United’s Latest Changes To MileagePlus: Which Award Prices Have Gone Up?

Instead of writing more depressing articles about how aviation won’t recover and the Coronavirus, I figured that I could instead write a two-part series complaining about United’s MileagePlus changes instead!😃 Recently, United announced somewhat major changes to its MileagePlus program, both in accruing status and in redeeming miles. Last year, United made major changes to its program, in which it officially went to a dynamic award chart, introduced PlusPoints for elites to upgrade, and created a whole new different system of accruing status. More specifically, United recently without notice devalued almost all of their partner awards. United also got rid of a loophole to attaining status (well, kind of–I’ll later on explain how you can make the best of it), which I will talk about in my next article.

These devaluations couldn’t come at a worse time for the consumer, as air travel is down 95% worldwide, due to the global pandemic, which I’m sure we’re all tired of hearing about 24/7. They don’t quite make much sense, as airlines should be trying to incentivize people to travel long-term once we come out of this crisis.

Partner Award Devaluations

Last year, United airlines announced major changes to its MileagePlus program, in which it was going to switch to a dynamic award chart (a.k.a. they can charge whatever they want for awards), instead of having a fixed award chart, which it previously had. Since last fall, United has had a dynamic award chart for its own flights, meaning that it has been charging whatever it wants for flights on United metal, although remnants of its award chart have remained, as they haven’t really changed prices on its own long-haul business class flights.

However, the airline announced then that there wouldn’t be any devaluations or changes to its partner awards in the foreseeable future (this was last in November), which were supposedly going to be kept on a fixed award chart. However, United announced a few days ago that they would be getting rid of their partner award chart. When United first got rid of their own award chart, they didn’t really raise any of their award prices, so it seemed likely to assume that they were just going to say that they would make partner award costs dynamic, without actually raising prices.

My worst fears have come true: United raised almost all partner award costs by 10%, which really was more like of a devaluation of their award chart than creating a dynamic one. Although, who knows–maybe United will in the future truly have all partner awards be dynamic, with award prices changing similarly to how they do with actual ticket prices. This couldn’t have come at a worse time, in my opinion, as airlines should be trying to keep customers long-term, which this devaluation certainly isn’t. However, some analysts think that this devaluation may have been made because Chase recently pre-payed billions of United miles, which meant that it was not in United’s interest to devalue their miles before that deal, or because they were going to do this in the long-term anyways, and that most people aren’t really paying attention to the industry at this point.

How Have Prices Really Gone Up?

So by how much have award prices really gone up? As I stated earlier, United really just has raised nearly all partner award prices by 10%, while there haven’t been any changes to award prices on United metal.

Across the board, the vast majority of Star Alliance partner award costs have gone up by 10% (there are exceptions here and there), whether you are flying from the US to Europe, from Europe to Australia, or from Africa to Australia, etc. There are exceptions, although it seems like almost all flights have gone up by 10%, meaning that if the flight previously cost 30,000 miles, it now costs 33,000 miles, or if it previously cost 70,000 miles, it now costs 77,000 miles. While 10% isn’t the worst thing in the world, the amount of additional miles you need really can rack up with this change, especially if you often book long-haul premium cabin flights on partner airlines with United.

Weirdly, it seems that partner award costs on non-Star Alliance, along with a couple of Star Alliance airlines have stayed the same, including on Aer Lingus, SWISS, Eurowings, and Edelweiss Air. Also, it seems that select flights still retain the old pricing, for no apparent reason. So overall, the vast majority of partner flight awards’ prices have been raised by 10%, although some of them have remained the same,

It also seems that some United flights which connect to other flights on partner airlines have also been raised by 10%, although since most of United’s awards, especially in business class, are cheaper than those on partner airlines (such as this example on a transatlantic flight), they aren’t nearly as expensive as those solely on partner airlines.

So I guess United has moved to a quasi dynamic system for pricing its awards on partner airlines. It’s also TBD whether United will still keep their previous rule which I believe they implemented last November, where they raised partner awards by 3.5K miles for all redemptions within a month out, as the changes don’t go into implementation before July. That means that theoretically, if they keep that rule, which I think is likely (because why would they lower prices unless they had to?), then saver awards on United’s partners to Europe (just as an example) within 30 days out would cost 80,500 miles, a 15% increase over what they would have cost a year ago at 70,000 miles.

So, just to recap: The vast majority of flights on partner airlines have been raised by 10%, along with some flights on United which connect to Star Alliance airlines, while some flights, especially many of those of non-Star Alliance partner airlines’ prices have stayed the same.

Weirdly, United Still Seems To Use A (Highly Complex) Award Chart

While United technically doesn’t have an award chart and can price partner awards whatever they want with their new rules, they seemingly still price partner awards according to a rudimentary award chart (remember, United still technically has regions, which it takes into account when pricing award tickets), with four different levels/groups per destination-origin pair. Those include:

• 1. Tickets only on United and some tickets which connect to partner airlines from United (no change in price)
• 2. Tickets only on United and some tickets which connect to partner airlines from United (10% increase in price)
• 3. Tickets on partner airlines; almost all flights on non-Star Alliance airlines (no change in price)
• 4. Tickets on partner airlines; almost all flights on Star Alliance airlines (10% increase in price)

Of course, since United uses a dynamic award chart, there always are exceptions, although after analyzing United’s current award chart, I was able to somewhat come up with a rudimentary award chart for their dynamic system (I know, it’s counterintuitive, and can’t be completely accurate), along with some of the airlines which are included

Fortunately, I am happy to say that the long-famed United excursionist perk has remained intact.

Conclusion

I know that this probably won’t impact many people in the short-term, as I’m aware that most people aren’t taking or booking flights, at least for a couple of months from now. However, overall, once we are able to book flights again, this is terrible news, as the prices on the vast majority of flights on partner airlines have been raised when booking with miles. Fortunately, most flights on United still haven’t had a price raise, especially in long-haul business class, where I’m sure more people will book United in the future, as I’m sure most people would rather book a flight in business on United for 60,000 miles rather than a flight in Lufthansa or Austrian business class for 77,000 miles.

However, it’s still very bad news for those looking to redeem flights on partner airlines solely outside of the US where you can’t fly United, or for those looking to fly to/from the US on dates where United doesn’t have award availability, while their partner airlines do, in which you would have to spend 10% more miles.

What do you think of United’s recent devaluation of partner awards? Have you found any other interesting exceptions?