United Devaluation… Any Silver Linings?
About two weeks ago I wrote about an onslaught of devaluations across multiple airline and hotel programs. The one which hit me the hardest was the United devaluation since I accrue a good number of their miles due to the ease and flexibility of redeeming them. They also have relatively good routing rules (open jaws and stopovers). So when they announced their new redemption mileage requirements and the increase for Star Alliance Partners it hit like a bag of bricks. Look at the two charts to compare:
That being said there are a couple of sweet spots when traveling from Europe. I’ve created a chart comparing the old and new mileage requirements and broke out flying United versus flying Star Alliance partners as well. The last column shows the difference in miles. All figures are multiplied by 1000. You can download the pdf by clicking here or on the title below the screenshot.
Nov 8th Announcement. Friday Bloody Friday…
United Changes – Europe Award Redemptions
As you can see, the majority of changes are bad and require more mileage (red) but a couple do stick out as positive (green): Central Asia and Oceania and even in premium cabins.
Europe is defined as the following countries:
Central Asia and Oceania include:
Although I would recommend avoiding certain areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, I would highly recommend the Maldives and almost anywhere in Oceania.
Keep in mind you can add a stopover anywhere along the path and also use an open jaw to fly back from a different city. These two options allow you to see a couple more countries or cities with the same amount of miles.
I’d like to take a moment to thank all of my readers and the emails you have sent. In order to give something back, stay tuned as I will be giving away some United Global Premier Upgrades and other goodies very soon…
2 Comments
Thanks for the great comparison.
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