Where's all the UA J (Polaris) TPAC availability gone?

[2APlease]

SeatsAero shows IN reward availability but not the pricing. Here's UA61 in IN6 for example. I don't have Premier status which is why I was curious on pricing. 100k seems reasonable but the availability of IN awards is still poor as you've pointed out.

UA61 on that date is 100K miles plus AUD142. And days either side are 300K. Well spotted.

 

[2APlease]

UA61 on that date is 100K miles plus AUD142. And days either side are 300K. Well spotted.

I should add that is 100K marked as a Premier only offer, no status, no "discount".

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

As a side note to this discussion, I assume that someone who holds a HSBC Star Alliance credit card would be eligible for the lower MileagePlus rates??

 

[2APlease]

As a side note to this discussion, I assume that someone who holds a HSBC Star Alliance credit card would be eligible for the lower MileagePlus rates??

You would need to be Gold with United. Whilst I have lifetime UA Gold my view is it's near worthless barring lounge access and extra bag. It also provides Boarding Group 1 on UA metal.

For the HSBC card I would likely go Aeroplan. (am currently UA Gold, LH Senator, JAL Diamond and will regain SQ Gold next year.)

 

[avioslover]

MileagePlus Premier Gold also doesn't give you US domestic lounge (United Club) access whilst Aeroplan 50K Gold does.

Also, you only need Premier Silver or a co-branded card to get access to the IN awards as far as I know.

 

[pauly7]

Slightly OT but from a colleague with connections at UA, apparently their AU flights are struggling… which reflects some of the commentary in this thread on many planes going out less than half full.

I wonder if this means UA service cut backs are on the horizon too.

 

[ElizaB]

Slightly OT but from a colleague with connections at UA, apparently their AU flights are struggling… which reflects some of the commentary in this thread on many planes going out less than half full.

I wonder if this means UA service cut backs are on the horizon too.

That would suck so bad Mel to SFO or LAX is a dream. Doesn't completely surprise me though.

 

[levelnine]

Slightly OT but from a colleague with connections at UA, apparently their AU flights are struggling… which reflects some of the commentary in this thread on many planes going out less than half full.

I wonder if this means UA service cut backs are on the horizon too.

The problem is finding other routes for their widebody fleet. UA was heavily invested in the China market pre-COVID, and that has not yet returned to its pre-COVID levels. The big push into Australia (and elsewhere in the Pacific), especially in the Northern Winter, is a reflection of the fact that they simply don't have anywhere else more profitable to fly. If China ever fully comes back online, then Australia will probably see a decent cut in capacity.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Slightly OT but from a colleague with connections at UA, apparently their AU flights are struggling… which reflects some of the commentary in this thread on many planes going out less than half full.

If that's the case and availability has still dried up, that's likely the end of that. And it's not exactly as if there's good availability even to UA status and cardholders. Seems they'd rather take a few hundred dollars as a co-pay and a smaller chunk of miles... and even let the rest of the seats go empty before they open up space.

Fine if you bought the ticket with cash and don't mind the risk of not getting upgraded, but if your plan is to use purely points, you're in trouble.

 

[2APlease]

If that's the case and availability has still dried up, that's likely the end of that. And it's not exactly as if there's good availability even to UA status and cardholders. Seems they'll still gladly take a few hundred dollars as a co-pay and a smaller chunk of miles.

Fine if you bought the ticket with cash and don't mind the risk of not getting upgraded, but if your plan is to use purely points, you're in trouble.

Totally agree, and it will get worse as United intends to double its profit by 2030 thru further exploiting US credit/debit cards which as Australians we cannot leverage effectively.

 

[HS-TQE]

The problem is finding other routes for their widebody fleet. UA was heavily invested in the China market pre-COVID, and that has not yet returned to its pre-COVID levels. The big push into Australia (and elsewhere in the Pacific), especially in the Northern Winter, is a reflection of the fact that they simply don't have anywhere else more profitable to fly. If China ever fully comes back online, then Australia will probably see a decent cut in capacity.

Some of the Australian routes (SFO-ADL NW seasonal, BNE-SFO NW seasonal daily) are also subsidised by their state governments. Cant see those surviving (SFO-BNE dropping back to 4x weekly year round) once the subsidies expire

 

[MathNerd]

For those still interested, just chiming in with a couple of updates on how to get Polaris on TPAC routes (referring to this post from earlier in the month):

1. The regular Economy ticket (for ~1,100 AUD) was purchased when Amex was running a "Spend $1,000 at United, get $400 back. This was handy, as even though my departure was ex-SFO (rather ex-SEA for the entire itinerary), because I was physically located in MEL when making the booking, the currenct of booking was in AUD and it triggered the statement credit. That 400 AUD credit certainly helped sway the decision to proceed with the upgrade waitlist.
2. I was travelling with my wife, so needed 60k UA miles to process both of our upgrades. I bought these using my newly minted UA MP account, which was running a 85% bonus on points purchases. Paid 1,400 USD + 105 USD "tax recovery fee" for a total of 1,505 USD, for 40k UA miles. This took my total to 74,000 UA miles, of which I only needed 60k.
3. The "co-pay" for the waitlist was 600 USD, not 600 AUD as per my post (apologies for the mix-up).
4. I did pay the 397 USD p/pax to upgrade to Premium Plus at OLCI (I think the fact that we were in PP did help us get to the top of the waitlist). Plus - as an extra bonus, I put in a "refund request" for the 397 USD p/pax as we didn't actually get the PP seats we upgraded to - they actually refunded us! Wouldn't count on it again as a guarantee, but it certainly alleviated the overall sting!

Would I do this again? Absolutely! Definitely beats paying 8k-9k outright for a one-way!

 

[ozstamps]

Slightly OT but from a colleague with connections at UA, apparently their AU flights are struggling… which reflects some of the commentary in this thread on many planes going out less than half full.

I wonder if this means UA service cut backs are on the horizon too.

Inward travel to the USA from all nations has crashed badly since Trump came into office early year.

Phones being scrutinised at times for evidence of any anti-Trump commentary etc, are well documented. Passengers being refused at the border etc for all manner of reasons.

I am Caucasian and Ozzie born, but would not visit the USA right now if you paid me - I've happily flown into there about 50-100 times in the past however, and last did so late 2024.

However flying in there now if you are Muslim or Hispanic or whatever their latest bogeyman is, from week to week, is a real deterrent for many - tourists especially, who have endless choice where to fly, and spend their money.

So loads being lightish do not surprise me at all. Not United's fault of course, nor is them being forced by Trump to cancel 10% of all domestic flights next week costing them billions, but just a cold hard reality of the New Reich.

United starting ADL-SFO next month is a joke. I suspect the South Australian taxpayers will be mightily out of pocket on that new route.

I am actually surprised that award seats are not readily obtainable if loads are lighter than usual.