We’re not sure if this is true for everyone, but Dans Deals has discovered that United credit cardholders seem to now have increased access to business class saver awards.
Cardholders have long been able to see expanded economy saver award space, but this is the first time that I can remember hearing about additional business space as well. Our assumption is that this is a bug and not a new feature.
All United cards come with this “member pricing,” except for the Gateway, which requires you to spend $10,000 in a calendar year to qualify.
The Deal
- United credit cardholders appear to have (temporary?) access to expanded business class saver availability not available to non-cardholders.
Link to United’s advanced search feature (cardholders must log in to see additional space)
Quick Thoughts
Again, this is probably not an intended feature and will likely go away eventually, but it’s a great deal while it lasts.
United international business class saver awards are usually about as easy to find as cigarettes in prison, so folks with a stash of Mileage Plus miles and a United credit card should rejoice.
When logged in, Dans Deals was able to see such unicorn awards as:
- 80K for Washington, DC to Cape Town
- 80K for Newark to Paris and Dubai
- 100K for Newark to Tokyo
- 100K for San Francisco to Singapore or Auckland
- 100K for Los Angeles to Sydney
Smoke ’em if you got ’em.
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Now that you mention it, I actually noticed a few months ago when I was searching for flights to Cairo that there seemed to be a difference if I was logged into United or not. We do not have status but do have a United biz card. I didn’t even think about it again as I found flights I wanted and stopped looking. Would be great if this was permanent!
I noticed this today. Quest card has access to IN inventory. Also, UA Gold has access (and I suspect also UA Silver) whereas before I believe it was Plat and above. Also, I notice huge amounts of additional close in IN awards and upgrade space on Oceana flights which I have been monitoring recently.
I believe this is going to be permanent because in conjunction with this change I noticed that United has removed basically all close in partner award space to Oceana where they used to release a few close in on a regular basis. I think what we are seeing here is United eliminating most partner award space and redirecting to United cardholders and status holders. It could also be a move to pacify Chase since United has devalued its miles so much recently and Chase is not getting the cardholder value out of them that they expected with their contract?
Do Gateway cards that were downgraded from a United card that had an annual fee have access to this space like it had (or has? I haven’t seriously checked United awards thru my account that has the Gateway linked since 9 months ago) with economy award fares? I did (do?) like having that grandfathered Gateway “gift.”
‘Smoke ’em if you got ’em.’!! LoL!!!