Bad news hit this morning when One Mile At A Time shared that LifeMiles has devalued award pricing between the US and much of Europe and North Asia. That’s disappointing, but there’s a silver lining if you live in the northeast or can easily position there because award pricing to the UK and Ireland has gotten cheaper.
The Bad News
There’s more bad news than good with these award pricing changes. Previously when flying from the US to much of Europe, award pricing was 30,000 LifeMiles in economy one-way, 63,000 in business class and 87,000 in first class. Following today’s changes, those award prices are 35,000, 70,000 and 130,000 miles respectively. For economy, that’s a 16.67% increase, for business that’s an 11.11% increase and for first class that’s a whopping 49.43% increase.
Similarly, award pricing to North Asia has gone up in price. For example, first class awards to Japan now cost 120,000 miles one-way rather than the 90,000 miles that were previously required – a 33.33% increase.
The Good News
What’s a little strange is that LifeMiles did sprinkle some goodness into this devaluation. AwardWallet has picked up that award pricing from the east coast starting from the mid-Atlantic and up (i.e. Washington D.C., Newark and Boston) now costs less if traveling to the UK or Ireland.
On those routes, if you can find availability on United then you’ll be looking at only 22,500 miles one-way in economy or 45,000 miles in business class.
They also found this discounted award pricing to Scandinavia too, although I wasn’t able to recreate that with the searches I did.
Mixed-Cabin Pricing Still Available, But More Expensive
One of LifeMiles’s sweet spots has long been the ability to tack on an economy flight after a business class flight to reduce the overall award pricing, despite flying farther. Following these changes, that mixed-cabin pricing is still available, but it’s also more expensive than it was previously.
For example, flying from Paris to Washington D.C. should ordinarily cost 70,000 LifeMiles in business class. However, if you add on an economy class flight to your itinerary – such as Houston in the example below – the total cost will reduce, despite you flying farther. In this example, the Paris to Washington D.C. portion in business class prices out at 53,320 LifeMiles, with the D.C. to Houston leg costing 8,820 miles for a total cost of 62,140 miles.
Any Other New Sweet Spots?
These changes only occurred today and without any notice, so we’re still digesting what’s happened. The reduced pricing to Ireland and the UK was unexpected, so let us know in the comments if you notice any other new sweet spot awards.
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I don’t know about other folks but I’m not seeing anything from east coast (EWR, IAD) for less than 37.5 k to northern europe (CPH, ARN, EDI) in economy. It was previously 20k so the supposed 22.5k space (that I can’t seem to find) would be a devaluation anyway…anyone else see any better pricing on any of those routes?
Is there still 35k business class JFK to Lisbon?
No, it’s now pricing at 65000 miles.
Sadly no, it is now 65k
now thats just what I needed. Smh. LAX ZRH used to be 23500 and now its 39000. Well, it was good while it lasted. Very disappointing
I don’t know when West Coast to EU was 23500 but IAD (East Coast) to ATH (EU) needed 30000 in Econ, now 39000. Didn’t even see availability in business – which needed 63K before deval.
I only see 70k for east coast to LHR or DUB…
In Brazil, I used to find domestic flights for 6,000 LM. Now, the price increased 100%. You won’t find anything less than 12,000 LM. I believe part of that is the partnership with G3, but either way, it sucks.
Not too sure where people are finding flights to ireland or for that matter, any route except for EWR-LHR that is going for 45k in business class. I ran multiple searches for DCA,IAD,ORD etc. to Dublin, Heathrow, CPH and couldn’t find anything below 70,000. What routes are you guys finding (JFK-LHR with stops is also showing as 70k interestingly)
Going to be interesting if the 45k was intended. That matches AS in a much easier program to gather miles for the same flights United is charging ~2x on their own metal, seems like too much of an undercut to ignore.
[…] business class East Coast to the U.K. and Ireland has dropped to 45,000 miles each way, not […]
Actually, lifemiles increased the cost of economy tickets from the East Coast. Nonstop United flights from IAD to LHR used to be 20k each way as late as last month for March/April 2025.
North America to Oceania is still sitting at 40K in econ, if not less. NZ LAX-AKL at 35K and hopefully it’ll last.
I was looking at ZRH-ORD in December showed 37k in economy
Seriously, does nick even work there anymore? Seems like Stephen carries 75% of the site and tim the other 25% these days.
If you look over time I think you’ll see that posts on time-sensitive issues are written by whoever is not on some faraway trip, possibly with limited internet and completely different time zone.
When Nick and Greg come back from travelling, they usually have some good posts to share 🙂
Get Instagram. Nick’s busy — but still providing great content there.
I’ve been on vacation for the past week and so hadn’t published anything (other than the Spirit Ridge review that I’d written before & scheduled for while I was off). If you’ve read anything on here this past week, it’s been written by Greg, Nick, Tim or Carrie 🙂
FWIW, Lifemiles previously consistently charged 20k IAD-LHR, so the price has actually increased.
In business? I’m still seeing IAD-LHR at the new 70k price.
Edit: Did a bunch of searches. Does not look like IAD is part of that 45k pricing. IAD-LHR, DUB, or CPH all price out at 70k.
Economy Flights from IAD – LHR – consistently charge 20K and now is 45K miles in economy.