United Award Pricing

United has become notorious for repeated devaluations of its MileagePlus program as they increased the costs of awards multiple times over the last few years. Award flights have become more expensive with United than just about any other Star Alliance partner, with a few exceptions. In doing some award searches recently, I was shocked to see award rates to and from Europe in business class costing lower than usual. Has United really lowered the price of some award flights? Even more surprising, these prices apply to partner awards rather than on United's own flights. Let's dig into the details of this new United award pricing.

Current Pricing

United Airlines MileagePlus charges 80,000 or 88,000 miles for business class flights to and from Europe depending on whether the flight is operated by United or a partner.

But when running some award searches last night, I saw flights for under 80,000 miles each way in business class, For example, flights between Geneva, Switzerland (GVA) and New York (JFK) on Swiss are going for 73,000 miles each way in business (there's also plenty of availability for next June). This is 15,000 miles less than the 88,000 miles that United charges for this partner award.

You'll notice that a connecting flight through Brussels (BRU) onwards to JFK on Brussels Airlines is also priced lower than usual, at 75,000 miles.

Here is another example, this one to Istanbul on a flight operated by Turkish Airlines:

It doesn't look like this new United award pricing applies to every partner flight. Plenty of flights still show up at the usual price of 88,000 miles.

You may also notice that the flight below is the same EWR-IST flight as above, but without a connection. So it looks like United's usual married segment shenanigans still apply here.

What are the limits to this new United award pricing?

So far, I haven't discerned any patterns or parameters to this new United award pricing. It looks like these prices apply to both non-stop and connecting flights and to many different partners (Turkish, TAP Portugal, Lufthansa, etc.). This pricing is also showing up to/from of multiple cities across the US and Canada on the one hand and Europe on the other.

I have only seen these lower award prices to/from Europe, but maybe there might some deals to other regions.

It's time to mess around on United's website and discover what we can do with this new award pricing!

Are these awards actually bookable?

Yes! We tested it out and the award has actually ticketed (thanks, Derrick!).

This flight was also showing on Air Canada Aeroplan.

As of now, we don't know whether this pricing is a mistake, a temporary sale, or a permanent change. But whatever it is, it's bookable and if you have some United miles sitting in your account, you might as well get to to booking! Remember that you can take advantage of United's super flexible award cancellation policy.

United Award Sale: ToP Thoughts

United award prices are lower than usual, though we don't yet know why. This includes business class flights between North America and Europe. Don't wait around; make sure to take advantage of this new United award pricing if you can!

If you end up booking anything, let us know over in the ToP Facebook Group.