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For a long time, United has offered improved award availability and discounted award flights for those who have Premier elite status and/or a United credit card. Historically, that increased availability and improved award pricing has only been for flights on United metal, but that’s changed – in a good way.
United is now offering discounts on award flights not only on their own metal, but also on partner airlines like Turkish Airlines and EVA Air. The discount isn’t showing on every partner award flight, but this is an interesting and welcome development.
Greg first noticed these discounts today when running some award searches on United’s website. When looking at flights from Istanbul to Detroit, he spotted that there were flights in both economy and business class that were discounted by 9%. This was listed as a Premier discount, but what was unusual about this discount was the fact that it’s a nonstop flight operated by Turkish Airlines rather than United.
Turkish isn’t the only partner airline of United where you can see this discount. Other Star Alliance partners also have some of their flights being discounted like Lufthansa…
…Austrian Airlines…
…EVA Air…
…and Avianca.
Even with the discount though, the award pricing still isn’t very attractive in many cases. For example, 40,000 miles to Europe in economy one-way is awful considering several airlines offer pricing at 20,000 miles or below.
Greg has both Premier Silver status (courtesy of United’s partnership with Marriott Bonvoy for Titanium members) and a United credit card, as do I. When checking in the Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group, readers who have no status but do have a United credit card – even the no annual fee Gateway card – have confirmed that they’re also seeing these discounts. One member reports having Silver status but no United credit card and they didn’t see a discount on the search they ran; what’s not clear is if the day they searched for simply didn’t have any award availability or if having a United credit card is a key component for getting the discount. Please let us know in the comments if you also have status but no United card and don’t see any kind of award discounts on partner award flights.
It’s also unclear as to whether this is some kind of temporary, unannounced award sale by United or if this will be an ongoing savings opportunity for those with United status and/or a United credit card. Either way, it’s a welcome respite from the periodic unannounced devaluations that United has been putting in place over the last couple of years.
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United’s website will show Lufthansa Group award space that isn’t available – when you click to book you receive an error. I suspect that the award space is released and updated in batches and isn’t dynamically refreshed as the space is booked. This can be frustrating as you need to run many searches over multiple dates and city pairs before you find something actually bookable.
I did just book 2 one-way seats in business on MUC-JFK, with a valuation for my United Miles of ~$0.09/mile… miracles happen, you just need to be persistent!
[…] United giving award flight discounts to Premier members & cardholders – even on partners by FM. […]
Hi,
I’m a Silver member from Marriott Titanium, but I don’t have United credit card.
I just checked dummy flight, and it did show I get some discount.
It says “Special member pricing”?
I clicked on ? mark and the details showed that
“As a valued Mileage Plus Premier Silver member, you’re getting a lower rate.”
And it showed 16% Off Premier, and the line crossed over the 40k miles sign and 33.4K miles +$5.90.
I guess I will get some discount by having a Premier Silver status.
Yes, other programs may offer similar routes for less but taxes are often $200 or more per person one way. United has low taxes and even on economy flights I can choose my seat for free. On AirFrance that’s not included on economy tickets so another $70 per person. United has no change cancellation fees which is huge. Also, we travel carry on only even to Europe and American carriers are much more generous with sizes they allow. With European carriers usually we exceed the limit so need to pay extra for checked bag. It all adds up. American would be good alternative if you live in their hub, but for us United has the most options.
With this new change –
I will definitely have to check flights thru UA app esp against AC.
I found VIE-PRG saver fare 6K + $68 USD vs AC 7.5K and $100 USD – but the free cancellation with UA and superior call center & and CSR ( I have always been able to speak with a human within 3-5 minutes of dialing). I booked it a little while ago 2.5cpp.
[…] United giving award flight discounts to Premier members & cardholders – even on partners So maybe that explains some of the price increases we’ve seen – United had to increase redemption costs for everyone, in order to reduce them for preferred members without giving them a real discount compared to the status quo ante. […]
I’m confused about these “discounts” because the “discounted” price is what I thought what the saver level price is supposed to be. Is this instead a price increase for non-elites / non-cardholders?
I think it’s real. I had a 93k international multi-city award, but saw the new pricing today and did a “cancel and rebook” to save 8k. Will look at other future United award bookings to see about picking up some more free points.
I am seeing a US east coast to Bogota this fall for a 28% discount in miles listed under “Premiers Save”. I have temporary Platinum status via a match so perhaps the miles discount depends on different elite levels? I don’t have a United credit card. Discount only appeared for economy awards.
You mentioned “40,000 miles to Europe in economy one-way is awful considering several airlines offer pricing at 20,000 miles or below.” May I ask which airlines offer 20,000 miles to Europe? Thanks.
You can book Air France/KLM through Flying Blue or Virgin Atlantic for 20K or under. The fees are slightly higher at $150-200 each way but that’s still a better deal than UA.
Like Pierre said, Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic were the two main ones I was thinking of. American Airlines has some sub-20k award fares too depending on your dates (e.g. New York to London in March).
Also try Iberia. 21,500-25,000 west coast to Europe in Economy depending on off peak
I checked both my account (UA Quest card) the night of the sale it was
25K RT :
PDX-CDG
PDX-AMS
PDX-BRU
If i had booked on UA metal with Quest card it would have been 20K with Quest 5K Award rebate.
The same flights were 40K in P2 account (no UA CC).
I tried really hard to make it work – but I had build our trip around a RT PDX-KEF-CDG with a 2N layover – (had an almost 6hr schedule change so I could have canceled the Icelandair flight for free). It just didn’t make sense to rebook on UA – but I am going to use the schedule change to spend an extra day in Paris on the back-end so we can enjoy Versailles palace.
Is it really cardholder/premier inventory or just general saver? It doesn’t say XN in your examples and I thought that was the cardholder/premier inventory vs. plain X for general saver?
XN is only relevant for UA metal. The article is about partner metal.
This is great. That 400,000 mile business class one way ticket may only be 360,000 miles now!
Haha
United mileageMinus went from one of the best to possibly the worst airline awards in just a few years. I don’t even bother anymore.
That name wins the internet today