United Airlines Will Remove Award Charts and Close-In Booking Fees
United Airlines will soon get rid of its award chart and move to a dynamic pricing model. The carrier is switching to a system that prices award seats based on demand and cash price, rather than specific tiers. The award chart will be gone on November 15, 2019.
The new pricing strategy will allow United to increase award prices up when demand is high for a particular flight and ease off on costs when there are more seats available. There was already a hint at this when United started releasing lower award fares on some cheap routes, roughly at a cent a point.
The new pricing model will open up some cheap award seats at the low end, but most people will probably be disappointed with the news. Many miles and points enthusiast try to get maximum value by using their miles for awards seats that would be expensive if paid in cash. With tiered pricing, for example, a traveler can expect to pay roughly 25,000 miles for a standard, domestic, round-trip, economy ticket irrespective of demand. Within that bracket you would look for the best possible value.
Awards on partner carriers in the Star Alliance such as Lufthansa and Air Canada will remain on a tiered system for now. But, Luc Bondar, head of MileagePlus, confirmed that the airline is also exploring the use of dynamic pricing on those fares.
The lack of award charts makes it easier for airlines to devalue their currency without much backlash from loyalty program members. Since there’s no set prices, it’s difficult to keep track of what exactly each route should cost.
As of now, MileagePlus will remain on its current tiered system with the addition of lower-priced awards that we’ve been seeing over the last few weeks. On November 15, United will switch to full dynamic pricing. Additionally, at that time the airline will take away the close-in booking fees that many MileagePlus members have complained about.
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[…] United Airlines decided to eliminate award charts in November. Delta’s decision to stop publishing its award chart in early 2015 was a game […]
I believe that we, the consumer is much too passive. Let’s rally together in a joint effort to stop the airlines from constantly devaluing. Let’s let them know with our buying power that we’ve had enough!