There’s no denying that the miles & points hobby has evolved a lot over the years. It has gone mainstream, and that’s both good and bad. Opportunities to earn points are better than ever before, while sweet spots and opportunities to redeem points efficiently just aren’t what they used to be.
Along those lines, here’s the latest unfortunate trend that I’m noticing. Of course it’s possible this isn’t permanent, and this is also just what I’m observing, but still…
In this post:
United’s premium saver award availability is in the gutter
Historically, United has been pretty good about making saver level Polaris business class award seats available on long haul flights. Some seats were made available in advance, though most frequently we’ve seen award space open up close to departure, when there were lots of unsold seats.
In my experience, United has pretty consistently opened saver level business class award availability anywhere from a day out to a month out, assuming there were a good number of seats still for sale.
However, something seems to have changed in recent weeks. Suddenly there’s virtually no saver Polaris business class award availability on long haul flights, even if booking last minute, and even if the cabin is wide open.
So if you’re looking to redeem the rewards currencies of programs like Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca Lifemiles for United Polaris business class, good luck, because the space just isn’t there.
I’ve held off on writing about this until now, because sometimes airlines just have quirks that don’t last long, and some switch is “flipped” that reverses things. I try to be patient in those situations, because there’s no point in creating alarm over a minor hiccup. However, the more I dig into this, the more I think United has made a pretty major change to how it releases award availability.
My theory on how & why United award availability changed
This is purely speculation on my part, but let me explain what I think is going on. Obviously loyalty programs are huge businesses for airlines, particularly for carriers in the United States, where much of their profits are generated from the programs.
Back in the day, United released saver level award availability consistently, whether you were a member of MileagePlus, a member of a partner frequent flyer program, etc. However, it increasingly seems like United wants to keep award space for its own MileagePlus members, and not just any members.
Going back a couple of years, we saw United start to only make a subset of saver level award space available to members of partner frequent flyer programs. Then we’ve also seen some partner programs introduce dynamic pricing for United awards, and I have to imagine that’s something that was pushed by United.
So do United MileagePlus members have access to better award availability? Well, sort of. For most MileagePlus members, Polaris business class award availability is virtually non-existent. But here’s where it gets interesting…
United MileagePlus has special types of award and upgrade inventory for select members. For example, while “I” is the saver level business class award fare class, United also has “IN” inventory, which is extra saver business class award availability reserved for a subset of members. However, the airline has recently updated which members have access to this availability:
- Until early August 2025, “IN” inventory was reserved for Premier Platinum, Premier 1K, and Global Services members
- Since this change, “IN” inventory is now seemingly available to all Premier members plus all MileagePlus co-brand credit card members
So I think what’s going on here is that United is basically trying to limit Polaris business class award availability to those with a co-branded credit card and elite members, and restrict it from those booking through partner programs. For MileagePlus members, restricting award availability is now being used as a further tool to drive credit card sign-ups, and encourage earning status.
For example, take the below flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Hong Kong (HKG), which is “IN9 I0.” In other words, there are nine saver level business class award seats if you have access to that inventory, while otherwise there are none. That’s despite the flight departing in under 24 hours, and the business class cabin seemingly being about half empty.
Suffice it to say that programs increasingly limiting award space to their own members makes it much more difficult to maximize points.
Like, I love Air Canada Aeroplan points, and am trying to plan a US to Asia via Europe award. However, actually getting across the Atlantic is proving very challenging, given that so many Star Alliance carriers have basically stopped releasing the bulk of business class award seats to partner programs. Advantageous award pricing and routing rules aren’t worth a whole lot if there’s not actually space.
I will say, even “IN” inventory doesn’t seem to be as good as “I” inventory used to be, at least for Polaris business class awards close to departure. So even if you have an eligible credit card and don’t mind burning MileagePlus miles, I’d argue it’s still tougher to actually get good value.
Bottom line
United Polaris business class award availability has been very hard to come by in recent times, including close to departure when the cabin is wide open. It’s possible this will change, but it seems like this is deliberate.
It seems that United is increasingly limiting business class award availability to MileagePlus members, and not those booking through partner programs. Not only that, but it seems that most saver business class awards are being made available as “IN” inventory rather than “I” inventory, limiting it to those with a co-branded credit card or elite status.
As much as I don’t like this, I can’t say I’m surprised to see the airline head in this direction. Maximizing miles & points gets more complicated by the day…
Anyone else noticing these changes to United award availability?
If the loyalty is only going one way, then stop being loyal. It's like being in a relationship with a partner who's constantly changing the agreed boundaries to suit them, and just expects you to stay along for the ride. You're letting yourself be treated like a chump.
Good timing. Just last week I redeemed 250k Aeroplan points I had sitting in my account for a sub-optimal redemption on Air Canada metal (1 business and 2 PE seats, LIS-YUL-SFO) for next summer as I've also observed the opportunities for star alliance partner awards -- at least in premium cabins to/from North America -- seem to have dried up. Too bad, but I guess that's the game.
I was able to grab an "IN" fare award for November for 85k miles, Polaris SFO-NRT, business NRT-GUM-ROR. Availability for EWR,SFO,ORD-NRT-GUM-ROR in IN seems fairly decent about 2 weeks out. Never for SFO,LAX-HNL-GUM-ROR - only mixed awards with HNL-GUM in business, the rest in economy. Routing through NRT means dealing with US immigration in GUM. Flying through NRT on the way back is even more fun - you have to go through US immigration twice(!)...
I was able to grab an "IN" fare award for November for 85k miles, Polaris SFO-NRT, business NRT-GUM-ROR. Availability for EWR,SFO,ORD-NRT-GUM-ROR in IN seems fairly decent about 2 weeks out. Never for SFO,LAX-HNL-GUM-ROR - only mixed awards with HNL-GUM in business, the rest in economy. Routing through NRT means dealing with US immigration in GUM. Flying through NRT on the way back is even more fun - you have to go through US immigration twice(!) (GUM and SFO) on the same flight, operated entirely by United.
How do I not know all these UA fare classes and don't even know how to find them. A little help here, please...
UA has said for years that it wants to be seen just like DL so this should come as no surprise.
Airlines that can genuinely sell their seats for money should not be given them away for cheap esp. to other airline award programs.
as for LAX-HKG, that is simply DL's making it clear that it will do what it needs to do; unlike UA, DL doesn't pick on the little carriers and also...
UA has said for years that it wants to be seen just like DL so this should come as no surprise.
Airlines that can genuinely sell their seats for money should not be given them away for cheap esp. to other airline award programs.
as for LAX-HKG, that is simply DL's making it clear that it will do what it needs to do; unlike UA, DL doesn't pick on the little carriers and also has no interest in being seen as one of two carriers that are interested in colluding to squash competitors and squashing consumer choice.
Good for UA. DL is coming for SIN next.
Definitely agree with this. I did just have success getting two business class seats from LHR-ORD on Nov 4th using ANA miles. I was pretty surprised to see that, but definitely a happy camper as it was turning out to be a complicated itinerary. Thanks for sharing! I’m curious how it will evolve.
You are complaining about getting United Polaris space, using Aeroplan. How about if you use United Mileage Points ? Why shouldn't United let their own loyal customers get access, not someone who has "bought" Aeroplan points (endless articles on how to do this). Just saying...
I recognize that "available seat maps" aren't 100% indicative of how fully a flight is, but wow how empty is that particular flight tomorrow! By my calculations, it's < 25% full.
@ jak -- Yeah, the load factors on those LAX-HKG flights don't look great, generally (that's not intended to be some bat signal for Tim, btw)...
CX does very good on these with LFs in the 90s, while also commanding a fare premium. Asian carriers just outperform.
UA is somewhere around the 60% mark with less frequencies and lower yields. But we might see the BKK or SGN tags improve it.
CASM!
I’m the wrong Tim, I know. ;-)
The fact is that premium cabin TATL demand (and to a lesser extent TPAC) departing the US is through the roof currently. There is not much to challenge pricing at this at the moment, with JVs and partnerships the airlines have in place. Based out of SFO, I know plenty of travelers who will pay either themselves or have a business account that pays for business class on a long flight. Even when booked in...
The fact is that premium cabin TATL demand (and to a lesser extent TPAC) departing the US is through the roof currently. There is not much to challenge pricing at this at the moment, with JVs and partnerships the airlines have in place. Based out of SFO, I know plenty of travelers who will pay either themselves or have a business account that pays for business class on a long flight. Even when booked in advance, off-season, it's not uncommon to see $5,000+ rt J fares to Europe. And where UA has a non-stop, they are always charging a premium over the other carriers. The airlines want to cash in on this for as long as they can. It's not only United Mileage Plus. Good luck finding premium cabin award space with LH Miles and More even on their own metal. Until demand starts faltering, the only way I've seen award prices drop is with creative routings and origins - back to the old tricks of positioning flights and overnight layovers.
Have you seen anything similar with AA? Lately when I search for AA awards, I’m seeing 300-400k ONE WAY for business class. I don’t recall ever seeing prices like that in the past, this is feeling very much like Delta territory.
@ Scott -- American's non-saver level award pricing is high, and not a great deal. However, I'd say that American has by far the best premium cabin award availability and pricing for its own flights of any of the "big three" carriers.
I used to see 65-80K miles for biz when they open the schedule. I got "lucky" and got LHR to ORD next July for 120K miles. I took that flight a few weeks ago and it was only 82K. Those kind of deals are now few and far between. It's very disheartening, but not a surprise when they hand miles out like candy for CC sign ups.
" let me explain what I think is going on. . . restricting award availability is now being used as a further tool to drive credit card sign-ups, and encourage earning status"
Okay, but for this theory to hold water, wouldn't United have to be telling people that signing up for a credit card or earning status will get them J award opportunities?
@ LarryInNYC -- This was only implemented recently, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's marketed more in the future. However, it is already advertised. For example, if you pull up a United credit card application, you'll see the following:
"As a cardmember, you have access to special pricing on award travel redemption for United-operated flights, when available."
I wonder if AI contributed to this topic at hand.
The Star Alliance airline or the large language model?
Is this recent (as in last 2 months or so?), because up until about May this year, United was pretty consistently releasing Polaris award seats for close in dates (0-21 days out) across the Atlantic.
@ Trey -- Yeah, this has all started within the past two months.
Two speculations.
1) MileagePlus members are complaining about a lack of reward seats available. So UA decided to prioritize their own members first.
2) For many MileagePlus members, we are sitting on hundreds of PlusPoints. They are effectively unusable. Again, maybe this is a way to get a higher success rate to burn PlusPoints for intercontinental upgrades?
PlusPoints require PZ (for Platinum and 1K) or PN (for Global Services) space. IN is separate inventory, but sometimes correlated like in the photo (PN9 PZ9 IN9 I0).
I don't think this is what you are talking about, but I still see good United point redemptions across the Atlantic with Swiss, Luftansa and even Ethiopian. Usually 80-88 united miles for business class. That is generally how I use mine.
@ Andrew -- There are no doubt still some good uses of MileagePlus miles, but even availability on carriers like Lufthansa and SWISS isn't what it once was.
Knowing that AA is quite the copycat, does this impact your thinking on Atmos as a vehicle for AA rewards? Depends on what kind of AA flights you are booking, of course, I don't think regional jet availability is drying up tomorrow...
Atmos as a vehicle for AA rewards is actually so good. Earning their loyalty miles or whatever it's called for cheap domestic redemptions would be amazing
@ Peter -- It's a great question. It's definitely something I think about, but it's not really impacting my decision making, at least yet. In a similar light, if American AAdvantage were horribly devalued for premium cabin redemptions, I'd also be rethinking my strategy with AAdvantage. At that point I'd probably just become a full-on "free agent."
AA definitely has the ability to do this, they just don’t make “Saver” inventory available (thus no inventory for partner programs), but they can still dynamically price awards on their own metal at relatively attractive redemption rates
Scott Kirby and Ed Bastian are the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of major US air carriers. Robert Isom is the Dormouse.
US air carriers are like the decadent empire they serve - making improvements in the front of the plane, and making life punishing for everybody else in the back.
Money talks, bro.
Wonder how award search companies such as seats.aero and Roame could use this IN search for UA credit cardholders. It’s quite tiring to do manual search and find IN spaces
i was just thinking this. like if Seats dot Aero is searching as a general member with no status or credit card, it might be unable to see saver awards I would be able to if I logged in as myself (UA Platinum with a Quest card).
No one likes it but accept it for what it is and adjust your game accordingly. Spend your time and energy on what works. Be happy.
That's so beautiful, and added much actionable advice to the conversation.
And practical advice. Suddenly, nobody is upset that the value of what they've been promised is no more, because they can now, thanks to your coaching, accept it and adjust their games accordingly. And be happy.
Bless your heart.
Promised? Can you point to any airline or hotel program (other than a defined value program like Accor) that has PROMISED there would be X amount of award inventory or value per point?
This is no different than Marriott's abandonment of its no black out dates feature. This is no different from the hotel award inventory control. This is no different from AA not opening transcon F to partners. It is industry wide.
If you want actionable advice: publicly disclosed practices either get swamped to inaccessibility or shut down.
Maybe Kirby would be better served by redirecting his mental energy to UA's own issues instead of dire predictions of competitors' demise ...
I noticed this too, so glad to see you writing about this with your theory. This has happened enough times before that, hopefully, it gets reversed when they realise they're missing the incremental revenue. On the other hand, Cathay haven't reversed their changes despite not selling out business class.
I'm not sure when but in the last year United apparently forced the major transferrable programs to start charging the same rate that MP charges for award tickets. Both Lifemiles and Aeroplan started charging the same rate for United-only metal that was equal to the United price. Previous to that, United was limiting its release of seats to both programs, especially transpac. It would be sad if even after they got their partners to charge...
I'm not sure when but in the last year United apparently forced the major transferrable programs to start charging the same rate that MP charges for award tickets. Both Lifemiles and Aeroplan started charging the same rate for United-only metal that was equal to the United price. Previous to that, United was limiting its release of seats to both programs, especially transpac. It would be sad if even after they got their partners to charge MP rates they pulled the rug out from under them to not release any seats to them also.