United MileagePlus Sweet Spot: Intra-Europe Flights

I recently needed to book some flights within Europe and was quite surprised to find how expensive they were. This was particularly the case on routes that are only served by “legacy” carriers such as Lufthansa, Swiss or Brussels Airlines.

Of course, it’s currently the peak summer travel season in Europe and many flights are busy. That partially explains the high airfares.

I’ve also noticed that many of the European full-service airlines tend to charge a lot for one-way flights within Europe because many of their short-haul flights are designed primarily to feed traffic into their long-haul networks. Therefore, these airlines avoid filling up their short-haul services with passengers on discounted tickets. They instead want to reserve as many seats as possible for passengers connecting to or from long-haul flights.

This is exactly the kind of situation where frequent flyer points and miles can come in handy. Although the flights I wanted were expensive, there were plenty of award seats available. And as it turns out, booking through the United MileagePlus program was excellent value.

United MileagePlus intra-Europe award pricing

The United MileagePlus program no longer publishes award charts. This is a common source of frustration for members as dynamic pricing is used for itineraries that include flights operated by United Airlines. The number of miles required to book an award ticket is not consistent and can vary hugely, even for different flights on the same route.

United has also been known to increase award pricing without notice – which it can pretty much get away with since there is no award chart.

But there are still pockets of excellent value, especially when redeeming United miles to fly with partner airlines. Intra-Europe redemptions in Economy Class is one such example.

In general, short one-way flights within Europe cost 15,000 United MileagePlus miles in Economy or 27,500 miles in Business Class. But short non-stop flights in Economy, for some reason, are priced at only 6,000 MileagePlus miles. These prices apply if you book at least 21 days in advance.

If you book within 21 days of departure, the price for a point-to-point award ticket in Economy increases to 6,500 MileagePlus miles. That’s still very reasonable, especially compared to the cost of buying a ticket!

For some reason, if you book a return or multi-city ticket, the return or onward journey also happens to be priced a bit lower than the first leg on the ticket.

Note that taxes and carrier charges are also payable when redeeming miles.

When redeeming United MileagePlus miles for trips within Europe, Economy itineraries requiring connections and Business Class redemptions are priced significantly higher. The sweet spot here with United MileagePlus, specifically, is non-stop Economy flights within Europe.

United redemption example 1: Berlin-Brussels on Brussels Airlines

As one example, I recently booked a flight from Berlin to Brussels on Brussels Airlines. It would have cost €253.63 (~AU$413) for an Economy Light ticket.

The Economy Light fare on Brussels Airlines does not include a checked bag. Since I’ll need to check in a bag, I would have actually spent even more than that.

Instead, I simply redeemed 6,500 United miles (since I booked less than three weeks out) and paid $50.70 in taxes. Those 6,500 United miles saved me over $400, after accounting for checked baggage fees.

When redeeming United miles for an Economy award ticket, a checked bag is included. Plus, United offers the flexibility to change or cancel an award ticket at no cost. So, it’s much more flexible!

In theory, you could also book a Berlin to Brussels flight on Brussels Airlines for 6,000 Etihad Guest miles in Economy, or 10,000 Etihad Guest miles in Business Class. But my recent attempt to book this through Etihad Guest was unsuccessful because the Etihad call centre couldn’t ticket my booking.

United redemption example 2: Brussels-Zurich on Swiss

In another example, I recently wanted to book a flight from Brussels to Zurich. Swiss wanted €491.14 (~AU$800) for a one-way Economy ticket, which curiously was even more expensive than Business Class.

Once again, United MileagePlus came to the rescue with a last-minute award ticket for 6,500 United miles + $74.50. That’s a much better deal!

United has many partner airlines in Europe

United is part of Star Alliance, which has a strong presence in Europe. You can redeem United MileagePlus miles on partner airlines including Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Austrian, LOT Polish Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, SAS, Croatia Airlines and Aegean.

United also partners with several non-Star Alliance members in Europe including Eurowings, Air Dolomiti, Olympic Air and Aer Lingus.

I similarly saved almost $1,000 last year by redeeming 6,500 United miles for a SAS flight from Copenhagen to Hamburg.

Longer non-stop flights within Europe may be a bit more expensive. For example, flights from Frankfurt to Madrid or Munich to Athens (both 2.5-hour trips) cost 8,800 United miles in Economy. Longer routes could be more expensive.

United also has good short-haul award pricing in other markets

United’s short-haul Economy awards are also quite reasonably priced in certain other markets. For example, I found the following one-way awards available on the United website:

• Tokyo to Sapporo on ANA for 5,500 MileagePlus miles + $8 in taxes
• Auckland to Queenstown on Air New Zealand for 8,800 MileagePlus miles + $8.80 in taxes
• São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro on Azul for 8,800 MileagePlus miles + $9.40 in taxes
• Johannesburg to Cape Town on South African Airways for 8,800 MileagePlus miles + $12.80 in taxes
• Sydney to Hobart on Virgin Australia for 8,800 MileagePlus miles + $19.23 in taxes
• Addis Ababa to Nairobi on Ethiopian Airlines for 8,800 MileagePlus miles + $49.50 in taxes
• Panama City to Tegucigalpa on Copa Airlines for 8,800 MileagePlus miles + $79.90 in taxes

Many people save up their points for long-haul and Business Class flights. But there is still value to be found when redeeming for Economy Class!

How to earn United MileagePlus miles in Australia

United MileagePlus doesn’t have a huge presence in Australia, but you can transfer CommBank Awards points into United MileagePlus. You can also earn United miles with the HSBC Star Alliance credit card.

You can also transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to United MileagePlus indirectly via Marriott Bonvoy. (This could work out to be quite good value if there is a bonus offer on transfers from Amex to Marriott Bonvoy.)

As United Airlines is a Star Alliance member, you can also credit miles to United when flying with any Star Alliance carrier including Air New Zealand. United is also a partner of Virgin Australia, so you could earn United miles for Virgin Australia flights.

Buying United MileagePlus miles

Perhaps the easiest way to earn United miles in Australia, though, is simply by buying them. United sells MileagePlus miles for USD35 per thousand at full price.

But there are regular offers that make this even more attractive. For example, until 28 July 2023, United is currently offering 50-95% bonus miles on purchases of 5,000 miles or more.

United MileagePlus miles don’t expire. However, United Airlines doesn’t have award charts and could change the cost of award flights at any time. Therefore, we would only recommend buying miles if you have already found an award flight you want and plan to book it immediately.

Short-haul Economy redemptions can be good value with other programs too

Redeeming points for short, expensive flights is often also good value when booking through other frequent flyer programs with distance-based award charts. Qantas Frequent Flyer is a good example of this.

To give another European example, a Finnair ticket from Warsaw to Helsinki that includes checked baggage would cost around PLN873 (~AU$321) one-way.

But you could redeem just 8,000 Qantas points and ~AU$52 for the same flight.

That redemption gets you around 3.36 cents of value per Qantas point.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.