United is ditching award charts

[Mattg]

United is planning to introduce dynamic award pricing and ditch award charts from 15 November. I guess this is the same as what Delta SkyMiles has been doing for a few years.

I must say, I'm really not a fan of dynamic award pricing at all. I like to know how much an award is going to cost as I often save up for specific redemptions. Hopefully there will still be some consistency in partner redemptions.

United Mileage Plus is currently my main frequent flyer program but this will make me seriously reconsider.

I will probably spend most or all of my United miles by 15 November...

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/mileageplus/awards/award-travel-updates.html

 

[RooFlyer]

Dynamic Award Pricing is the 'Uber surge pricing' of the airline world.

 

[somebol]

Is this beginning of the end?
Amex devaluation
Krisflyer devaluation
AA devaluation
now united...

 

[RooFlyer]

Can you imagine if Qantas introduced this, with the demand for J seats out of and into Australia?

Points prices would at least double, as the lowest pricing.

 

[jch]

Just got the email... came here to understand what it means... I guess it won't affect redemption through other *A carriers as they have a set number of seats for a fixed award price?

 

[Mattg]

Hmm, upon further reading it looks like the award charts are actually being removed for United flights taken after 15 November, but effective immediately.

I'm still not really clear about how this affects partner airline award pricing. The availability should be the same, so hopefully the pricing will remain consistent for itineraries that don't include United metal flights.

Here's hoping my favourite Mileage Plus redemption (Japan-Pacific Islands) is not going anywhere!

The more I look into these changes, the more I'm deciding to ditch United as my main Star Alliance program. Aegean & Asiana Club are looking very attractive right now...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Reading some of the analysis it might not be as bad as it seems.

Yes, there will be dynamic pricing, but the position of some commentators is that should not affect the availability of saver awards. If a saver award is available now, it will be available after November. What will change is the fixed cost of the 'everyday' award. That will become dynamic.

Or at least that's the theory.

Can you imagine if Qantas introduced this, with the demand for J seats out of and into Australia?

Points prices would at least double, as the lowest pricing.

We already do! There are classic awards, and then 'any seat' awards. The latter are dynamically priced.

 

[Mattg]

Reading some of the analysis it might not be as bad as it seems.

It might not be so bad for now, but it's a slippery slope. If United are not bound by award charts, they could just decide to charge more for any award at any time and not be held accountable.

I also fear it's inevitable that AAdvantage will go down a similar path within 6 months, now that neither DL nor UA have award charts. After that, who knows how many non-US airlines will follow. Flying Blue (as an example) already has dynamic awards and it's a nightmare trying to work out how much an award is going to cost. With Flying Blue, the dynamic award pricing even applies to partner airline awards.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Further to my post - after November I can only find one date through to end of schedule with UA metal MEL-LAX for 80K. All the rest are at the everyday level of 200K And for itineraries onward from LAX all 200K even if 80K is available as far as LAX.

I wonder how this will impact their sale of miles?

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Aegean & Asiana Club are looking very attractive right now...

I credit to Asiana if I end up on a Star Alliance flight, but temper your expectations: Asiana is some financial strife, a CEO just resigned, it's debt has been reduced to junk, it's cash liquidity is in trouble, and it's looking to reduce its routes and fleet - Asiana flags asset sales and route, fleet cuts

 

[levelnine]

With the way that Qantas hands out FF points like candy, it is only a matter of time before they go down the same route. Move more and more people onto dynamically-priced awards and phase out fixed-price awards.

 

[Doctore1003]

It really does feel like this is the future for FF programs...

 

[jakeseven7]

With the way that Qantas hands out FF points like candy, it is only a matter of time before they go down the same route. Move more and more people onto dynamically-priced awards and phase out fixed-price awards.

Keep in mind they have a huge number of people redeeming for non flight rewards - don’t know if Asiana have the same?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

With the way that Qantas hands out FF points like candy, it is only a matter of time before they go down the same route. Move more and more people onto dynamically-priced awards and phase out fixed-price awards.

Classic awards are seats airlines don’t think they will be able to sell. But with the huge slash in capacity (a380s and 747s downguaging to 787s), there will likely be a lot less of those seats

 

[Danger]

Bloggers are reporting that award prices for partners will remain fixed and unchanged for the time being.

 

[Mattg]

I wonder how this will impact their sale of miles?

Negatively, I assume.

I won't be buying any more... especially when you can still buy them from LifeMiles and Aegean.

Bloggers are reporting that award prices for partners will remain fixed and unchanged for the time being.

This may be true, but we don't know how long "for the time being" will be. United can and will at some point just increase the prices without telling anyone or being held accountable. And we don't know when that will be, so cannot plan accordingly.

 

[ozstamps]

I had dinner this week with 2 VERY long term flyertalk members based in USA I've known for 20 years.

Both are mega million United flyers like me and like me were both 1Ks for 10-15 years. We have seen lots of changes.

Their input is, that to and FROM the USA getting point end rewards on anything long haul in Saver Class is near impossible.

We guessed (and it was only a guess of course) that about 95% of UA miles are held by AMERICANS. They were looking for something interesting to do whilst in this region and I pointed out they can get to Tibet, via Chengdu China for a very modest number of points in pointy end cabins. Lots of flying, HIGH $$$ cost for revenue seats, and availability is pretty wide open. We did it last year.

Those kind of options are what Americans seldom consider. Air China near always seems to have tons of award availability, as do Thai and Ethiopian.

Given the cool UA option of allowing a stopover on round trip AND open jaws, creative thinkers can amaze themselves!

Last Xmas we flew Sydney - Seoul, to Addis Ababa for a stop, (fascinating country) then direct to Windhoek Namibia. Open jawed back home from Victoria Falls direct to Addis, to Beijing, to Sydney. All at very modest points cost, low taxes, and at busiest time of the year.

So the Americans will be p!ssed, but down here of little consequence - unless you want to fly to USA, and with Trump as President we have self-banned visiting there, and we were twice a year visitors.

I predict awards cost from here in the next few years will change little. Except to and from USA. And these days REVENUE seats there are most affordable via sales. Using points to HIGH costs destinations has always made the most sense. Try paying a PAID trip to Lhasa - these are $US prices -

 

[DaveB]

When Delta first introduced the scheme, it was great even acquiring at short notice back in July 2015 three of the last few J seats available from SYD-LAX each costing 350,000 points return involving SYD-LAX-SFO and LAS-LAX-SYD.
Nowadays, return flights for SYD-LAX range from 525,000 to 930,000 points return. SkyMiles points haven't been used this way for the past three years.points kept for internal US and across the ditch flights. Plenty of cheap availability if wanting to come back via Shanghai but thankfully CX and SQ provide more preferable alternatives.

 

[ozstamps]

I am confused.

Went to book an award tonight Sydney to India for Xmas in Biz class for 2 pax. 140,000 each round trip.

Checked all flights and “I” class award inventory showed for all flights I needed.

Firstly agent says round trip awards no longer exist (Huh – is that correct??)

And secondly she says no one way award can have more than 3 or 4 segments.

Thirdly she says that united.com needs to show the award from start to end and you cannot nominate 4 segments you can see are fine for I Class seats.

For instance SYD-DEL shows no Biz award on United.com if you ask for that routing.

But I can see these -

SYD-CTU – Dec 21

CTU-KMG – Dec 22

KMG-BKK – Dec 22

BKK-DEL - Dec 22

All show “I” inventory for 2 pax, and all connect nicely.

Agent tells me that way of constructing an award booking is no longer possible under New Rules.

Do others agree this is the real deal?

Or did I just get a clueless agent? She seemed pretty savvy, so the latter I doubt.

Brave New World indeed.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Ozstamps - unfortunately this is all correct. Has been this way for quite some time now. Widely reported on all the travel blogs when it first came in (around the time of the excursionist perks etc).