I rushed to compile 2 charts showing the United devaluation for flights to/from the US, but in the process I left out a big improvement that was pointed out by DD commenter “High end hobo.”
Effective 11/1, you will be able to use 8K United miles to fly on a nonstop flight within any single region outside of the US/Canada on a partner airline as long as the flight is less than 800 miles in distance.
Here are some examples for each region that will benefit from this new award rate:
-Central America: Panama to Liberia, Costa Rica on COPA will drop from 12.5K to 8K miles.
-Northern South America: Lima to Bogota on Avianca will drop from 12.5K to 8K miles.
-Southern South America: Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo on Turkish will drop from 12.5K to 8K miles.
-Europe: Zurich to Venice on Swiss will drop from 15K to 8K miles.
-Middle East: Cairo to Amman on EgyptAir will drop from 17.5K to 8K miles.
-North Asia: Seoul to Beijing on Asiana will drop from 15K to 8K miles.
-Central Asia: Bengaluru, India to the Maldives on Air India will drop from 17.5K to 8K miles.
-South Asia: Phuket to Singapore on Singapore will drop from 17.5K to 8K miles. Singapore flights can only be booked by calling United.
-Southern Africa: Johannesburg to Cape Town on South African will drop from 17.5K to 8K miles.
-Australia/New Zealand: Auckland to Queenstown, New Zealand on Air New Zealand will drop from 17.5K to 8K miles.
Devaluations stink, but it’s nice to have a silver lining like this. Overall I can’t fault United too much for this devaluation, as long as their saver award space remains the way it is for United cardholders. American’s saver award space is nearly impossible to find these days and Delta is always making stealth devaluations in the worst way.
Will you book any of these new 8K awards after they start being sold in November?
We all know you’re still upset that CLE isn’t a hub anymore. It’s okay, you can admit it. =D
cairo to tlv with egyptair also under 800 miles
Will this affect IST-TLV? That would be huge
Rates are somewhat similar to AA so not a surprised. Biggest impact are US-SE Asia J/F awards.
However these 8K awards will be useful. Sometimes these short distance flights can be extremely expensive.
@United is Untied:
Lol, you can’t have it both ways.
I wrote that I can’t fault United for this one. How exactly am I being unreasonable here?
@cai:
I don’t think that route is bookable with United miles, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
@J:
No, as they are in different regions.
Award Space will be occupied quickly, don’t you think? It probably won’t be as available.
@frumJew777:
What, on every shorthaul intra-region flight in the world?
No, I don’t think this will have a big affect on that.
Hong Kong to Seoul is more than 800 miles in distance.
@Dan:
your right its on air sinai metal.
@Bill:
Typo, meant to write Beijing. Thanks.
@cai:
Yup, too bad.
Any idea of the reasoning as to why this is limited to only one region and only outside the US/Canada?
@yelped:
Because they want to continue charging 10K for shorthaul in the US/Canada.
I don’t know enough about their internal partner reimbursement metrics to comment on why it’s limited to one region, but I’d assume that it’s cheaper for them like that.
@Dan:
Thank you.
@Dan: around a year ago united had a sale for 25% off on miles tickets (you posted it!). Been waiting for this or a similar promotion to book a winter trip. I know you don’t have a cristal bowl but what do you think are the chances this will come around again based on prior years/waves?
@AB:
I’m sure some promotion will come around, but I have no idea when or what routes it will be for.
Dan, your posts are always helpful. Thank you for teaching us how to maximize our miles and points. (Ironically, last week I booked two one-way tickets on LOT, flying Vienna to Warsaw, which are just 342 miles apart. If I held off, I would have seen your post and would have saved 14,000 United miles. Oh, well.)
So UA thinks thinks they’re BA…..
@yitz – nice to have a star alliance cheap option on others… Dan, is there a better star alliance distance-based award for shorthauls outside of US?
Hey Dan! It looks like Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo is a touch over 1k miles traveled, so it’s not pricing as 8k UA miles under this new system. :/