Usually news around changes in US airline award programs are bad news – over the last few years, there has been one devaluation after the other and many perks have been eliminated. So, it’s great news to see that United is doing an award sale for US domestic flights at 20% off and saver award flights to Asia at 25% off! Find the details after the break!
United is offering a 20% discount on economy class saver award tickets within the continental US and Canada and to Hawaii and Alaska, now requiring between 16,000 – 36,000 miles for a round-trip flight:
You have to book your trip by August 23rd, 2016 and can travel between August 23rd and December 15th, 2016. The discount only applies to round-trip tickets, one-ways are at the usual price. Stop-overs are not allowed, but open-jaw trips are!
I usually prefer to use my hard-earned United Miles for international premium cabin travel to get the most value out of them, but this makes for a good opportunity on often expensive domestic trips. I value United miles at 1.5ct/m, so I’d consider any domestic ticket of $240 or more and any Hawaii ticket of $540 or more as decent value!
You have to register for this offer and can find the registration and all the fine print here!
The second part of the award sale offers economy class saver awards to Asia at 8,888 miles less per one-way flight (or 17,776 total), which adds up to about a 25% discount!
You can book by August 22nd and fly from August 29th, 2016 to April 30th, 2017 with blackout days around the holidays! This is again only available for round-trip flights (no stop-overs, but with open-jaw) and there are a few more restrictions: You have to fly on United metal to mainland China or Hong Kong – StarAlliance partner operated flights between the US and Asia and United operated flights to their hubs in Japan or Korea are not eligible! You can connect to StarAlliance partners from China or Hong Kong to other destinations in North and South Asia, like Singapore, Bangkok or Bali!
I prefer business class for those long-haul flights to get some good sleep, but this is nevertheless a nice discount. Keep in mind that prices to China have been very low – the 62,224 miles needed for South Asia are equivalent to $933 – a price you can frequently beat on those routes! I would only use miles for economy class on very expensive routes or dates!
You don’t have to register for this offer, but you can find all the lengthy fine print here!
If you’d like to get more deals like this or missed the time window, please follow me on Twitter – I’m posting great deals daily and many will sell out quickly, so stay ahead with my Twitter updates! Or sign up for my weekly newsletter, Sunday Summary!