Airline Miles

United miles:

Basically you've got to find SAVER seats.

Read this.

Prices going up. [boardingarea.com]

and then this

BIG United Devaluation. [millionmilesecrets.com]

and this.

Understanding/Redeeming United Miles [millionmilesecrets.com]
You'll have to keep in mind that all the miles for business and first, that they've mentioned in that post, are now wrong..because of the devaluation.
Only Coach hasn't changed.

So if you wanted to fly to London in Business,

you'd be searching for SAVER seats (all this is explained in the third link). You're NOT looking for Standard seats.

A Saver seat to London and back in economy costs 60k points return.(still does.)
A Saver seat in businessFirst costed 100k return trip. Now costs 115k.. So that's not TOO bad.
A Saver seat in First class costed 135k return. Now costs 160k!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is all on United metal.

They have different prices for Alliance partner flights.

So if you're flying businessFirst on a partner flight. It now costs 140k (what first class used to cost)
If you're flying FIRST on a partner flight.. It now costs 220,000 (that's 100,000 MORE than what it used to cost to fly in first)    

-----------------------------------------

Big United Miles Devaluation – Coach Increases Slightly, but First Class Star Alliance Awards Almost Double!

Analysis
There’s virtually no change for coach travel within the US.

United is pioneering a new approach where it costs much less for First Class and Business Class awards on United planes and much MORE if you book an award on their Star Alliance partners such as Lufthansa, Swiss, Thai Airways, etc.

I can see the business reasons why United wants to charge you more for flying on their partner airlines (I don’t agree with them, but I can see why they’d do it).  United is also making it much, much harder for folks to redeem miles for First Class travel on their partner airlines.

ExtraAwardAvailabilityonLufthansa
This Isn’t Going to be Cheap Using United Miles any More!
The goal of this devaluation is to force you to redeem miles for travel on United flights only.  But that isn’t fair because United doesn’t fly everywhere and you get much more choice for international flights when you redeem United miles for flights on their partner airlines.

United Award Chart Changes
Link:   New United Award Chart (after January 31, 2014)

Link:  Old United Award Chart

You can book awards at the existing price until January 31, 2014.  So I’d lock-in as many awards as you can before then.  Remember that you have to pay to make changes to an award (if you have to change the date of travel etc.), but it could be worth it to save miles by booking before the award chart changes.

The new award chard is effective from January 31, 2014.

Summary of Changes
1.   Within the US
No change (12,500 miles one-way) for flights within the US on both United and partner airlines.  This is good news!

Flights between  the mainland US and Alaska will cost 5,000 more miles each way.

 2.   To Hawaii
Economy saver awards increase by 2,500 each on both United and partner airlines.  This is a slight increase and isn’t too bad.

 3.   To Europe
Coach awards remain the same (30,000 miles each way) on United flights.  Business class increases by 7,500 miles to 57,500 miles each way on United flights and by 12,500 miles to 80,000 miles each way in First Class.

Coach awards remain the same (30,000 miles each way) on Star Alliance partners such as Lufthansa, etc. Business class increases by 20,000 miles to 70,000 miles each way on Star Alliance flights and by 42,500 miles to 110,000 miles each way in First Class.

This is clearly designed to get you to stop redeeming for First Class awards on partner airlines!

4.   To India
Coach award increase by 2,500 miles to 42,500 miles on United flights.  Business class increases by 10,000 miles to 70,000 miles aeach way on United flights and by 10,000 miles to 90,000 miles each way in First Class.

Coach award increase by 2,500 miles to 42,500 miles on Star Alliance partners such as Lufthansa etc. Business class increases by 20,000 miles to 80,000 miles each way on Star Alliance partner flights

And increases by 60,000 miles to 140,000 miles each way in First Class.  It used to be 160,000 miles for a round-trip!

This is clearly designed to get you to stop redeeming for First Class awards on partner airlines!

5.   To South Asia (Thailand, Singapore etc.)
Coach award increase by 7,500 miles to 40,000 miles on United flights.  Business class increases by 10,000 miles to 70,000 miles each way on United flights and by 10,000 miles to 90,000 miles each way in First Class.

Coach award increase by 7,500 miles to 40,000 miles each way on Star Alliance partners such as Lufthansa, etc. Business class increases by 20,000 miles to 80,000 miles each way on Star Alliance partner flights.

And First Class increases by 60,000 miles to 130,000 miles each way.  This is clearly designed to get you to stop redeeming for First Class awards on partner airlines!

6.   To Australia or New Zealand
No change to coach awards (40,000 miles) on United flights.  Business class increases by 2,500 miles to 70,000 miles each way on United flights and remains the same in First Class.

Coach awards remain the same (40,000 miles) each way on Star Alliance partners such as Lufthansa, etc. Business class increases by 12,500 miles to 80,000 miles each way on Star Alliance partner flights.

And First Class increases by 50,000 miles to 130,000 miles each way.  This is clearly designed to get you to stop redeeming for First Class awards on partner airlines!

7.   To Japan
Coach award increase by 2,500 miles to 35,000 miles on United flights.  Business class increases by 5,000 miles to 65,000 miles each way on United flights and increases by 12,500 miles to 80,000 miles each way in First Class.

Coach award increase by 2,500 miles to 35,000 miles each way on Star Alliance partners such as Lufthansa, etc. Business class increases by 15,000 miles to 75,000 miles each way on Star Alliance partner flights.

And First Class increases by 42,500 miles to 110,000 miles each way.  This is clearly designed to get you to stop redeeming for First Class awards on partner airlines!

Bottom Line
There is virtually no change for folks redeeming awards in coach on either United or their Star Alliance partners within the US excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

There is a slight increase in coach for international flights on United and slightly more for international coach on their Star Alliance partners such as Lufthansa.

If you redeem miles for business class, you’ll see less of an increase if you use your miles for flights on United instead of their Star Alliance partners.

And the award chart is intentionally designed to make it VERY hard for you to redeem your miles for flights in international first class on United partner airlines such as Lufthansa.

Loss aversion is powerful and I’m sure many folks will be upset by the changes in the award chart.  Sure some changes are bad.  But getting upset over it isn’t going to help.  Instead its better to think back to all the good times you’ve had and focus on how to play the game with the changes!