United Airlines made an announcement (read more here) earlier this year that they would stop publishing award charts effective November 15 (last Friday).
Now, the award chartless MileagePlus has been around for thee days; we are starting to see the differences.
You can access United’s website here.
MileagePlus now appears to penalize members that book their awards within 30 days of departure when greater availability usually exists by increasing the number of miles required by 3,500.
Previously there was up to $75 close-in booking fee that was discounted/waived for elite members.
Here are two comparison searches I made:
Bangkok – Bali
United MileagePlus
Avianca LifeMiles
Lufthansa Miles&More
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Aegean Miles+Bonus
Barcelona – Helsinki
United MileagePlus
Avianca LifeMiles
Lufthansa Miles&More
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Aegean Miles+Bonus
Conclusion
The airlines, especially US ones, are devaluing their award charts left and right, hoping that loyalty programs members would stick around (they shouldn’t).
The business has been good for too long – eventually, there will be a downturn that usually is very ugly in cyclical companies such as air transportation (how many times have the US 3 gone through bankruptcy protection/reorganization).
There is no longer ZERO loyalty left from my side to any of these programs. I use them when it benefits me and redeem with several airlines and alliances.
It is just unfortunate that you need to work with many programs within each alliance to get some value out of them. Previously, you could count the US-based programs to offer the best value and redemption experience (IT and low fees) that is often not the case anymore.
