United Airlines runs quite a few promos on their award charts. We have already seen a couple this year that brought Star Alliance business class flights to Europe very close to what they used to be under the old award chart. We have also seen several other areas of the world discounted with award tickets as well.
United Award Tickets Now Up To 50% Off For Domestic Japan
This one is not a promo offering as United has now dropped the award price on domestic Japan tickets. While there may be those that think it is not a big deal, if you are planning to visit Japan and you have United miles to use, it can save you a good bit of money over purchasing the tickets outright (on the same airline/itinerary as the award ticket).
Of course, you can always use airlines like Jetstar at a great discount over the larger airlines, but if you were going to fly ANA (which is what these award tickets will book on), you are going to have to pay a good price.
The new award structure for inter-Japan is as low as 5,000 miles one way!
The new pricing on domestic Japan award travel is tiered by distance. Where the old amount was 10,000 United miles each way, the new amount is 5,000 miles for travel under 800 miles and 8,000 miles for travel over 801 miles. That means you can save at least 2,000 miles each way but as much as 5,000 miles each way.
The new award chart for domestic Japan tickets
Also, there is no cash component to these award tickets so your ticket price will be only the miles. This new decrease in award miles only applies to domestic Japanese tickets but if that is something you redeem for, you are in for some savings. The new award amount kicked in as of June 2 and is here to stay. To see the site for details, click here. If you do plan on booking a stopover, just keep in mind that even trips under the 800 mile limit will price at the higher amount – so it will cost 8,000 miles one way with a stopover.
what’s the trick on searching the availability? I searched for multiple combination of ITM/KIX (Osaka) to NRT/HND (Tokyo) but united.com is just saying such route is not served. This is one of most popular domestic route. Google is showing multiple ANA flight between ITM-NRT…
It is coming back the same for me on that.I would give United a call. As I mentioned in the other comment, they have always been able to see partner availability when there is some fluke partner issues like this (like not even showing a calendar of availability).
Thanks for the info.
Tried to find award flights from Tokyo and Sapporo (sample flight) and can only get an error that United doesn’t fly between those 2 airports. What am I doing wrong?
I can see full availability through August. After that, it seems to not show anything. I would give United a call. In the past when partner availability is not showing up at all (like in this case not even showing up in the calendar), they have always been able to book the award ticket for me.
Thanks for the quick answer. Appreciate your help and I do enjoy your blog (though I’m not a runner).
Be aware that you will have to pay an extra $25 for phone booking fee.
If you can argue why you can’t book online, sometimes they will wave the phone booking fee. I was trying to book SEA-SFO-ICN-SYD. if I search SEA-SFO and SFO-SYD separately I see availability but not if I search SEA-SYD even though it’s a valid route. I got transferred to a specialist after explaining that I can’t book this online and agent automatically waved phone booking fee.
Btw, do you go to Sydney? which airline and cabin class? and how many United miles does it cost? I’ve always wanted to go to Sydney and I am in SFO.
ICN is your layover?
Yes I booked that award earlier this year. SEA-SFO on United F and SFO-SYD via ICN on Asiana. Business class 80k united miles 1 way. It’s a new completely flat seat on B777. Flying on 3/23/2016. Availability is still good I believe but at the time, you could also book 1st class suite on Asiana A380 if you are willing to connect at LAX. But at 110k miles 1 way, I couldn’t justify it. And there was also an availability of united global first on the nose of 747 for same amount of miles as business on Asiana but with mixed review on united, I chose Asiana. ICN is my lay over.. couple hours I think. there is a direct united flight SFO-SYD but no availability on business or first. try it your self… each to do online search. on btw, ICN-SYD is older angled seat.