Effective today you can book one-way awards on United for half of the round-trip miles.
A huge advantage of one-way awards is that you can now mix and match Saver and Standard awards by booking them as one-way awards. Previously United required you to purchase a Standard award if just one of the flights did not have Saver availability.
One-way awards can currently only be booked online, and are only good for travel on United. You can’t book a one-way flight on Continental for example or any other partner airline.
Unfortunately you can’t take a stopover on a one-way award. When AA introduced one-way awards last year they eliminated most stopovers on all mileage redemptions. However they continued to allow a stopover at the North American gateway city (as well as all connections of under 24 hours).
With the new United one-way awards there are no stopovers allowed at all. The good news (for the time-being at least) is that unlike with AA stopovers are still permitted on round-trip award redemptions.
The other major news from United is the launch of Miles & Money Awards which can actually be half-decent.
Miles & Money Awards are unfortunately only valid in economy, so it’s hard to come up with come of the incredible values that you can get from Business or First class redemptions.
Here are some examples with cents per mile valuations compared with buying the ticket: (CPM valuations are generally a good way to determine whether to use miles or buy the ticket. The higher the CPM, the more bang you’re getting for your miles. When I was able to book a $400 NYC-Montreal ticket using 6,400 Starpoints+$40 I got a value of $360 for 6,400 points or 5.63 cents per Starpoint.)
1. JFK-LAX, 02/07 (flight 891)-02/10 (flight 84).
Paid ticket: $425.40 with tax
Miles: 25,000+$5 tax. Total CPM value: 1.7
Miles & Money: 15,000+ $140.73. Total CPM: 1.9
-Like buying 10,000 miles for $135.73, or 1.36 cents per mile.
2. Chicago(ORD)-NYC(LGA), 02/07 (flight 674)-02/10 (flight 669).
Paid ticket: $391.40 with tax
Miles: 25,000+$5 tax. Total CPM: 2.57
Miles & Money: 10,000+ $121.38. Total CPM: 2.7
-Like buying 15,000 miles for $116.38, or 0.78 cents per mile.
3. Chicago(ORD)-Paris(CDG), 02/03 (flight 942)-02/10 (flight 943).
Paid ticket: $1,366.10 with tax
Miles: 55,000+$82.40 tax. Total CPM: 2.48
Miles & Money: 30,000+ $399.10. Total CPM: 3.22
-Like buying 25,000 miles for $316.70, or 1.27 cents per mile.
4. Cleveland(CLE)-Denver(DEN), 02/04 (flight 6753)-02/09 (flight 6636).
Paid ticket: $715.40 with tax
Miles: 25,000+$5.00 tax. Total CPM: 2.86
Miles & Money: 10,000+ $131.05. Total CPM: 5.84
-Like buying 15,000 miles for $126.05, or 0.84 cents per mile.
isnt delta ‘pay with miles’ a good deal?
@Anonymous:
Delta’s pay with miles requires a Delta credit card and is never a good deal.
You are guaranteed to get less than a penny per mile. Of course Delta miles in general are absolutely terrible, but that’s another story.
Can you earn miles flying with Miles & Money Awards?
@Dirah:
Not unless they post by accident.
@Dan/Ctownbochur:
The same can be said regarding SPG!
@abc:
True, but I love SPG’s Cash & Points regardless of whether it posts as a paid rate…much more compelling than United’s.
@Dan/Ctownbochur:
domestic flights are usually 25k with pay with miles a flight that cost $150=15k..instead of the typical 25k why is that terrible??
I tried to book a award ticket on LAN I they told me that I have to have miles in my account to check availability. Any way around that?
Thanks
Are Miles and Money Awards available on one way tickets?
@Fan:
If you’re trying to book on AA just check the availability on AA.com
Try starting a thread over at http://www.dansdeals.com/forums for more info.
@Devorah:
No.
I’m trying to book a one-way ticket from TLV to SFO anytime in Apr/May and with the United deal I could only get the FRA-SFO segment for 27500 miles. Any suggestions on how to bridge the gap efficiently? I have a lot of SPG points…
@Meir:
Your question would be much better suited for the team of experts at http://www.dansdeals.com/forums. That way we’ll be able to figure out a solution without the question getting lost when this post falls off the main page.
Thanks!
wow,united is just proving once again why their the best airline im pretty sure the one way allows as it said on their website no stopover but yes connection.
Do you know of anyway to buy many tickets cheaper than one by one?
also, I am trying to get to lax from chicago in the summer..do you think I should wait an prices might go down from the $350 they are at now?
Great find for united btw.