A few weeks ago, United started running a “sale” or sorts with their partner business class awards. Instead of charging the normal 70,000 miles one-way to Europe from the US (for partner carriers like Lufthansa and Turkish), they discounted them to the normal level of a United business class award – 57,500 miles one-way. Sure, that is still 7,500 miles more than it used to be under the pre-United devaluation chart, but that is where the awards sit now.
Discounted United Partner Awards In Business – Ending Tomorrow?
Just like it appeared without any notice, it will disappear without any notice. Chances are pretty good that it will disappear tomorrow. Part of that is because tomorrow marks the first day that the discounted business partner awards were good for travel and because the 1st of the year makes good sense. Of course, we are talking about airline award programs, so what makes good sense to us normally doesn’t make that great sense for them. 🙂
So, for now, flights to Europe from the US in January, February, and March are all at the 57,500 miles one-way price. If you want to be able to save 25,000 miles on a roundtrip business class ticket to Europe, start checking over at United to see what options are available. If you have United Premier Platinum or Premier 1K, you can cancel and redeposit current award tickets for free and then rebook at the lower amount (or, book the lower amount now and then cancel the original, higher award). You are still paying 15,000 more miles than required under the last award chart, but this as close as you will get to the old award chart with United! This is really a great way to get to Europe, even during the winter months.
Award tickets booked with this “sale” are called Saver Sale – North America. It is an actual sale but no word on when it will be pulled.
If you want to book one of these business class awards, now is the time. If you are unsure if it is going to be pulled and not sure of your travel plans as of yet, you can book now and cancel within 24 hours if your plans change/the award rates stay the same. That could be a nice insurance method to get a roundtrip business class booking at 15,000 fewer miles than normal.
Of course, you can still book any business class award that uses United as the long-haul portion for 57,500 (one-way) at anytime. That is the going rate for that. However, if you would rather enjoy one of United’s partners in business class instead, now is the time to do that.
As a mini rant – shame on you, United, for making us believe that spending 115,000 miles roundtrip for business class is a good deal. That same thing last year was only a 100,000 miles! 🙂
Is this really your best argument? why will this make any sense?
“Part of that is because tomorrow marks the first day that the discounted business partner awards were good for travel and because the 1st of the year makes good sense.”
The second part of that was more tongue in cheek, as demonstrated by my follow-up sentence.
The first part, however, I believe would be a better indicator as most promo awards are only bookable until the travel period begins. Also, United’s economy promo awards just ended yesterday. Again, without any firm information from United, this is really just serving as a reminder that this promo could go away soon and it is a good idea to lock in these awards now if they are of interest to people.
Actually, I was talking about the first part. I don’t think it makes sense. I am more incline to believe that is just weak demand for the low season.