Nowadays it’s common for airlines to award miles based on dollars spent rather than based on distance flown. While it eliminates some gamification, the incentive is obvious — airlines want to encourage passengers to book expensive tickets, especially when they’re on someone else’s dime.
Continue reading: Why Do Airlines Cap Mileage Earning? Making Sense of United’s 75K Limit
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
You also could have discussed United’s strict (and super limiting) policy about purchasing points.
Why would you buy Hyatt points nowadays? This was once a good deal, but now not really.
The card is worth the Cat 1-4 night, for now anyway. The choices will probably be only sad Hyatt Places within 2-3 years and Hyatt will greedily raise the annual fee. Then, it will be time to re-evaluate.
(Think you meant to post this on the Hyatt credit card entry, not the United one)
I mean, the hope would be that the fee bump would come with a category bump (to 1-5, perhaps).
And if I put "just" $15k on the card, I get two free nights plus 15-30k points (depending on spend pattern), so that's not a bad deal.
The question is going to become whether to keep putting spend there or divert it elsewhere starting next year - I'm already over 60 night-credits, so I'm probably going to at least run out most of the 150-night runway. But for next year? TBD.
Is the 75k limit per segment or per ticket? I recently purchased a roundtrip ticket in J to Germany. LH outbound and UA inbound. Both segments ticketed as United flights. Got over 130k points on this ticket. One segment posted at 74k and another 64k. Again it was a round trip with both segments on the same ticket.
It is supposed to be per ticket. It sounds like there may have been a glitch in that case because of the mixed metal on that flight but who knows.
Normally the way it shows up is you get full credit on the outbound (74k in your case) and then on the return they implement the cap (so you'd only earn 1k for the return flight). I have had multiple flights impacted by this cap (as recently as January) so I can confirm they do normally implement the cap properly.
This feels like one of those policies that United has “forgotten about” that would go away if enough high-value customers complained.
I've written to United multiple times about this and it's ridiculous. I was Global Services for a number of years and I would sometimes book one-ways if the cost wasn't significantly different, but usually for international flights it is many times more expensive to book individual one-ways vs. a roundtrip.
It is true that to some extent for loyal United fliers, they are often just going to accept it, but there are plenty of situations where I saw colleagues who had a lot of spend on both United and American book American when the fares were super expensive because they don't have a cap. So you're incentivizing certain travelers to book another airline on the most expensive fares. What a wild behavior to encourage. It's a very real scenario in Chicago where you have lots of international destinations from both carriers.
Dont forget not access to any UA lounge when connecting to UA domestic flights from partner transcon.
United's recent award ticket pricing changes have further devalued the program, as well. International economy award tickets that were 40k miles just a year ago are now "dynamically priced", but somehow the cheapest ones are often 85k miles each way. With the 75k mile cap, you used to be able spend $8-10k on a Polaris international flight and almost have enough miles to buy one international saver award round trip economy ticket (80k miles). Now you are still 10k+ shy of a saver one-way economy ticket. They have increased how many miles you can earn on their branded credit cards, but it does not make up the difference. Doubling the 75k mileage accrual cap probably still wouldn't make up the difference. The devaluation is extreme and no one seems to be talking about it. As a Global Service member, it is making American look at lot more appealing. I shouldn't have to spend 850k miles to take my family to Tokyo IN ECONOMY when it used to only be 400k miles. Despite how much I spend on United tickets and on branded credit cards, I am ending up with a lot less spending power on how many award trips I can take my family on.
This is not true - assuming you are talking about a partner transatlantic / transpacific (if you truly mean domestic transcon - the only partner I can think of is Jet Blue?). You can access United Clubs if you are Star Gold for connecting airports of an international itinerary including coming back to the US and connecting to UA domestic flights.
You are confusing that with the Polaris lounge access rule. Specifically if you are flying to the US on a partner airline in Business class, you cannot access a POLARIS lounge when connecting to a domestic UA flight. But you can access regular United Club locations. You can only access a Polaris lounge in that situation if you are flying back to the US on a UA aircraft in Polaris.
The problem is the more miles in circulation, the less valuable they are. Delta might not have a cap, but skymiles are basically useless. See the person with 2 million skymiles who can't even book an award flight to france. Meanwhile i can still reliably book USA-Japan for 90k miles in coach.
The cap is absolutely necessary
MileagePlus has been ruined by hyperinflation because of the obscene amount of miles given out to OPM flyers
It should be lower than 75k
This policy is just another example of how United is trying hard to destroy the loyalty that programs like MileagePlus tried to create long ago
As much credit as one'd like to give UA, they remain the most bottom-line conscious (or flyer unfriendly) on a few policies. Remember the no refund of residuals in the early Covid days when AA and DL both offer refund and credits? UA might have a larger share of corporate accounts so it's their way to manager the cost. Like you said, just bc they can.
Having said that, I agree with others that customers do compare and remain more rational these days. I also know of a few 1Ks and GSs who would book away from UA when they have requalified or simplify prefer more miles in another account (with no cap on long haul paid J tix).
I see plenty of availability on AF with DL miles, sometimes the number of miles is lower than the FB equivalent! If DL are blocking AF availability from the USA, they could always fly from MEX instead. 2 million DL miles are worth $25k any day of the week.
People can always use an alternative account within the same alliance, particularly if they choose a programme with interesting non-alliance partners (e.g. Air Canada working with lots of different airlines, Flying Blue allowing redemptions on the likes of Gol and Bangkok Airways).
I agree with the fact that United does these stupid things because they can. If United actually cared they would have changed this when American and Delta did. I fly enough to keep it status on United and the rest of my money goes to Delta. Why, because like United I can. If you're spending $10,000 on a ticket, any airline will be interested in your business so change your loyalty.
That's incorrect if you don't have any status. *A rule is based on departure flight. If you are arriving in the US with a non-UA flight and connecting to a UA domestic flight, and if you don't have status, there is no access to United Club. This includes if you are arriving in ANA or LH F.
While the cumulative inflation is 40% over the past 10 years, airfare is one of those things that do not go up or down based on inflation but rather based on seat availability and demand.
Now that I'm gainfully unemployed, I find travel simple. I look up the flight I want and choose based on cost and schedule. I don't think for a second about miles, because they will do what they do. Do I get FF flights? Yes. I consider it like finding cash on the street. My life works great with that attitude. [To be honest, the one thing I do about FF miles is to make sure my AA miles don't expire...and, yes, fu AA for that stupid policy.]
This is my main gripe, and I have raised it continually with UA in focus groups and surveys - and the fact it hasn't been raised in years makes it even more egregious. If they want to be a premium airline, then this exact rule needs to be amended to reflect that -- this came in at a time when they were not focused on such.
I converted from BA/OneWorld to United/Star when I moved to the US. But I will literally still book OneWorld flights and credit back to BA (where I still have status) when I'd hit this cap. Costs united business!
Thanks for putting this out there. I’m global services too and I actually never thought about this assuming all airlines did the same thing. It has really got me rethinking where I buy an expensive ticket.
My guess is it’s a system limitation of some kind. A software issue that would be complex to resolve or some such, and the cost isn’t worth it.
-G
That is interesting. I had no idea about this cap (but I haven't engaged with United since they went to dynamic awards - there are better values from transferrable currencies outside UA for *A redemptions...
That is more heavily impacted by things like their push for credit card usage - and giving bigger multiples to credit card purchased airfare - than it is by a cap (or lack thereof). The cap unfairly penalizes high spend and high status flyers, which makes no sense from a loyalty perspective.
I've been impacted by it on tickets I've purchased for myself - not OPM - so it doesn't just impact work travelers.
This cap is not the difference between catastrophic and current hyperinflation - and it's not the difference between you affording and never being able to book lucrative award tickets. That is dictated by more structural changes that United makes to the program and redemptions.