Redeeming award miles can be a great way to save money on flights — and even allow you to fly in cabins you wouldn’t have thought possible. Who wants to drink some champagne in business class?
As a member of Star Alliance, United Airlines miles can be redeemed for flights all around the world. While United doesn’t maintain an official award chart, it does offer saver-level rewards for flights. Let’s take a look at United’s unofficial award chart, how United prices its seats, and how many miles you can expect to pay for a United flight.
Table of contents
Understanding the United Airlines award chart: The basics
While United doesn’t maintain an official award chart, it does offer what are called saver-level seats. These are the lowest-priced seats you can book with miles. You’ll also want to know when United releases award seats and how pricing works for partner flights.
Saver-level awards
Because United doesn’t have an award chart, it can be difficult to know whether you’re getting a good deal with your miles. The easiest way to tell is to keep an eye out for saver-level awards.
Saver awards are the lowest rates you can redeem your miles at and can be significantly less expensive than a standard award.
Note that United only indicates whether a seat is a saver award on economy flights; you’ll need to compare pricing on other cabins to determine if it’s a good deal.
When award availability opens
Airlines only release a certain number of award seats on flights, which is why you’ll sometimes find no awards open for the flights you want. This is true even when tickets are available in cash.
It’s important to know how far in advance United opens its award calendar. This gives you the best chance to get the seats you want at a good price.
Most airlines open their award calendars between 330 and 362 days in advance. United falls on the shorter end of this and releases award seats 337 days in advance.
Partner award pricing
United charges different rates for redeeming flights operated by its partners. Because it’s a member of the Star Alliance, it has access to flights with many different airlines, including Lufthansa, Air Canada, Swiss, and more.
However, flights operated by United are always going to be cheaper in United miles than flights operated by a partner.
In the section above, we showed you a saver economy award from Washington D.C. (IAD) to Munich (MUC) for 40,000 United miles. This flight is operated by United.
Here’s an example of a very similar flight operated by Lufthansa:
Note that it’s still a saver award but costs 10% more. This is true for all partner-operated flights, so if you want to save your miles, try looking out for a United-operated flight.
How many miles you’ll need for a flight on United Airlines
Because United doesn’t have an award chart, it’s difficult to know exactly how much you should be paying for your flight. This is especially true as United keeps sneakily raising award prices; with no announcements made about changes, it’s up to users and media to realize when these increases happen.
At the absolute cheapest, expect to pay about 5,000 United miles for a one-way short-haul flight in economy.
These are probably the best deals you can find. There might even be situations in which the cash price to a regional airport is expensive, but the redemption rate is still below 10,000 miles.
Otherwise, you can expect to pay 40,000 United miles for a one-way saver award to Europe in economy class. In business, the lowest you’ll be paying is 80,000 miles one-way to Europe.
Because there is no official award chart, prices can fluctuate. United’s fare calendar can be a very helpful tool in finding the cheapest award flights since it will show you a month at a time.
How many miles you’ll need for a partner flight using MileagePlus miles
United charges more for partner award flights than its own flights — usually about 10% more. The best deals you’ll find are for short-haul flights within Europe, where you’ll pay as little as 6,000 miles one-way. This can be a great deal, considering these tickets can sell for hundreds of dollars.
As noted above, you can get from the U.S. to Europe in business class on a partner flight for 88,000 miles each way.
Other than short-haul flights within Europe, United doesn’t offer any particular sweet spots for partner award flights. Quite the opposite, actually; it heavily disincentivizes using your United MileagePlus miles by charging extortionate sums for flights such as All Nippon Airways (ANA) first class.
Tips for determining the cost of your United award flight
While redeeming your United miles isn’t necessarily going to provide great value, there are other ways to determine your costs and even maximize the miles you’re redeeming.
Maximizing the Excursionist perk
United has something called the Excursionist perk, which allows you to take an award flight for free if you’re booking a round-trip.
Here’s an example: You book a flight from New York to Frankfurt, a flight from Frankfurt to London, and a flight from London to New York. With the Excursionist perk, your flight from Frankfurt to London is free. Just remember that you need to book all three flights on the same ticket.
Booking with partner airlines
If you’re interested in flying United but don’t want to spend a ton of miles, you may want to consider booking with a partner airline. In many cases, booking with a partner can cost fewer miles than with United itself.
Here’s an example of a flight from Denver (DEN) to London (LHR) with United. A one-way business class ticket will cost 80,000 miles.
That same flight can also be booked using Air Canada Aeroplan points and will cost just 70,000 points, saving you 10,000 points overall.
United Airlines routing rules to consider
United doesn’t have a ton of routing rules since it doesn’t publish an award chart. However, it does maintain regions for pricing rules, so it’s important to understand those.
Understanding regions
Regions are most important when using the Excursionist perk. This is because the rules of the Excursionist perk state that your first and last flights must be flying from one region to another, while your free flight must be within a single region that’s different from where you started.
For example, the mainland U.S., Alaska, and Canada are all considered one region, while Hawaii is its own region.
Luckily, United has a dedicated page that breaks down all of its regions.
Summary
United did away with its award chart in 2019, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still find good deals. Make sure to keep an eye out for saver-level awards, and if you can, book your seats when the award calendar opens. If all else fails, try taking a look at United’s partners to see if they have better pricing.
You can also use point.me to search United award availability and compare rates across Star Alliance partner programs.
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