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Few things in life are certain: death, taxes, and airlines increasing mileage prices after eliminating award charts. The most frequent culprit is United Airlines — which has again taken aim at partner award pricing after sending partner first-class awards skyrocketing just last week.
Effective immediately, you'll need to redeem a lot more MileagePlus miles for premium-cabin intra-European, intra-African, intra-South American, and intra-Asia flights. View From The Wing first caught this United partner devaluation, but we've since found even more affected regions — and even larger devaluations.
Here's what you need to know about United Airlines' latest no-notice devaluation.
United Partner Business Class Intra-Region Devaluation
We can't say we're surprised, just disappointed. And while intra-Europe, intra-Africa, intra-South America, and intra-Asia business class redemptions might be niche for most United MileagePlus members, the velocity at which United is devaluing partner awards and showing total disregard for those who collect its miles is undoubtedly concerning.
This no-notice devaluation is why routes such as Munich (MUC) to Prague (PRG) in business class cost 30,000 to 33,000 MileagePlus miles — up from the now-old rate of 27,500 miles.
Routes that go further east to destinations like Athens (ATH) and Istanbul (IST) cost even more at 45,000 to 49,500 MileagePlus miles. Before the devaluation, you'd pay the same 27,500-mile rate as you would between MUC and PRG, for example.
United has also spun the globe and hiked rates on business class awards operated by its partner airlines in Asia. Now, you'll redeem a greater sum of miles for one-way business class flights on intra-Asian routes. For example, business class on THAI's route from Tokyo Narita (NRT) to Bangkok (BKK) was recently bookable for 49,500 MileagePlus miles, but now requires an incredible 99,000 United miles each way.
Beijing (PEK) to Bangkok (BKK) got a similar large-scale bump to 71,500 MileagePlus miles per way.
But wait, there's more. Intra-African awards, such as those operated by Ethiopian Airlines, also command more miles. For example, a one-way flight between Addis Ababa (ADD) and Cape Town (CPT) starts at 99,000 MileagePlus miles. That's up from just 33,000 United miles previously charged on this route, marking an incredible 200% increase.
And another thing — you'll now pay 49,500 miles to fly Star Alliance partner airlines such as Turkish Airlines or SWISS between Buenos Aires (EZE) and São Paulo (GRU) — up from 27,500 miles per way in business class.
To put it bluntly, this is no good, ugly, and very bad.
What's next, United?
If one thing is clear, United has shown that it has no issues devaluing awards without notice. There are several examples of the airline devaluing MileagePlus miles and, in some cases, doing so drastically. Thus, there's no reason to believe United will stop now or feel compelled to let MileagePlus members know beforehand.
Undoubtedly, with each devaluation, there's less of a reason to put all your eggs in your United MileagePlus basket. If you've been earning United MileagePlus miles directly, you might be better off swapping out your United credit card for another product that earns rewards.
For example, you can earn Ultimate Rewards points instead. That way, you can still transfer points to United when you find a reasonable deal or to a partner program that you can use to book United (or other partner) awards.
Earning transferable rewards protects you against the downside risk of a devaluation. Simply, if one program devalues, you can leverage another transfer partner to extract maximum value from your points.
Final Thoughts
United MileagePlus awards on intra-European, intra-African, intra-South American, and intra-Asian routes in business class now cost more, courtesy of United's latest no-notice devaluation. While frustrating, United is sending you a message that it doesn't care about pulling the rug out from under its MileagePlus members. United will happily make awards cost more and feel no pressure to inform you that it raised prices.
And if anything, United's latest devaluation should renew your focus on earning transferable rewards if you aren't already. This way, if a program devalues, you're not left with a pile of miles now worth less than they were yesterday.
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