United MileagePlus has just significantly hiked the cost of international first class awards. These increases are rough, though I’m not sure this change matters all that much, quite frankly.
Continue reading: Ouch: United MileagePlus Devalues International First Class Awards
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
While I agree that the most savvy move for years has been to use other programs for these types of redemptions, the fact was UA was useful in that it supported last minute redemptions on LH that LifeMiles would not and also tended to have better ANA availability than both AC, LM, or Virgin. The price increase now just makes that unfeasible
The reason I flagged this on flyertalk and to Matthew is because of just large the increase is ( I can't recall any time we have seen a 100% increase) and that I think it shows a continued race down towards Sky pennies territory. Worse yet, I also think AC has raised LH redemptions by about 10k points but I may be wrong there. Just think it's a bad overall trend.
NH F has been broken on Aeroplan for 9 months now. Wish you would report on the Aeroplan partner problems more Ben, it's almost been a year of this.
The flexibility to cancel with MileagePlus also made the slight points premium worth it in some scenarios - book a ticket that is a less than ideal travel date or destination then check back, cancel, and rebook. Valuable when award availability is only released so close to departure
I remember when Lufthansa first class was 67.5k united miles for one way In first class. Those days are long gone.
When united split their award chart for united flights and a separate one for *A flights, that was the biggest devaluation.
Sounds like you need to update/rank which is the best program to use for each alliance.
Yea, I agree it's a race to the bottom. I'm just happy we were able to fly ANA F the suites, Etihad F, and Qatar first (A380) between 2022 and 2023 on saver level awards. Didn't use United miles for any of them, but in 2021 we were able to book United Polaris class to Peru for 35k each way with united miles.
120K points for 14 hours in ANA first class was a bargain, so I'm not surprised that the price has gone up.
Why give them away to alliance partners when you can sell them for cash?
I just looked at a Lufthansa F award about 5 hours ago and it was pricing 121k
Yeah, Aeroplan has been broken for some time now. No one seems to talk about this.
it won't appear on the website, but yesterday I just booked NH F for March over the phone
Good snags! I’ve also had great first class redemptions on QR & EY using AA miles.
But great redemption to Peru!
Not that it matters to me since the last time I redeemed UA miles for a long-haul premium cabin award of any kind was over a decade ago, but given that UA's awards are dynamically priced, aren't these apparently hiked award costs just as likely to be found to be lower if one looks at a time when demand might be lower? After all, Japan, for instance, reported the number of foreign visitors topping 3M in March 2024, a single-month record, suggesting greatly increased international travel that could account for the higher award costs at this time
Really glad we were able to enjoy LH F and NH F at 110k and also burn down most of my UA miles in the process.
It's not just Air Canadas Web site that's broken! . It's ancient planes are also always broken
For the record, United no longer has international first class, so I fail to see the point.
At least United is showing respect to its loyal program members by offering notice of six hours.
Could there be some more ads on the page. 4-7 ads and pop ups clearly aren’t enough to completely prevent you from reading an article.
LOL, 10 years ago, I booked 2 tix LH F from YYZ to FRA to ICN for 70k each... oh how times have changed.
Can I pleaaasseee catch a break around here.
Anything and everything I try with F gets F'ed with.
Booked Etihad Apartments, pandemic.
Wanted to upgrade AF J ticket to F with cash... they took that option away after I booked the J ticket.
Just signed up for the UA Biz card to get my 100K, planned to supplement with UR for the other 21K to see if I could nab LH F at FRA (been in F, not to F terminal).
Even my J luck isn't faring well... HAL seat I booked didn't function.
AF J was rickety AF
Upcoming VA A350 swapped for B787.
Pardon my french, but lately this game sucks balls.
I'd bet money that AA and/or EY makes some kind of change before I can book my August Apartments ticket 30 days ahead with AA.
Not really. They report award costs are dynamic, but there seems to be a floor for how low they go.
The availability is there for multiple partner programs, United now charges more to book through them versus another partner.
Just a minor point of correction, ANA awards are no longer bookable via Aeroplan and haven’t been for months.
UA was also more useful than VS in many situations because you could add connecting legs on the same ticket at the same price. For example I once paid the 121k to fly HND-LAX-IAD with the TPAC in NH F and the transcon in UA F.
look I don't think UA really has it in them to hate their frequent fliers with all of the fiery burning rage that DL does, but damned if they aren't doing their best to give DL a run for their money.
Bloggers can't talk about how Aeroplan blocks half their partners.
Gotta push those point sale bonuses and credit cards.
Just a minor point of correction, ANA awards are no longer bookable via Aeroplan and haven’t been for months.
Quite right. Despite constantly raving about how great Aeroplan is for booking partner awards, I doubt that the site host has actually done the legwork to validate his claim, because if he did and compared the results with, say, UA, he would find out that awards of many Asian *A carriers that are bookable with MileagePlus miles are not bookable with Aeroplan miles, and that has been the case for quite some time.
Not really. They report award costs are dynamic, but there seems to be a floor for how low they go.
How does anyone know what the "floor" is, considering that the purported "devaluation" apparently just happened?
Ben typically doesn't post about award search results being busted, save for the Etihad thing last summer. EVA was completely broken several months back, with tons of awards showing on United and Aeroplan. It was all over the awardtravel subreddit, and I notified Ben multiple times over email.
What I don't understand is that UA is a dumpster fire of devaluations and Hyatt is rapidly plummeting by up-categorizing every hotel they can, but I'm willing to bet money bloggers everywhere will call the "Chase trifecta" a worthy combo, despite not even having a 2x unbonused spend card.
It's still pretty good, lots of value having CSP/CFF/CFU. Does anyone actually dump UR points on MileagePlus?
100%. You have to be really certain with lifemiles. My wife and daughter were booked syd to lax to Ord in premium economy for 70k. Not a bad redemption on United. Then syd to lax in biz became available. I was inches away from booking on lifemiles. But held off as wanted to get a connection to Ord. Ended up changing today to syd to hnd, nrt to Ord for 110k in biz. Flexibility on UA very helpful.
That argument only works if other currencies are providing similar value as before - when everyone devalues 30-40% over the past 2-3 years, Chase points (via Hyatt and United) still offer the stronger value prop.
A Category 8 Hyatt on a peak night is 45k points - a Category 7 in 2020 was 30k points so a 50% devaluation. The top Marriott cap is 150k points today although it's dynamic - even w/ the 5th night free it is 120k on avg. The peak was 80k in 2020 so also a 50% devaluation. The same math applies for Hilton.
For airlines given partner award availability has been gutted the past few years really neutralizing ANA, Aeroplan, Lifemiles, and other programs, the typical rate for a J long-haul ticket is going to be ~100k+. AA and Qatar have both indicated changes coming in awards - the former going dynamic and the latter increasing in category. In that world United will still offer OK value esp. for some Y redemptions.
Hyatt is still the best value in the game. Just redeemed 20K points for $700 in hotel and my last trip was 90K for $4,500 in hotel.
They're probably getting tired of Delta crushing them in profits. Follow the leader mentality in the travel industry.
TG has been raised to 159.5K which is only 5k more from my memory. Ben, I know you were looking to try the new First Class there is space May 2nd in First BKK-LHR TG910
I've brought up many substantive issues with Aeroplan with Ben for months directly to his email and he's refused to report on them.
It's clear there are programs where he refuses to break bad news.
Just like the miles, the blog is devalued...
United has successfully managed to destroy it's frequent flyer program. Congrats to them, their points are worth less than half of what they charge to buy them.
Heck, not long before Covid, like a year I got a 40% Amex transfer bonus to Virgin and booked NH F RT from JFK for 86K MR each for two people. The year after before Emirates killed off first class partners I used Chase 95K to book JFK - ICN -BKK in F on Korean Air with a stop in ICN. Then used Bonvoy xfer to JAL to book Emirates F BKK - DXB - MXP - JFK. All in we flew RTW in F in style for 230K each, or 45K per flight. Those days and deals unfortunately are long gone.
Interestingly both LH and ANA F redemptions have been stripped from seats.aero after Friday for any partner program. Nothing is showing now beyond this weekend other than ANA jumping from this week to August as the first available. This leads me to think it's either a glitch in what United did OR they are adjusting this across all partner programs to reflect new rates and updating systems.
That's why they call it a game. Which, ironically, it is. With the odds of course being stacked to favor of the house. Did you really expect more?
LH F availability on UA has been 3 days out on seats.aero for at least a couple months now, probably more. Nothing to do with this change. Can't speak to ANA.
New UA rate for LH already reflecting there.
If I were to stack up my overall wins, you'd probably think the odds were in my favor. Just lately and primarily with F attempts, it hasn't been working out.
To be fair, my instant meltdown was short lived when I looked into alternatives. Lifemiles seems to be a solid option (though it might be risky to type that openly, "the house" might see it and change it tomorrow).
Lolll as if United miles weren't worthless already...now they're even MORE worthless!
SkyPesos and MileageLira duke it out to see who can be more useless...tune in at 10!
Seeing the state of things in general, cash back is now king, with few exceptions.
I know that many here are seeking the best value for premium cabins, but I’ve been able to get good redemptions from UA in economy fares, especially on one way trips from my home base in Hawaii. Definitely better than what I’ve found from DL.
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After further research, I have determined that this is a good thing. Points booking are getting to the point where you have to play the game, and United has an opportunity to make more money here. Air India is devalued to the US, but not to London. TG isn't devalued either (much). EZE-FRA Is 137.5K Miles F (the longest route in the network) but JFK-FRA is 154K. I think this will present more opportunities if the work is willing to be put in to fly these routes.
My basic policy for years with UA (aside from a brief pre-pandemic experiment with LH) has been "Earn on partners, burn on UA". UA's devaluation didn't change that math.