Update, 1:30pm ET: DEAD! Don’t miss it if this becomes alive again. Sign up for deal notification alerts here!
United has business class awards with a connection to most cities worldwide on select dates for just 60K miles each way.
While saver awards normally cost up to 99K miles, these awards are actually United standard awards, combined with saver awards on a partner airline. Those should cost a lot more miles, but are pricing at 60K miles.
This seems to price out with airlines if there’s a segment on airlines like Avianca, Ethiopian, Singapore, Thai, or Turkish.
Most flights involve 1 or 2 connections. You can also book an Excursionist Perk stopover award for free when you book a round-trip award.
Availability may vary between the old and new United calendars. You can often trigger the old calendar by selecting nonstop or multi-city under advanced award search, though you will then need to remove the nonstop filter on the search results page to see connecting flights. Some months have no availability and others have plenty of availability, so just scroll through the calendar until you find 60K award space.
You can cancel award tickets for free 30+ days before your flight and get back all of your miles and taxes. As there are free date changes at any time before departure, that effectively means you can always cancel and get back your miles…
Here are some sample cities with 60K flights.
Tel Aviv, Israel:
Bangkok, Thailand:
For example you can fly from Newark to Bangkok via Vienna at this rate:
Milan, Italy:
Seoul, South Korea:
Auckland, New Zealand:
Bali, Indonesia:
Buenos Aires, Argentina:
Phuket, Thailand:
Hong Kong:
Amman, Jordan:
Athens, Greece:
Dubai, UAE:
Manila, Philippines:
Santiago, Chile:
Male, Maldives:
If you, a member in your household, or an authorized user has one of the following Chase cards, you can transfer points into miles:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred has an 80K signup bonus, earns 2.1 points per dollar on travel, 3.1 points per dollar on dining, streaming, and online groceries, has a $50 hotel credit, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.3 cents each for paid travel or pay yourself back categories ($95 annual fee). Read more here.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve has a 50K signup bonus, earns 3 points per dollar on dining/travel, has a $300 travel credit, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.5 cents each for paid travel or pay yourself back categories ($550 annual fee with $300 travel credit). Read more here.
- Chase Ink Preferred has a 100K signup bonus and earns 3 points per dollar on shipping, advertising, and travel, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.25 cents each for paid travel or pay yourself back categories ($95 annual fee). Read more here.
Chase no-annual fee cards that are fantastic for earning points, but require one of the cards above for points transfers include:
- Chase Ink Cash has a record high 75K signup bonus and earns 5 points per dollar on cable, TV, telecom, cellular, office supply stores, and gift cards from office supply stores, plus 2 points per dollar on dining and gas ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
- Chase Ink Unlimited has a record high 75K signup bonus and earns 1.5 points per dollar everywhere ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
- Chase Freedom Flex has a 20K signup bonus, plus 5 points on rotating categories, 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, and 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
- Chase Freedom Unlimited has a signup bonus offering 3 points per dollar on up to $20K of spending in your first 12 month, afterwards earn at least 1.5 points per dollar everywhere, 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, and 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
Post what other destinations you find!
Do they have any good deals on business flights to Melbourne, Australia?
Search the calendar?
Also some hidden city possibilities.
In January 2023 for 120K instead of 200K.
Could be W hidden cities you can find cheaper and/or other dates, I don’t know how to search hidden cities.
They now have Economy Saver Award for 40K instead of 100K.
Route/date?
I checked NYC (Newark) to Mel, most dates.
40K each way is the saver rate:
https://www.dansdeals.com/credit-cards/highest-offer-ever-earn-120000-miles-united-club-infinite-card-new-benefits-club-membership-discounted-awards-2-free-checked-bags-per-passenger-ihg-statuscredit/#Here_Is_Uniteds_Hidden_Award_Chart
nyc – akl connects through sydney for 60k, question is if you need get to take out suitcases in sydney ?
Take carryons and buy stuff down under 🙂
Flying to places with 3 flights and long layovers when you can take a direct flight sort of defeats the purpose. Yes, you get to fly J on the cheap but you lose so much time and to me time is money as well as time lost at the destination. I can handle 1 connection of up to 3 or 4 hours max which some examples have but that’s about it.
Lots of hidden city possibilities. Plus schedule changes can get you on a nonstop…
Can you explain this??? This is interesting.
I’m getting nervous that the next step is the removal of United partner award charts 😐
Long gone.
Any availability to London in July?
Okay, I booked a one way 2-stop Business Class ticket from NY to TLV for 60k +$11. Now what is the chance I get United to transfer my booking to non-stop.
Watch for schedule changes.
What’s their threshold for schedule change? I’m sure there’s a minimum time change for them to swap you onto a non-stop right? Do you happen to know what that is?
Officially 2 hours, but you can get exceptions made for less than that as well in my experience.
Thanks, for the reminder about schedule changes.
We found three seats to Asia for Jan 2023 including almost 18 hours in Polaris SFO-SIN, tried bumping the staging flight PDX-SFO a few hours – no joy, but 9 months is plenty of time for flight schedule changes.
First time my 78 y.o. MIL will get to fly lie-flat Business seats, but also wanted a few extra hours to take her to Centurion (before guest rules change) and the Polaris lounge.
Its always great to get a hot shower before a red-eye and a long flight.
Can I buy on sale and then change the date for the same price or will need to pay the price difference?
Price difference always applies unless there’s a schedule change.
Has anyone seen availability from/to South Africa?
There’s some to CPT. I can’t seem to find any to JNB.
How do you put a United itinerary on hold to transfer the miles from Chase? Or does one have to transfer the miles first and then book?
Transfer first. It’s instant.
It wasn’t instant Unfortunately. It took 20 hours for my points to transfer & by then the sale was already done 🙁 120k UR points now stuck in United
I am able to find a few dates but cannot ticket. Any ideas?
You can call and see how many miles they want over the phone.
Oh man, the married segment pricing is really annoying this time around. I live by DC and would normally fly out of IAD. That Turkish 10:55pm flight to TLV in your screenshot is pricing at 93.5K if I put IAD as the origin. If I put LGA as the origin and connect to the same flight it’s 60K. Brutal.
Need a United segment to get this pricing.
Found an itinerary that works. 4 people round-trip to Israel in business class for a total out of pocket cost of $278. Unreal. Thank you for sharing this article before the other blogs got to it and ruined it!
Congrats and safe travels!
I also prefer IAD; glad you found an itinerary to TLV which can be a pain if you can’t utilize the UA directs from Dulles.
I will have to respectfully disagree though; your cost for the flight should include the marginal value of UR points which are a minimum of 1-1.5 cents depending how you use Pay yourself back.
safe travels!
That’s why I said out of pocket cost.
I hate being pedantic; but not enough apparently:)
The cool thing about chase points is they can be used for other purchases you would have made otherwise. So you are using money/currency out of your pocket.
Back when grocery pay yourself back was a thing I was happy to get back 1.5 cents rather than use them for travel which requires adulterating the value of the points with associated costs such as resort fees, taxis/rental cars etc.
I just booked $3000+ worth of flights and VRBO for 2 people this summer in Israel. I used 270k Cap1 points.
I still consider it as if I used $2700. Every form of payment has an alternate use, whether your are paying in chickens, dollars, SkyPesos, or time. But the cool thing is those Cap1 points were earned mostly through MS style spending. So I spent 15-30 hrs earning those 270,000 points.
If my time is worth $15 say, that $225-$450 worth of time was transformed into $2700.
I still have the ability to get 1 cent per point with Amazon gift cards which i consider about as close to money in the bank as possible- that is where using points represent a cost to ME.
just my 2 cents.
Can we book united award flights using cap one miles?
Not these.
Dan, I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but thank you so much! Booked a business class ticket to Europe from the West Coast, which I wouldn’t have known about this had it not been for you.
Awesome!
So, I dont have a chase card. Is there any way to take advantage of this deal without the credit card/points?
Or is this post specifically for chase cardholders.
You need either United miles or Chase points.
Colombo, Sri Lanka (CMB) has 60k fares but most routings seem to involve WAW on LOT Poland. CPT is also available well into next winter, via ADD on Ethiopian. CPT in February sounds lovely compared to the northeast USA.
Fares have sporadic dates, but seem available to end of schedule to BKK or CPT, for example.
MYC to MEL (AU) seems to have Bussiness for 120K(only with a stop in LA, Stop in SFO are 360K) from Jan 2023 going forward is that a change in the price or a sale?
Are you all using the United site to search these fares? How are you doing the connecting cities? Also are these fares just point redemptions?
Was able to book a round trip to Thailand from IAD using United Polaris and Thai Airways business. What would you say that flight would have cost with cash? What type of point value did I get booking these flights?
Thank you!
Check Google Flights?
How do I put a reservation on hold?
We just booked tickets for Sukkot on United partners Brussels Air JFK to TLV with one stop on the outbound and Swissair with one stop on the return. Can mileage be used to upgrade to business class? And if so, how is that done?
Dan. Any flights to London?
Dan, since TK’s IT is something from the 1950s-any chance they issue their own PNR, so that even if you skip the first UA segment, the TK itinerary continues to be valid?
That has nothing to do with TK united has control of the whole ticket and they will cancel Other Airlines if first flight is on United and skipped
Anybody find deals to TLV that don’t include Turkish?
Yes I found direct nonstop flights from EWR to TLV on United and they connect from there to Turkish flights, and you can just drop that leg..
Dead
Looking for EWR/JFK to Dubai – all united points flights have 2 stopovers, Can you pls. tell any better way to fly using points.
Dead
Not dead, they all just have 2 stopovers.
Seems dead to me, which route/dates do you still see for 60K?
Why can I never see Turkish flights anymore on United award search?
I know this is a speculative question, but do you think there’s any substantial chance of United not honoring these tickets? Given that they were ticketed instantly (at least for me) and the 60K price was just “good” and not “absurd” it feels safe to me. I also checked and the Turkish PNR that United issued is being recognized just fine by the Turkish app. What’s your reading of the situation?
I believe this will be honored.
i missed it, do you think they will do this again?
Thanks Dan, I booked yesterday for 60k, today same itinerary is 180k.
Thanks I got Biz class from BOM – HNL all flights in Biz for 60k! Stoked for that part but disappointed that my Chase UR transfer to United wasn’t instant 🙁 it took almost 20 hours to transfer and by then the deal was dead. Now I have 120k United miles stuck.
Any chance to find tickets on these same flights for my child & spouse?
Right now availability that was once showing a week or two ago is now completely gone.
Booked a 2 stop flight for next year to TLV that I would never take, hoping some flight changes will get me on the non-stop. Thanks
I’m pretty sure the answer is “no” but is there a way to set up alerts for schedule changes? Or I would just need to monitor periodically manually?
Typically you get an email when there is a schedule change.
United is very bad at sending those out.
Yeah exactly. Is there any 3rd party tool which monitors this that you know of?