United Devaluation – Book now or later?

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The last day is almost here before United’s devaluation kicks in on February 1st.  So here’s your reminder to book any trips if it makes sense. The biggest devaluations are when booking in premium cabins with United partners. For more info detailing the changes from Europe go here. Keep in mind that not all routes are going up and some are going down so it may be better to wait in those cases.

United 787

If you need some inspiration on where to go, Gary has a great article here. Scott from MileValue also has some info on great award availability from the US to Asia using United miles.

Keep in mind that if you book an award flight now you will be allowed to only change the date without the award re-pricing at the higher rates after the 1st of February.  

Mommy Points stated that UA Insider on Flyertalk mentioned, “changes to awards that require a change in date do not result in a change to the award price. Any other change will require an add/collect in miles and fees for changes or cancellations will still apply as per our existing policies.”  Say for example you way to fly from Chicago to Frankfurt in business class on Lufthansa in 2014, but you aren’t yet sure of what date you want to go.  You can book a flight that has availability on that route now for 100k round trip, and then then change the date later without having to pay the new price of 140,000 miles.  The trick is there has to be availability for the exact flights you had on the new dates.  That likely means keeping the same route, same carriers, and same cabin.  It is possible there will be a tad more flexibility on that than has been advertized, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Happy hunting for award tickets. I’m planning one as I type. Where do you plan on going?

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  1. Pingback: United Devaluation Postponed - Globetrotter HQ

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