.5/30K In Economy/Business

As I mentioned in the section on the Excursionist Perk, United’s main Africa ‘region’ is extremely big, as it includes everything from Mauritius to South Africa to Ethiopia to West Africa. This leads to some pretty lucrative awards, as you can end up flying the same distance in business class as a flight from the US to Europe for the amount of miles as an economy class flight from the US to Europe. For example, you can fly all the way from Mauritius to Dakar on United partners South African Airways and Ethiopian Airlines. That’s over 15 hours of flying, for only 17,500 (valued at $250) miles in economy class or 30,000 (valued at about $425) miles in business class, which is an amazing deal.

While that probably isn’t the most practical routing for most (although it’s a great way to get from southern Africa to West Africa), the award prices are the same on all South African and Ethiopian Airlines flights within all of Africa, besides Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. That means that while the award prices will be relatively high for a two-hour flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town, you will still have to pay the same amount of money for a six-hour flight from Johannesburg to Accra, which would obviously be a much better deal.

8. Fly From Europe To Central/South Asia For Only 30K/55K Miles In Economy/Business

United also has reasonable prices for flights from Europe to Central and South Asia, which includes India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, among other nations. MileagePlus only charges 30K miles in economy class and 55K miles, valued at about $800 in business class for flights from Europe to Central and South Asia, which is an excellent deal, considering that from Western Europe it’s normally at least seven to eight hours of flying, if not more. While usually United will route you on Air India on flights to South Asia (which isn’t the best), they often also route you on Lufthansa, SWISS, LOT Polish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, or Turkish Airlines.

This sweet spot is also great for those looking to vacation in the Maldives, as the same award prices go for flights to the Maldives, although again, most award availability is on Air India. While this sweet spot is not as convenient for US-based travelers, it can be a great usage of miles for those based in Europe.

Conclusion

United MileagePlus is not the most valuable frequent flyer program in the world (quite to the contrary, programs such as Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and even AAdvantage are more valuable), but they are definitely better than some programs such as Delta SkyMiles. United MileagePlus also was massively devalued last year when they went from a region based award chart to dynamic awards, although (for now), many awards (including the Excursionist Perk) still rely on United’s old award chart. This does still lead to many sweet spots in United’s award programs, especially on long-haul flights on United itself or on partner airlines.

What is your favorite United MileagePlus sweet spot?