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What Do United Airlines Points for a Flight Mean?

It is often very challenging to determine how many miles or points an individual would require to redeem for an award flight on United Airlines. United now has variable awards, which means that the number of miles needed for an award ticket is not fixed and can change greatly depending on the flight. Here are the basics on United Airlines award ticket costs and processes to get the biggest bang out of a United award point.

United Award Ticket Prices

United has dismantled the typical award chart that clearly explains how many points are required to redeem on certain routes or classes of service. This is not the case with United, as the company has adopted variable pricing, where the number of miles is directly proportional to the cash price of a ticket. This is the reason that if a flight is costly to acquire by paying cash, it will need more miles to acquire the same flight as an award.

For all of its one-way domestic economy awards on United, most of them will cost between 12,500 and 30,000 points for flights of under 700 miles. Long haul, over 700 miles:

Depending on the partner airline, you’re generally going to see 20,000 to 50,000 miles for an economy-class award.

First-class awards are roughly twice as many points as economy for short-haul domestic flights and are often more costly than business. It would cost approximately 40,000–80,000 miles for most of the one-way first-class awards within North America.

Even basic economy long-haul international flights to regions such as Europe can cost between 30,000 and 70,000 miles one way at the bare minimum. Business class awards increase to approximately 80,000 to 150,000 miles per cabin for European routes. Longhaul international flights can range from 110,000 to 220,000+ miles one way for first-class awards.

The important thing to know here is that United no longer offers the lowest saver award pricing anymore, except on some flights at certain points of the year where demand is low. Thus, as a rule, you will spend significantly more miles than the former minimally low “Saver” prices that were constantly introduced. This is because sometimes the award rate of a particular destination may be lower during off-seasons or when traveling to less popular destinations.

Tips for Revenue Booking United Awards

Here are some tips to make the most of your United miles:

The last strategy that may be employed to increase the likelihood of use is to be open to travel dates and destinations.

United often increases the fares for awards for flights during high-demand periods, such as near major holidays and favorable seasonal travel seasons. This opens up the temptation to look for other dates or even other cities, which might not be as popular, and usually, this will show far cheaper award flights even when the cash fares remain high. It may be useful to fly several hours before or after the planned time because sometimes it changes a lot.

Book Well in Advance

As is the case with most airlines, United will release only a token number of award seats at the opening schedule, which is 11 months before the desired date of departure. Extra award seats may also become available later, within a couple of months before traveling, depending on fully paid cash tickets. But you will be most likely to get the awards at cheaper rates if you book earlier.

Consider One-Way Awards

You do not always have to book a roundtrip award ticket, only if you prefer a one-way ticket. United has recently adopted a dynamic model, which has brought an additional benefit for award prices that are now determined for each flight direction. It is very usual that the cost of a one-way award widely differs from the other. It is possible to save a lot of money by performing two one-way award flights instead of arriving on one flight and two one-way award flights.

Therefore, if you have the flexibility, try to fly on the busiest days or during the least busy hours of the day.

Regarding the flights on specific peak travel days, such as Friday and Sunday, they are relatively expensive on United as they require a higher number of points. You will find your travel cost to be significantly cheaper when you are traveling on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday. One of the ways that people return value for their miles is by using the same to book red-eye flights, as few people prefer to travel when it is dark. There are examples: even if looking at other airports in the same general area can lead to significant reductions in price.

Consider Stopovers

Another special benefit with United Airlines and other Star Alliance members is the option to incorporate a stopover in award tickets at 5,000–10,000 extra miles. This gives one the flexibility of breaking a trip home from Asia or Europe to visit another city and the cost of this is not much more than the initial leg of the journey. Booking stopovers is one of the most effective ways to make the most of United miles.

Use Chase and Amex Points

What you cannot do is know in advance how many United miles certain award flights are going to cost too far ahead of time, but that is where flexible bankable currencies come in. Flexible points such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards are ideal to use when you have to add credits to your account. You can easily accumulate these points through credit cards and transfer them when you are prepared to redeem an award.

Check Partner Award Options

It is also worthwhile to remember that United miles may also be used to redeem awards on other Star Alliance partners: Lufthansa, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, etc. Often, partner awards beat even the baseline 1K price and are cheaper than United-operated flights. Partners expand the route network to select more carriers to travel to.

Moreover, how many miles you should have can be a debate.

United has gone to a dynamic award, which means that the number of miles you require changes from time to time depending on supply and demand factors.

But in general, at an absolute baseline, you’ll want to make sure you have at least:

May 1, 2018: 25,000–50,000 United miles for a one-way domestic U. S. award in economy

25,000–50,000 50,000 United miles for a one-way award ticket in the United States

5,000–10,000 United miles for a one-way award travel within North America in economy

Between 150,000 and 250,000 or even more United miles for a round-trip ticket to Europe with a layover

Still, it is important to remember that those ranges are lower limits for the bare minimum that an award may offer. But in reality, you may require 1. 5x or 2x the above estimate if you include taxes, fees, and higher prices for peak days and flight pathways.

The best strategy that I have found is to be as fluid and opportunistic in seeking award space once one has attained some reasonable bank of mileage rather than seeking to obtain a specific number of miles to get at the start. What this means is that while award travel demand is high, the number of miles that United ends up getting charged is also high, and vice versa.

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