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Last week, I wrote about how United massively devalued redemptions on Lufthansa and ANA with the latter doubling in price for First Class award tickets. It looks like United wasn’t done tinkering as intra-Europe and intra-Asia partner awards are also getting hiked up.
United’s MileagePlus frequent flyer program does not publish award charts. It can then charge whatever exorbitant rate it sees fit. Even without set rates, when redeeming on partners there were some common rates you could expect to pay. Not anymore. These rate increases are hitting flights within Europe on partners like Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, SWISS, and others as well as Asian partner airlines like ANA, THAI, etc.
I used to consistently redeem award tickets in Europe (in Business Class) for 25,000 miles. These now start at 30,000 miles with many costing 33,000.
Flights a bit longer within Europe cost even more. Business Class award seats between much of Europe and Istanbul now cost a painful 49,500 miles (these also were once 25,000 miles).
Flights within Asia are now costly with a starting price of 49,500.
Anthony’s Take: United MileagePlus has been going downhill for years. The benefits and redemptions are not what they once were. As much as I love flying Delta Air Lines (generally), its SkyMiles® program is bad. Rates are sky high and United seems to be mimicking what it sees Delta getting away with charging. The only positive here is that costs keep going up and eventually we’ll see good award space since no one will have the miles to redeem for these expensive seats.
(Featured Image Credit: United Airlines.)
(H/T: View from the Wing.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
2 comments
300,000 Amex MR SUB is the new 150,000!
It’s true.