United MileagePlus has just significantly hiked the cost of some regional business class awards on partner airlines, as flagged by View from the Wing. This follows United recently massively increasing the cost of partner first class awards.
These changes are rough, though I’m not sure this change matters all that much, quite frankly. It’s just a reminder that United is determined to be more like Delta in every way, including with its loyalty program.
United MileagePlus raises business class award costs
United MileagePlus no longer publishes award charts, so there’s not much transparency when it comes to award prices being updated. Nonetheless, historically United has had pretty consistent redemption rates on partners.
With that in mind, unfortunately United appears to have massively raised the cost of some business class awards. The good news is that awards originating in the United States don’t seem to have increased in cost this time around (at least as of now), but rather we’re seeing the biggest devaluation to regional business class awards.
For example, one-way business class awards between Europe and much of Istanbul now start at an astonishing 49,500 MileagePlus miles.
Meanwhile shorter one-way awards within Europe now start at 30,000 to 33,000 MileagePlus miles one-way. Ouch!
Meanwhile one-way business class awards in many parts of Asia now start at 49,500 MileagePlus.
United MileagePlus wants to be Delta SkyMiles
Bigger than this specific change as such is the direction United MileagePlus is headed, and I don’t think this should surprise anyone.
When you hear United executives speak, they constantly reference Delta. They’re obsessed with being Delta, and view it as the only competition in the market. While I can appreciate the intent behind the goal, I think United executives are falling into the trap of thinking that just because Delta does something it must be the right move (rather than believing that in some cases Delta is successful in spite of certain decisions).
In recent years, United MileagePlus has eliminated transparency when it comes to award pricing, and has made repeated devaluations without notice. What’s most telling here is that presumably these price increases don’t actually reflect any increased costs that United is incurring on these partner redemptions, but rather United is just increasing prices because it can, and to condition consumers a certain way.
It’s exactly the same thing Delta does. Delta SkyMiles’ partner award redemption rates are outrageously high not because Delta incurs such a high cost on redemptions, but rather because Delta wants to condition consumers to pay a lot for premium awards. A one-way business class award to Asia on China Airlines? Of course that’s going to cost 300K+ miles, because why wouldn’t it be! United is headed in the same direction, slowly but surely.
What’s interesting to me is how all the US carriers are trying to greatly increase revenue from their loyalty programs in the coming years, and get people even more engaged. Their goals aren’t modest either, with airlines like Delta hoping to grow loyalty program revenue by close to 50%. Offering less value over time sure is an interesting way to go about accomplishing that goal.
Look, savvy points collectors shouldn’t be going out of their way to earn United MileagePlus miles. If you want to redeem on Star Alliance, you’ll find much better value through Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles. For example, the short haul business class award within Europe that costs 33,000 miles with United MileagePlus will cost you just 15,000 miles with Air Canada Aeroplan.
Fortunately as consumers we still have good alternatives, at least as of now. Reward the programs that go out of their way to offer value to members, rather than to have punitive pricing just because they can.
Bottom line
United MileagePlus has significantly increased business class award redemption costs on partner airlines on regional flights. United no longer publishes award charts, so it’s hard to know exactly what the extent of the changes are. What we do know is that short haul awards within Asia and Europe have gone up in cost considerably.
I imagine that this is just the beginning, and that we’ll continue to see MileagePlus head in the direction of SkyMiles. American AAdvantage deserves credit for being the only one of the “big three” US programs to actually at least try to offer value and transparency with partner redemptions.
What do you make of these MileagePlus award updates?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.