United has announced that they are removing award charts/rates today for travel on or after November 15th. This follows a move by Delta to eliminate award charts. Predictably United is claiming that this is good for consumers and that this will simplify the rewards program and make awards more affordable. The issue I’ve always had with eliminating award charts is that transparency is lost and it’s harder to keep loyalty programs accountable for devaluations as no set pricing is listed. An example of a good dynamic award program would be Southwest, points are worth a fixed amount (although this varies based on taxes & fees) and it’s clear when points are devalued.
One positive change is that close in booking fees are being removed for travel on or after November 15th as well. Partner awards will also continue to follow the current award chart. Overall it’s difficult to tell how bad this change really is. I always think it takes a couple of years for the real effects of an award chart being removed to be felt. That’s largely because award programs are careful enough to ensure that the big devaluations don’t happen immediately to minimize the outrage of changes like this. You can view the old award chart by clicking here.
Hat tip to VFTW
Looks like United has stealthily stopped following their partner award chart as well (not what they originally announced). Flights booked on mileageplus operated by Air Canada between US and Canada in fare class X used to price at 12.5k miles consistently per the partner award chart. They’re now pricing at 16k miles. E.g. see SFO to YYZ on Sunday March 8th.
Whoever is following this post. I have a question..
What is actually set to happen on November 15? I’m working on planning some trips, and my plans should be finalized by early December. However, I worry about this Nov. 15 date when United switches to “dynamic miles pricing.”
So please tell me.. Should I really book my flights before Nov. 15 if I don’t want to have to spend more miles? Like for example, a flight in S.E Asia I’m looking at is 8,500 miles. I’m concerned if I book after Nov. 15 that the number of required miles could go up? Can someone please explain this to me and clarify it. I’m relatively new to the United MileagePlus program, and purchased 100,000 miles last year (required spend) and 50,000 from a credit card, so I’m sitting on about 150,000 miles, which I planned to use for travel in December – 2020, but I’m unclear how the change to dynamic pricing after Nov. 15 might affect me and my budgeting of miles for my trip plans…
In other words, do I need to rush to finalize my travel plans, so I can book some flights BEFORE Nov. 15 or otherwise, the number of miles required for flights may go up by a lot after Nov. 15?
Does anyone have any info on how this might affect redemptions using Star Alliance partners’ currency to fly on a United flight?
It totally depends on whether they create more categories or just reprice “saver” redemptions. Star Alliance partners only allow redemptions on “saver’ seats, so if all that happens is that saver seats are sometimes 25% more miles at United, it wouldn’t affect Star Alliance bookings. But if what happens is that United creates more categories between “saver” and “standard”, then that would mean fewer redemptions possible through partners.
Keep in mind that, even today before any possible changes, “extra award inventory” shown on the United site to people with enough status and/or people with the right credit card, that already is not likely to be shown as available to partners. (Only those saver seats you can see without logging in would be made available to partners.)
I must be in the minority here, but I only travel a few times a year. I’ve never transferred UR points to United, much more useful to book through the Chase portal via CSR, so this changes doesn’t really bother me as much as others. Though the comments have been interesting to read but people do with their UR points. I don’t even know what to do with my United miles, the routes I take are usually more expensive to use miles (<.01 per mile) plus the fees, which tend to be high. Got 100K UAL miles built that haven't been redeemed in years. I suppose I should look at trying to use them for a frivolous trip before November.
That is sad news. Does it mean chase efforts to protect its cards from churning are not enough?
It’s United who’s making this change, not Chase. Chase’s effort to protect its cards from churning apply to (virtually?) all of the cards it issues, far from just United. So the two things have nothing to do with each other objectively, even though to you it may feel that they add up.
As a heavy United flyer, I’m as disgusted as anyone here, and will be questioning the value of continued loyalty, but I’m not getting the “I’m closing my CSR!” sentiment.
Combined with CFU, you still get a minimum 2.25%-4.5% return on all spend for $150/year, while retaining some outsized transfer possibilities, even if United metal awards go to hell. Seems like a better deal to me than the alternatives, at least if you eat out frequently (which I do).
With cash back it’s easy to get 2%-5% for no annual fee, but there’s never any hope of doing better, eg int’l business class.
UR are not as good as they used to be, but MR and TY are still worse options if you value the flexibility of buying tickets with points. (If you don’t, then this United devaluation is a massive blow.) Fixed 1:1 transfers to JetBlue aren’t bad either.
I agree that I would like to see UR add more partners, especially if United awards become as useless as Delta awards.
Most of my CSR transfers went to United or booking small independent hotels through the portal, so I am going to have to rethink the value of the CSR. we will see how things will work out after November 15th.
I just got the US Bank Altitude Reserve and I planned on keeping it for just one year but now it’s definitely a possible CSR replacement for me. I have a good amount of amex cards so If lifemiles and aeroplan stay intact for awhile ill use those to fly United.
I hope CSR adds more partners and/or features. I would love to keep it but if the math does not work out ill have to downgrade it.
Cant get a United card due to 5/24 anyway.
I rarely mind when they devalue. I can hopefully find premium seats again. For me, the miles are trivially easy to MS – the difficulty is finding space on decent flights without shitty convoluted layovers.
1000x this. Finding something without 9 hr layovers or 2 connections becomes increasingly difficult.
I really need those nonstop flights to Europe. Connections usually add about four hours to the length of the trip. My body can’t handle that any more, as I’m unable to sleep on the planes. I live in a United hub, so all my redemptions for the last five years have been on United or Lufthansa.
For someone like me who frequently book through United using miles for travels between Asia and North America, MileagePlus is dead and will become another Delta Miles. In the meantime I like Delta as an airline way better than United. So, I will likely stop flying United. Then subsequently, UR is dead, therefore CSR is dead.
I lost faith to all point systems now. I will stick to cash backs from now on.
Sure you will. Go MS a premium seat with a 2% card and get back to us. Such silliness, lol.
I have legit business spend. Travel to asia many times a year on points. UR died for me when they removed KE Transfers. Moved over all my spend. The only times i used the chase card is for payments that don’t accept amex lol.
Cash back is 100% the way to go for most people
I have predicted it several months ago when I start seeing United placing off-the-chart mile values to award tickets. United has tried to tie mileage prices to cash prices (e.g. 46,000 miles for $487 ticket). I also remember getting some kind of survey from them, asking about this possibility, and replied very negatively about the idea of “no chart” overall. Seems like they did not listen much, and went the way “to make a big buck” – only time will tell if United will win or loose it’s loyalty customer base. At least they will keep the partners redemption levels tied to the award chart, although it is not explicitly explained in the email United sent today.
The problems is AA, UA and Delta are Monopolies and unless your in a City with multiple hubs and carriers. Your basically SOL,
For example In PDX its either SFO for UA or Delta in SEA then your choices are AA, SW and AS as alternatives at those hubs or PDX
. Loyalty and Elite status is not what it used to be worth and has been devalued as well.