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Home » United Airlines » United Airlines MileagePlus Devaluation Spreads Worldwide
Award BookingsUnited Airlines

United Airlines MileagePlus Devaluation Spreads Worldwide

Matthew Klint Posted onJune 2, 2023November 13, 2023 31 Comments

a group of airplanes parked at an airport

After raising award redemption rates to Europe using MileagePlus miles, United Airlines has now raised prices for redemptions to all regions around the world, in some cases raising prices without notice by over 57%. It’s the latest sunset on the value of the MileagePlus program.

United Airlines MileagePlus 2023 Devaluation Spreads Worldwide

In short, after United raised the redemption rates for European awards last month, prices have now risen–dramatically in some cases–for travel to other regions. This impacts not only business class travel, but travel in premium economy and economy class as well, where we have seen some of the greatest increases in price.

I’ll illustrate with a few examples:

  • To Australia, economy class on United jumped from 40K to 55K one-way in economy and from 80K to 100K in business class
  • To Japan, partner award travel in business class jumped from 88K to 110K one-way and from as little as 38.5K to 60.5K in economy class. On United, economy class rose from 35K to 55K and business class from 70K to 110K each way
    • All Asia now appears to be priced in this way – there are no more zones within Asia like Japan, North Asia, and South Asia
  • To Africa, partner flights now start at 49.5K one-way in economy class and 88K in business class
  • To South America, flights now start at 49.5K one-way in economy class and 88K in business class

In other words, prices have shot up for travel to all other regions of the world: no region has been spared for travel that touches North America.

For example, two days ago you could book an ANA ticket from Los Angeles to Tokyo for 38.5K United miles in economy class. Today, that same ticket will cost 60.6K miles, a whopping 57% increase. Note that you can still redeem 55K Aeroplan points for business class from Seattle to Tokyo on ANA…I’ll say more on that below.

Finally, pricing has also risen significantly on United’s own metal, with “anytime” awards pricing much higher than before, though still not clearly tied to any revenue pricing.

This Move Reflects Very Poorly On United

United can smugly say “we have no award chart therefore there is no fixed pricing therefore this was not a devaluation” until its face turns blue, but we know that is not the case. Most awards still followed fixed pricing even if there is no award chart published.

Once again, this devaluation makes Air Canada Aeroplan program all the more valuable. Aeroplan transparently publishes award charts and announces devaluations in advance. It also continues to offer superb value on many redemption routes, as I noted above between Seattle and Tokyo.

It’s time for you to cut up your United Airlines co-branded credit cards from Chase and shift spending to a more flexible currency like Chase Ultimate Rewards points via a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve card.

The devaluation is bad enough, but not giving MileagePlus members any sort of heads-up really stings. United refused to comment when it adjusted prices a couple weeks ago and I do not expect it will here either.

As I always have insisted, points and miles are generally depreciating assets and you should not consider them a nest egg, but a currency to be used sooner rather than later. This devaluation just reinforces that trend.

CONLCUSION

After United devalued award pricing to Europe, it was only a matter of time before the negative changes hit other regions. Now they have. The pricing increases to Japan are particularly extreme, but prices are up worldwide. Let this be another reminder that miles and points are a depreciating asset; still very valuable but a currency that loses value over time rather than gains it.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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31 Comments

  1. Tee Jay Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 8:17 am

    Any impact on US domestic MileagePlus redemption rates yet? I have a bunch of miles to use….

    • Aaron Reply
      June 2, 2023 at 4:27 pm

      Use them asap if you can.

      • William Robert Reply
        June 2, 2023 at 6:32 pm

        These already have pretty crappy rates. One flight in particular I’m looking at costs 22k points one way in economy when the same route on WN only costs 13.3k points. In the good old days this would have been 12.5k points.

    • Andrew Reply
      June 2, 2023 at 5:29 pm

      Yes! As an example, domestic first class saver awards (I or IN class) have increased from 25,000 to 30,000 miles within the last few weeks.

      • Matthew Klint Reply
        June 2, 2023 at 6:48 pm

        Correct – the pricing floor has increased…but don’t think that will stop UA from doing it again. If you see something good, grab it. No fees to cancel and/or redeposit.

        • Ken Warner Reply
          June 3, 2023 at 1:58 am

          Thanks for discussing this; it’s very disappointing after so many years of loyalty to United; paying their higher fares in anticipation of collecting miles for future, foreign trips; now not affordable.

    • Jason Reply
      June 3, 2023 at 3:37 pm

      You know this is the worst devaluation I have ever seen I will stop using united at this point, use up my miles and fly delta or american. They are a joke

  2. Lukas Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 8:19 am

    Aeroplan is getting ready to devalue in late 2023 according to some sources, FYI.

  3. Chi Hsuan Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 8:36 am

    But, but, United is offering 10x miles if you donate to the gays!!!!

    • Pete Reply
      June 2, 2023 at 10:38 am

      Always the closeted ones that seem to be obsessed…

      • gustavo Reply
        June 2, 2023 at 2:07 pm

        you can’t handle the truth

    • ptahcha Reply
      June 2, 2023 at 12:11 pm

      Thanks for advertising!

  4. O'Hare Is My Second Home Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 8:43 am

    I am so glad that I recently cashed in a whole bunch of my MileagePlus points for ORD-SFO-BNE and back next February at 40K per direction. I am also very glad that I purchased Aeroplan points when they had that 105% bonus recently. Let’s see if Aeroplan devalues like they’re rumored to.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      June 2, 2023 at 11:22 am

      I’m sure there will be a devaluation. The question is how bad will it be and will we have advance notice.

  5. Mark Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 9:32 am

    Gotta pay those pilots somehow. That coupled with the insane demand environment we are seeing for air travel no one should be surprised to see this. Average ticket prices have gone up and so award rates should follow suit.

  6. Jan Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 10:21 am

    United rising

  7. JetAway Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 11:28 am

    Cutting up all United/Chase credit cards is the best advice. Those card partnerships are the Achilles Heel of all the airlines.

  8. Sal Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 11:31 am

    One silver lining, the MileagePlus Upgrade awards appear to be unaffected, for now.

    • Scott K Reply
      June 2, 2023 at 12:16 pm

      Thanks for reminding me!

    • David Reply
      June 2, 2023 at 12:41 pm

      If you can get them. I have a boat load of Plus Points set to expire the end of next month. I’ve had very little success upgrading lately on domestic or international flights, as a 1K and million miler. And try to find tickets, anywhere, that is instantly up gradable, avoiding waitlist. Miles and upgrade points are becoming a losing proposition.

  9. Christian Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 1:09 pm

    Another Kirby charmer, well worthy of the best airline in the world. I’d already been drifting away from United. This merely accelerates that.

  10. Bill Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 1:14 pm

    To me, United’s MP depreciation is bitter sweet. Bitter because my “Mike Pile” is worth less. Sweet because this will hopefully cull out more “Vaca” tourists from the front of the airplane and United Lounges. The talk here speaks well for the Lounge situation if people cancel their MP Chase cards for other cards.

  11. Jd19 Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 1:31 pm

    That flight you just took from JNB-EWR…395k miles for one-way business class on May 4, 2024
    What a joke

  12. Peter Parker Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 1:45 pm

    Sorely in need of proofreading.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      June 2, 2023 at 1:53 pm

      Wouldn’t be the first time.

  13. Super VC10 Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 3:02 pm

    Is anyone surprised to discover that an airline – even their favorite airline – is not their friend?

  14. Interested Traveler Reply
    June 2, 2023 at 6:03 pm

    Say it with me MileagePlus is Comcastic.

    Raising prices with little notice is the COMCAST/Xfinity way.

  15. Matthew Reply
    June 3, 2023 at 3:58 am

    For Honolulu to Tokyo route all return flights require a Guam layover if using points.

  16. Stannis Reply
    June 3, 2023 at 7:29 am

    Curious about this logic sequence:

    A) Aeroplan is now the best alternative points currency.
    B) Cut up you Chase United cards.
    C) Get Chase UR cards instead.

    We all know C is true, but if you want to use your platform to keep A true, why not encourage folks to get the Chase Aeroplan card instead as their co-branded alternative card?

  17. Marissa Reply
    June 5, 2023 at 1:46 pm

    I just booked an RT to Australia for September and the vast majority one-way redemptions were 200k points though I did find one at 80k, which was amazing (these are for business class).

  18. Huckle Berry Reply
    June 6, 2023 at 10:01 pm

    Impeccable timing and the smartest move by Bondar in hiring Nunn as MileagePlus CEO. I agree that this was a long time in the making, so Nunn will go down in history as the scape-GOAT of Mileage Plus when co-branded credit card cancellations will soar in the months to come, including my own MPE & MPQ cards. This devaluation is certainly not what we all had in mind when thinking of “the next chapter for the continued expansion of United’s industry-leading loyalty business.” Pathetic.

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