United Lowering Award Rates For Cardholders

United Airlines is the latest airline to reward its most loyal customers with better award rates — not only for its own flights, but those on its partner airlines, too. The Chicago-based carrier now offers discounted award flights for MileagePlus members who hold a United co-branded credit card. It appears United is also targeting flyers with Premier status with lower award rates.

Diving Into This Ever Expanding Card Perk

This perk isn't exactly new, but we're seeing it more and more when searching for award flights through United. Unlike Delta's 15% discount for cardholders, which applies to all award flights, United only offers a discount on some, but not all, award flights. But United MileagePlus Miles hardly offers the best deal when it comes to award flights, especially for premium cabins on partner airlines. You can often find better award rates through other Star Alliance partners like Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca LifeMiles. But if you've got a stash of United miles and a United co-branded credit card or elite status, this may be welcome news.

United Cardholder And Elite Member Discount On Award Tickets

While United no longer publishes an award chart, partner awards are typically around 44,000 MileagePlus miles each way for economy and 88,000 for business class. United cardholders may be book these partner flights for less. Eligible flights will have a “Cardmembers pay” banner.

In the case of this SWISS flight from Chicago (ORD) to Lisbon (LIS), travelers with a United card would only pay 40,000 miles in economy, and 80,000 for business class — about a 10% discount.

Again, this discount appears to only apply to Saver awards — the lowest rate United charges — but United cardholders won't see a discount on every one of these fares. Take this United flight from Washington, D.C. (IAD) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA), for example. Cardholders can book United Polaris business class for just 80,000 miles, compared to the 115,000 miles you'd pay without a United card. But there's no additional discount for cardholders on booking a Saver economy award.

United Lowering Award Rates: ToP Thoughts

It's unclear when United started offering lower award rates for United cardholders (as well as those reportedly those with elite status) when redeeming MileagePlus miles. But it's obviously a way to incentivize MileagePlus members to open a United co-branded card. While United isn't offering a flat discount for cardholders on all award flights à la Delta, we are seeing these lower award rates applied to partner awards as well as United-operated flights, which is something. The savings aren't massive by any means, but saving a few thousand miles can help — especially if you're trying to book an upper class flight. I would imagine this is only happening on United cards with an annual fee. Share your thoughts & experiences with these lower United award rates over in the ToP Facebook Group.