What the MileagePlus Devaluation Means to Me

You’d think if you read the Travel Blog world today that the real world has ended today, and on top of that there is no more value to be found in United Frequent Flyer miles (the latter is worse, believe me!).

If you read View from the Wing you will see headlines like “67% devalued” “87% devalued!!” “Sell UNITED”  come on folks lets get a grip here for a minute. It’s not the end of the world that you cannot use these miles for First Class anymore, there are many other ways to do that, but it is bad for people like me due to trickle down economics.  All of the people who were previously flying First class on Partners will now be taking my limited award space in United I Class (Business First) because, whilst everyone is tearing their clothes and screaming like banshees those United Awards didn’t get a lot of damage done to them.

Devaluations always happen, they will happen again to United in the future and this one has been a long time coming.  We should be grateful that United decided to respect its loyal members by giving you until Feb 1st to redeem at current price levels.  That should be more than enough time to book your planned travel, and even add on an extra trip or two to ‘burn up some more’.

Here is the New Award Chart, Effective Feb 1st

One change you will notice is that United now has a two-tier pricing, one for United Metal and one for Partners.  This is fair to me as they have higher costs when obtaining Partner space and therefore are passing it on (though they are also making it so damn expensive that its more of a punitive measure than a pure economic choice).

Furthermore, as a travel hacker you shouldn’t have many United miles, you should have Ultimate Rewards, that are more powerful than United Miles because you have the option to cash them in to United or other Loyalty programs. If you are not a travel hacker, and are actually a loyal United flyer who genuinely earns millions of miles each year for Business travel then you shouldn’t keep a high balance because you have limited vacation time, and should be burning them up in First Class or Business Class vacations, go book something fun for you and the family.

Examining the Devaluation

The Charts

Percentage Changes by Zone

From North America: North America and South America Awards:

Really nothing much to worry about here:

• Travel within North America – No Change
• Travel to Hawaii Coach fares go up from 20K to 22.5K each way, no change to Biz or First pricing.
• Travel to Mexico/ Caribbean/ Central America – No Change
• Travel to Northern Sector of South America – No Change
• Travel to Southern Sector of South America – Coach goes up from 50K to 55K and Biz from 67.5K to 70K each way

So really, the biggest change is 5K miles more on really long journeys from North America down to Southern South America – it’s not going to break the bank at all.

From North America to Europe and Africa

Woe is me… are you ready?

To Europe (Old Price-New Price, in United MileagePlus miles Each Way)

• Coach – No Change
• Business – 50K-57.5K on United
• Business 50K-70K on Star Alliance Partner
• First 67.5K – 80K on United
• First 67.5K-110K on Star Alliance Partner

I’m no expert here, but most flights to Europe on United, and if not all soon to be all, will be on United’s 2 class service of Coach and BusinessFirst.  The three class planes are going the way of the dodo.  I’ve flown United countless times in this class of service and it is just fine, you get a lie flat bed and decent, if not brilliant food and beverages.

If you compare the BusinessFirst product with any other carrier in Business you really aren’t losing out at all, so the real loss here is for people that want to fly in First Class.  Well – guess what, fly BusinessFirst on United using MileagePlus, and if you really need to fly First on Lufthansa or Swiss to Europe then start earning points with your Amex cards, the Membership Rewards and Starpoints will serve you well.

North America to the Middle East

• Coach – 40K-42.5K on United, or on a Partner
• Business 60K-70K on United
• Business 60K-80K on Partner flights
• First 75K-90K on United
• First 75K-140K on Partner

Again, punitive changes to the Partner award program, but hardly a dent to Coach, and you still have BusinessFirst which is more than good enough to get you there relaxed and happy, for just 10K each way more, it is hardly the end of the world.

If you really must fly First, go ahead and book it up by Feb 1st as your last hurrah, which will have your trips sorted until the start of 2015, and in the meantime switch your earning habits over to other programs.

North America to Africa

• Coach – No Change on United, or on a Partner
• Business 60K-70K on United
• Business 60K-80K on Partner flights
• First 75K-85K on United
• First 75K-130K on Partner

The African award devaluations are even friendlier to you, again, lets just get over the fact that Partner travel is a good idea anymore using this program, and you have minor raises in costs, we are talking 15% for Business and less for First, devaluations don’t get much better than that!

North America to Asia

I fly to Japan a lot for business and pleasure, and I have not had a bad flight in BusinessFirst once.  Guess what, United BusinessFirst to Japan and Asia is… still a bargain!

North America to Japan

• Coach 32.5K-35K on United or Partner
• Business 60K-65K on United
• Business 60K-70K on Partner
• First 70K-80K on United
• First 70K-110K on Partner

Again, you are losing the experience of flying on ANA in First Class, in the future.  If you really must try this then by all means book it, since the difference between 60K (Business) and 70K (First) with current pricing is marginal, and you can book travel upto 330 days from Feb 1st 2014.

For future travel, United is still a decent bargain in BusinessFirst, though you could also consider switching to AAdvantage for Business on their Partners for 50K off peak and experience JAL.

North America to North Asia

• Coach 32.5K-35K on United or Partner
• Business 60K-65K on United
• Business 60K-70K on Partner
• First 70K-80K on United
• First 70K-120K on Partner

North America to South Asia

• Coach 32.5K-40K on United or Partner
• Business 60K-70K on United
• Business 60K-80K on Partner
• First 70K-80K on United
• First 70K-130K on Partner

North America to Central Asia

• Coach 40K-42.5K on United or Partner
• Business 60K-70K on United
• Business 60K-80K on Partner
• First 80K-90K on United
• First 80K-140K on Partner

 

North America to Oceania

This route is the second best for United metal, after the Americas, in fact the increases are negligible here which is a great thing and makes flying either Business or First on United very reasonable:

North America – Oceana

• Coach – No Change United or Partners
• Business 60K-65K on United
• Business 60K-75K on Partners
• First 75K-80K on United
• First 75K-110K on Partners

North America – Australia/New Zealand

• Coach – No Change United or Partners
• Business 67.5K-70K on United
• Business 67.5K-80K on Partners
• First 80K- No Change on United
• First 80K-130K on Partners

 

The real problem isn’t that you can’t fly Partners, is that others can’t!

A lot of the blogger folk are complaining that there is no way they can afford to fly First Class anymore, in fact, and the general consensus is that in Business Class the United BusinessFirst Product is just as good, or better than anything that you could hope for, so the problem is going to be finding award space for travel.

If you look at an example, my flight back from Zurich on December 18th on United – no United Flights are showing space, there are 10 options available to me, but all of them are on Partners, such as Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Arrows etc.  If you now take all of these options off the table because of their prohibitive price increases, you simply cannot spend your MileagePlus, unless you are willing to spend them at the terrible Partner rate.

What You Need to Do Now

You could tweet to @United and call them stinkers, then threaten them with law suits.  Alternatively, you could be grateful that you got some notice from them and book up your miles.  If you are close to an award you might want to consider focusing strategies on earning enough to hit the next award level, but if you are planning to do this be aware that Award Space will be very hard to find with everyone burning, so you are going to need Date Flexibility.  If you are close consider:

• One Last Card Application for UA or UR Card, focus spending on UA/UR until you reach goal – if you are going for a new card you probably need to meet spend in 1 month in order to have the miles hit your account and be able to spend them in time.

Personally we have almost no United miles since they have no value to us, I think between our two accounts we have about 2,000 miles, so we wouldn’t be striving to earn more. If you are like us then I suggest:

• Finding a new Card for Dining, I think the Barclaycard Arrival (details in the advert link below) may be the best option now.
• Change your Dining Programs from United MileagePlus to another program, uPromise Dining is actually very good.
• Be glad for the great times, and let the good times roll.