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United Airlines has released a ton of business class award availability. The Points Guy reports weeks of availability for as many as nine seats on many routes – I’m even seeing nine seats on nonstops to Australia, which is something I’ve never seen. Obviously this is of limited use in the near-term, but if you’re able to book with limited change or cancellation fees, it might be worth booking something if you’re flush with miles that can be used to book United flights.
The Deal
- There is tons of saver-level United polaris business class availability on routes worldwide. You can obviously book with United miles and you should also be able to book saver seats with partner miles. In many cases, we’re seeing as many as nine seats at a time in business class, which is extremely rare for United to release.
Quick Thoughts
While I’ve seen some patches of saver availability to and from Europe over the past couple of years, it is rare to see such wide-open award availability system-wide on United. Obviously this won’t be wildly exciting for most given the current state of affairs, but it is nonetheless notable and noteworthy.
And given that I believe United is waiving cancellation fees as long as you cancel at least 30 days in advance, you aren’t absolutely locked in to whatever you book (if you’re booking with other Star Alliance miles, YMMV).
Again, what makes this notable is that there is availability on all sorts of routes — like San Francisco to Bangalore, which had 5 available seats on the first date I checked.
As you will no doubt expect, I’m having trouble finding availability on that nonstop above via Turkish Miles & Smiles, though I think it should be 52,500 miles one way in business class via Turkish (perhaps you can book it via email).
San Francisco to Singapore is also widely available. United will get you for 75K miles on that, whereas Turkish charges just 67,500 miles one way.
That pricing holds up on other routes to Asia as well, including to Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc.
And you know that it’s a crazy day when you’re looking at an availability calendar like this for nine passengers on a nonstop to Australia.
Of course, Australia’s government doesn’t sound eager to open up international travel any time soon, so I wouldn’t get my heart too attached to those flights. However, I even see a couple of dates available in November. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that a whole lot can change in 10 months time.
Overall, I expect that this availability will be of limited use to most, but it might be worth investing your dormant miles if change and cancellation fees are low and/or nonexistent. I wouldn’t probably make a transfer to book unless you have a lot of confidence in being able to make the trip happen.
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If one has to cancel and pay a “redeposit”” fee to United, is that per person or per booking/reservation? In other words, if I book a single reservation for 4 people, will I pay 1 or 4 fees?
Redeposit fees are per person, per fare. If you book roundtrip tickets, you should only pay per RT ticket, but if you book one-ways you’ll pay for each.
Nick-help me out with lap infant costs. Can I pay miles? Is it 10% of the adult miles fare?
FYI, unless something’s changed recently this should still be 10% of the CASH FARE adult ticket. We flew Polaris in 2019 and the lap infant fee was $750!
I got a little excited until I saw that ANA has award space on the dates I need. Good backup if you can’t fly better airlines.
Is ANA better than Polaris?
I wouldn’t say it’s noteworthy, but mostly expected. Many of those countries, like Australia, won’t even let us in. Nobody is flying on those planes except maybe some ex-pats
While this is true today, it may or may not be true later this year. Death rates will fall quickly as the oldest get vaccinated. Vaccination throughput is going to get better. The world is probably going to look pretty different in 6 months.
Most governments (Asia(ex-JP)NZ/AUS etc) will make sure the virus isn’t reintroduced. Kids won’t be vaccinated any time soon. Large in-person international conferences will be an indicator of when we can travel internationally.
Considering that the USA can’t even distribute the vaccines properly, don’t even think about international travel. Those countries (except UK) aren’t as stupid as this one. They will not allow any Americans unless you submit to a lengthy quarantine, even if you’re lucky enough to be vaccinated.