Air Canada’s United devaluation hurts less if you travel more

Air Canada recently devalued awards for travel on United Airlines flights. Whereas awards for travel on United long conformed to Air Canada’s regular partner award chart, it was recently announced that United would join Emirates and a couple of other partners in having dynamically-priced awards that would no longer conform to the standard award chart. Award prices now land at close to the same prices United would charge, though connecting itineraries may create some decent exceptions.

Nonstop United awards devalued

Let there be no doubt: Air Canada Aeroplan awards for travel on United airlines have been devalued, particularly when it comes to nonstop awards. As a reminder, whereas United used to be subject to the same partner award chart as all partners other than Emirates, they are now part of a group of “select partners” that includes Air Canada, United, Emirates, Etihad, flydubai, and several regional Canadian partners.

Devalued United awards within North America

Here is the new award chart for flights within North America. Note that United is included in the “Air Canada and/or Select Partners” line, which no longer shows a set figure but rather a “starting at” price and a “Median” price (which is to be updated quarterly with figures from the previous year).

Short domestic hops like Newark (EWR) to Washington-Dulles (IAD) used to cost 6,000 miles one-way in economy class or 15,000 miles one-way in business class on United. Now you’ll most often pay 10K nonstop in economy class depending on the itinerary (and 15K or 30K on longer connecting itineraries).

That’s still potentially less than what United is charging for similar flights, but it obviously still hurts compared to the previous pricing.

United nonstop awards to Europe devalued by about 25%

The new North America to/from Atlantic Zone chart shows that most Star Alliance partner awards still start at 60K miles in business class, but the median price for Air Canada and United awards to Europe is now 80K miles.

Nonstop awards on United Airlines for travel to Europe certainly seem to price at the median. For example, Newark to Frankfurt used to cost 60,000 miles one way in business class on any Star Alliance airline. That price still holds true on Lufthansa, but the nonstop award on United will now cost you 80,000 miles.

Similarly, a United flight from Newark to London also would have previously set you back 60,000 miles but now costs 80,000 miles on the dates I checked.

The “solution”: Fly further to spend less

While nonstop awards for travel on United Airlines has certainly devalued and that really stinks, it is still possible in some instances to take advantage of “normal” award chart pricing in situations where you can mix partners.

For instance, a flight from Newark (EWR) to Boston (BOS) now usually costs 10,000 miles one-way in economy class or 30,000 miles one-way in business class.

However, if you fly that route on United and then continue on Air Canada to Montreal, you can cut the price by more than half. Some of those same flights cost 6,000 miles one-way in economy class or 15,000 miles one-way in business class from New York/Newark to Boston to Montreal.

This concept holds true in other parts of the world where it might be more useful yet.

Save ~25% on business class with mixed-partner awards to Europe

I showed earlier in this post that New York/Newark to London costs 80,000 miles one-way in United business class nonstop on the dates I checked.

Similarly, New York/Newark to Frankfurt was also 80,000 miles for a nonstop award on United Airlines.

However, as a bizarre and slightly fun twist, those same flights from Newark to London to Frankfurt, where you fly business class on United to London and then business class on Lufthansa to Frankfurt, still only cost 60,000 miles on a mixed-partner business class award (or they drop to 35K in economy class).

The same thing is true from New York / Newark to London to Zurich where you fly on United to London and then SWISS for 60K miles in business class.

Meanwhile, it’s a similar story if you fly to London and then Munich, which is a bit farther but still costs just 70K miles in business.

A business class award from Newark to Geneva to Vienna also costs 70K miles.

That’s despite the fact that Newark to Geneva costs 80K miles one way.

Nonstop United awards are devalued, but itineraries involving two partners appear to price according to the old chart. Note that there is no guarantee that this will continue to work, but it does for now.

Nonstops to South America massively devalued, mixed-partner awards not so much

It’s a similar (or possibly worse) story to other regions as well. One Mile at a Time points out that awards from Houston to southern South America used to cost 43K miles in economy or 60K in business class, we now see an award like Houston to Sao Paulo priced at 45K miles in economy class or an eye-popping 100,000 miles one-way in business.

However, just as with Europe, the mixed-partner pricing can work in your favor. Continue on from Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires and that mixed-partner award drops to 40K in economy class or 60K in business class (Note that some of these are mixed-cabin, but the long-haul United segments are in business. At least one example below is entirely in business class for 60K). That’s a 40% discount over the nonstop to Sao Paulo alone!

Asia also devalued, but stop over to save miles

If you’ve got Asia on your mind, you’ll again find pricing is often as high as 100,000 miles one-way for a business class ticket from San Francisco to Seoul.

However, continue on to Hong Kong and that same flight from San Francisco to Seoul combined with a leg on Asiana to Hong Kong, entirely in business class, drops to 75K miles one way.

The nice thing is that Aeroplan allows a stopover on a one-way award for 5,000 additional miles. So you could book that same San Francisco-to-Seoul flight that costs 100K miles by itself, have a 5-day stopover in Korea, and then continue on to Hong Kong for a total of 80,000 miles.

I know that the itinerary above only shows 1 seat available, but if you’re willing to take the leg from Seoul to Hong Kong in economy class, you’d still get San Francisco to Seoul in business class and there are still 8 seats available in business class on that leg.

It is important to note that this stopover technique would also work for awards to Europe and South America. Take the examples from those previous sections and book a stopover in London en route to Frankfurt, Zurich, or Vienna or fly from Houston to Sao Paulo and stop over there en route to Buenos Aires (or the destination of your choice).

Unfortunately, remember that Air Canada Aeroplan does not allow stopovers in North America. The example itineraries from New York/Newark to Boston to Montreal can not be booked with a stopover in Boston since Aeroplan will not allow a stopover in North America.

Still, booking a stopover and/or mixed partner award could be a great way to save some miles.

This is a painful devaluation, but there may be a silver lining

There’s no doubt that the big time devaluation on United nonstop awards stinks, full stop. Aeroplan has probably become my favorite program over the past few years thanks to a partner award chart that I’ve loved and stretched a few times over. Taking some partners off of the award chart hurts the value proposition and complicates things. We started out with a chart that had exceptions for Emirates, but now we’re adding those exceptions for several more airlines. I don’t like that trend one bit. When will Lufthansa decide that they want more for their awards? If they push for their group to move to the “select partners”, we lose easy access to Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, and Brussels. It’s a slippery slope that I hate to indulge.

However, there might be some bright side here (or at least less dark side than I’d feared). One of my core disappointments with United moving to the “Select partners” chart was that pricing for multi-partner, multi-leg awards was expected to be dynamic. I had feared a situation like the one that Emirates currently has, with a single leg on Emirates causing an entire itinerary to price at a ludicrous price (even when that Emirates leg is a short economy class segment and the rest of the itinerary is on other partners in business class!). Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case here (at least not yet).

Air Canada has previously claimed that increasing the cost of awards like these has made it possible to offer more award availability. I think it is at least possible that increasing the nonstop redemption rates will allow Air Canada to have expanded access to United availability. If that expanded availability sticks on connecting itineraries, where it appears they may have some more leeway in terms of award pricing, that could be good news for those looking to fly farther / book more complicated awards.

I want to emphasize the fact that the “select partners” award chart does not list any maximum. I found the prices listed in this post repeated in all of my searches, but it is important to note that this could all change at any time thanks to the lack of any defined upper limit on awards for travel on United. And time will tell how many seats United makes available and how much variance we see in Aeroplan’s award pricing. At least for now, if you find a good nonstop award with an inflated price, try adding a leg to see if you can save some miles.

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