United has been promoting ‘epic’ deals on award travel this week, with a different mystery destination each day – and sale prices available that day only.

It turns out that we don’t have to wait to know what’s coming, because each day’s deals are now known, decoded early, so I’ll give you a rundown.

• Coach only
  
• 10,000 miles savings each way (15,000 miles off each way for co-brand credit card customers, and cardholders and elites have access to more space as always)

Australia

Monday’s deal is public. That’s Australia from 40,000 miles each way.

Honestly that’s the price it should be if United hadn’t hacked away at redemption values. And it’s not much of a deal compared to paid tickets. Co-brand cardmembers are getting about a penny apiece for their miles on a roundtrip.

Discount is available for saver award travel August 5, 2024 through March 31, 2025 with December 19, 2024 – January 9, 2025 blacked out. That’s strange to me – if there’s saver award space, why black out the pricing?

Imagine paying United’s ‘regular price’ of 110,000 miles roundtrip for a saver award?

United is cutting back capacity to Australia. They have too many seats in the market they can’t sell. So pushing an award discount makes sense. I’m just not sure this is epic.

New Zealand

Tuesday’s deal is New Zealand. You can fly between the US and Auckland or Christchurch, New Zealand starting at 40,000 miles each way in coach.

Discount is available for saver award travel August 5, 2024 through March 31, 2025 with December 19, 2024 – January 9, 2025 blacked out.

Tahiti

Wednesday’s deal is Tahiti. United operates four days a week between San Francisco and Papeete, though most people want off of Tahiti proper as soon as possible – traveling by plane or boat to Moorea, or plane to Bora Bora or to other islands.

Discount is available for saver award travel August 5, 2024 through March 31, 2025 with December 19, 2024 – January 9, 2025 blacked out.

Conrad Bora Bora

Taiwan

Thursday’s deal is Taiwan, with 40,000 mile coach awards (45,000 for non-cardholders) available each way August 8 through December 12, 2024.

Do you notice a theme? These are all crossing the Pacific where United is seeing weakness at least in the back cabin.

Xiaolongbao

Hong Kong

Friday’s deal is Hong Kong, with 40,000 mile coach awards (45,000 for non-cardholders) available each way August 8 through December 12, 2024.

Hong Kong just isn’t the strong destination that it used to be. It isn’t as important a city as a finance center, with the Special Administration Region turning inward towards mainland China and a focus on being part of the Greater Bay Area. Freedoms promised to last there for 50 years after the British handover only made it half that long.

Five years ago when Hong Kongers could still protest they turned out to the airport and broke out in song. “Do You hear the people sing,” by the way, is banned in China.

More than thousand HKers sing Les Miserables' 'Do you hear the people sing?' at HK international airport with their calls for free election and democracy. Here is the Ground Zero in the war against authoritarian rule. That's the reason for us never surrender. pic.twitter.com/1MkTp4BkVg

— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 (@joshuawongcf) August 10, 2019

If You Might Want To Travel…

These meals mean fewer miles for an award than you’d otherwise pay. United no longer imposes award cancel and redeposit fees, so you can make a speculative booking. Though Chase and Bilt points transfer to United, I’d be hard pressed to argue it makes sense to transfer points to United to take advantage of these – unless perhaps you were topping off an account with just a few thousand miles.

More exciting would be United rolling back to its ‘regular pricing’ for business class redemptions, but we have to take what we can get from MileagePlus.