United has announced changes (via TPG) to their loyalty program ‘MileagePlus’. These changes will come into effect on November 1st. Here’s what we know:
- They will be moving to a dynamic pricing model where the price of award tickets fluctuates on market conditions
- United will replace their standard awards with ‘Everyday Awards’
- These awards will only apply to flights operated by United & United Express. All partner flights will still be available under the current saver pricing
- Economy saver awards will stay the same price (one way will continue to cost 10,000 miles for flights under 700 miles or 12,500 miles for all other flights)
- Unrestricted access to these awards will still be available to Chase United MileagePlus Explorer cardholders
- They will still have a public award chart (this will show ranges)
- Flights booked before November 1st will not be affected
- They will increase the number of saver awards available by 10%
- No show fee of $125 will be charged for customers who cancel an award booking but decline to cancel before depature (fee is charged for the miles to redeposited)
- Upgrade awards will be staying the same
- New award charts can be found here
Devaluations suck but they are part of this game, on the surface this doesn’t look like a terrible change and I’m happy that they are keeping an award chart available to consumers rather than a hidden one like Delta. It’s also good to see them increasing the number of saver awards available. A lot of international rates in business class seem to be increasing by 5,000 miles. The biggest increase is Australia in first will now cost 100,000 miles (80,000 miles previously).
