Via Dan’s Deals, United.com is pricing business class awards between North America and Europe at the lower United price.
United’s award chart bloodletting created a separate, more expensive award chart for travel on partner airlines (even ‘joint venture’ partners, where United is supposed to be indifferent as to whether you fly United or their JV partner).
Business class between the US and Europe currently runs:
- 57,500 miles if you fly United (115,000 roundtrip)
- 70,000 miles if you fly a partner (140,000 roundtrip)
Right now – for January, February, and March – they are pricing partner awards at the price of United flights.
Of course that’s low season for Europe travel, so I am going to assume this is an ‘unannoucned sale’. Of course there is no telling how many days (or hours or minutes!) this could last, so book now if you have interest in using your United miles for travel between the US and Europe during the first quarter of 2015 in order to save 25,000 miles roundtrip!
Interestingly, travel on Lufthansa shows up with pricing options at both the United-only saver level, and the more expensive standard award price which is only for United travel. So clearly this unannounced sale is using the United-only pricing (as opposed to a new ‘short term discount’ price level) despite allowing travel on partner airlines.
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First class too?
I love how you worded this post.
At what point does it turn from a sale into a 4 mile island?
Could you book something for spring and then do a change to winter without a re-price?
@ Arun Baheti — interesting question. I wonder if it applies to the “published” UA discount. I’m guessing the system would stop you, but there’s no way to be sure without testing.
Otherwise, this is a bit of a yawner — kind of like Singapore Air accidentally selling some biz class seats for “only” $3000. Sure, I might rather fly UA’s partners instead of UA to Europe, but it’s still a lot of miles to fly to Europe in the dead of winter.
@iahphx: Given how much UA now charges for partner awards, the potential of paying the normal saver amount but flying other metal has great appeal. I often prefer the other partners for business class flights compared to UA.
For changes, c.f. the pre-devaluation UA awards, where we’ve been able to make changes for one year and not get stuck with the new award chart.
And, as for winter, what can I say? I love low season and can handle the cold for no crowds and better prices — but I live in LA, so I am not trying to flee winter conditions!
@Sky It is a sale. The award activity on my account listed it as “Saver Sale – North America”
I flew six trips in C from the west coast to Europe this year; four were on Star Alliance. To my (great) surprise, my C segments on UA were much more pleasant than on LH, even down to the meals served. This had not been my experience in previous years, by a longshot. So, based on my 2014 flights, I won’t be in a hurry to trade “up” to LH in my bookings, even for the same mileage cost.
That’s not to say I wouldn’t appreciate some SQ25 C love, though…
Its not just for Europe!!! i priced an India to Boston flight on Turkish, and it dropped from 80k oneway biz to 70k!!!
I tried, one can’t change a ticket to outside the promo timeframe, it seems quite smart about that, and wants the difference in miles.
I priced 2 tickets in August to Germany and got the same price (57,500 Miles each way).
I have a upcoming award trip to South Africa. Has anyone found discounted partner award availability there?