DAY 16 - United MileagePlus

Today's post will cover the United MileagePlus program. We aim to answer the following questions:

• What are the basics of the United MileagePlus program?
• What airlines can you fly with United miles?
• What are some of the routing rules when booking award tickets?
• What are some special features of the MileagePlus program?  

United miles, like all programs have their good and bad. There are some sweet spots with the award charts, and some funky routing rules that you can definitely use to your advantage. However, the hard product is not spectacular. And, they charge a lot more miles to fly its partners' first class cabins, than their own. Weird, because normally, partners are a great use for your miles.

Anyways, I digress.

The best part about United is the fact that the miles, are by far the easiest of the three legacy carriers to earn. (AA, DL, UA). There are big sign up bonuses available on six credit cards that earn United miles, or Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which can be transferred to United. When the miles come so easily, you can earn miles quickly in large amounts, making booking premium cabins more realistic for most of you, and perhaps even for a traveling partner.

These credit cards include:

• United MileagePlus Card (in both personal and business versions)
• United MileagePlus Club Card (in both personal and business - and includes United lounge access)
• Chase Sapphire Preferred (my favorite all around card)
• Chase Ink Plus (great all-around business card, with full transferability like CSP)
• Chase Ink Cash (another business card, earns Ultimate Rewards points that can transfer to either Sapphire or Ink Plus, and then to United)
• Chase Freedom (earns Ultimate Rewards points that can transfer to either Sapphire or Ink Plus, and then to United) 

Technically, because the United co-branded cards come in both personal and business versions, you can have EIGHT cards with United mile earning potential! Talk about a hefty point balance!

Other than using these for premium travel, there are also two good items to note about United's MileagePlus program. The first, is that United is part of the Star Alliance--the biggest, and arguably the best alliance. There is always good space availability on most airlines in the alliance, and you can reasonably get to all corners of the world.

Secondly, United never collects fuel surcharges on its awards. You can book a flight on any of it's partners, and never worry about paying any pesky fuel charges. the only thing you'll pay is government taxes. Sweet!

The award chart is a crazy beast. You can find it here: http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/news/United-Award-Chart-06-16-15.pdf

However, to summarize, it is much like the other legacy carriers in that it has a region to region chart. If you are flying from Miami to Berlin, you will choose the North America to Europe price, and the cities you're flying in and out of don't matter. They have two charts, one for United's own planes, and one chart for its partners. Flying on partners in first and business class is much more expensive than flying United itself.

However, when booking economy tickets, here is all you need to know:




You should always redeem miles for Saver awards, because these cost the fewest miles. Remember, these are capacity controlled. If United chooses to release 7 saver seats on a flight, and all 7 have been booked, you will only see the Standard award available. Airlines release space on flights that they do not reasonably believe they will sell the seat for cash. Hence why it's so hard to find flights around holidays, because the airlines know that people will pony up the money to pay for them at times when everyone seems to be traveling.

Also remember, that a partner chart will not have Saver and Standard levels because all partner awards will always price at the Saver level.

If you want to have an award with multiple segments, such as LAX-JFK-ROC, there must be Saver space on every segment of your flight for it to price.

Elite Status

 

Earning status on United is similar to that of Delta, where you must meet two criteria, a dollars spent portion (PQD), and a flying portion--either miles flown (PQM) or number of flight segments (PQS).



Earning 2016 Premier status is based on the activity you earn during the 2015 calendar year.

Once you qualify for a Premier status, the status is valid from the date when you qualified through the end of the following Program year.

For example, if you meet the four flight segment minimum, earn 25,000 PQM and earn $3,000 PQD on June 1, 2015, you will reach Premier Silver status on that date, and it will be valid through the end of the 2016 program year.

 

As you can see, if you booked a ticket on Singapore Airlines' website for a Singaport flight, you can credit your miles to United, but you won't earn PQD for the flight. Alternatively, if you booked a United flight on Singapore's website, you would earn PQD.

What airlines can you fly with United miles?

You can use United miles on all of the airlines in the Star Alliance:

• United Airlines
• Adria Airways (Slovenia)
• Aegean Airlines (Greece)
• Air Canada
• Air China
• Air India
• Air New Zealand
• ANA (Japan)
• Asiana Airlines (South Korea)
• Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
• Avianca (Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Peru)
• Brussels Airlines (Belgium)
• Copa (Panama)
• Croatia Airlines
• EgyptAir
• Ethiopian Airlines
• EVA Air (Taiwan)
• LOT Polish Airlines
• Lufthansa (Germany)
• Scandinavian Airlines (Denmark, Norway, Sweden)
• Shenzhen Airlines (China)
• Singapore Airlines
• South African Airways
• Swiss International Air Lines
• TAP Portugal
• Thai Airways International
• Turkish Airlines

They also have several partners that are not in an alliance:

• Aer Lingus (Ireland)
• Aeromar (Mexico)
• Azul (Brazil)
• Cape Air (Puerto Rico)
• germanwings
• Great Lakes (Denver)
• Hawaiian Airlines (only interisland flights within Hawaii)
• Island Air (Hawaii)
• Jet Airways (India)
• Silver Airways (Florida)

United is very lenient on its routing rules, and you can freely combine United, Star Alliance, and independent partners on one single award ticket.

What are some of the routing rules when booking award tickets?

You can book one way awards, and they are half the price of a round trip.

Stopovers

 

Stopovers are not allowed on one way United awards. One stopover is allowed on a roundtrip United award except that roundtrip United awards wholly within the continental United States, Canada, and Alaska cannot have a stopover.

Remember, that a stopover is a layover of more than 4 hours on a domestic award or 24 hours on an international award.

Open Jaws

 

Round trips can have two open jaws. Remember, that an open jaw is not a hole in the middle of a single one way award. See this post for a refresher on what an open jaw is.

Here is an example of an award with one stopover, and two open jaws:



We start in Newark, and fly United to Amsterdam for a stopover. (In Amsterdam for 24 hours or more).

We then fly Lufthansa from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, which is our destination.

Our return trip begins in Brussels. There is an open jaw between Frankfurt and Brussels, which you would fill in with transportation of your own.

The trip ends in Washington DC, which is not where we started (EWR), so there is a second open jaw between Newark and DC.

We can see all these cities on ONE SINGLE AWARD. Pretty cool!

Free One Ways

These are possible on United awards. Again, see this post for a refresher on what a free one way is.

Since a free one way requires a stopover at your home airport, booking a free one way on a United award means you cannot use an en route stopover on the main award.

The free one way can be BEFORE your main award TO your home airport or AFTER your main award FROM your home airport.

The free one way can be to most places in the continental United States, Alaska, and Canada. If you want the one way to go to Hawaii, the Caribbean, South America, or somewhere else, you have to pay the difference between flying to those places and flying to your home airport.

Since I live in Miami, I could book an award making a free one way to a Caribbean island for sometime in the future, and all I'd be responsible for is my eventual flight home.

Taxes

 

Obviously, you are required to pay the government taxes associated with the itinerary. These start at $5.60 each direction for domestic awards and go up to $300 if you fly to a high tax country, such as the UK. Generally, international awards have roundtrip taxes of $50 to $150.

Fees

 

There is no award booking fee for awards booked at united.com. Calling United to book an award incurs a $25 per person fee. You can usually get the agent to waive that phone fee if you're booking a perfectly legal award that you can't get by using United's search engine.

There is a $75 booking fee per person to book an award less than 21 days from the date of departure. This fee is reduced for elites and waived for Platinum and 1K members.

Changing the date, time, or routing costs up to $100 per person. This fee is cheaper if the change is made at least 21 days before departure and if you have elite status. It is waived for Platinum and 1K members.

There is a $100 fee per person to change the origin or destination. This fee is reduced for elites and waived for Platinum and 1K members.

There is a $200 fee per person to cancel your award and get the miles back. This fee is reduced for elites and waived for Platinum and 1K members.

Fuel Surcharges

None! And none on any of its partners! YAY!

What are some special features of the MileagePlus program?

One of the sweet spots in United's award chart is to break up a journey with a trip to Oceania.

Example above, flying from the USA to New Zealand will cost you 40,000 miles one-way in economy.
 
Flying from the USA to Fiji via New Zealand will cost you only 35,000 miles one-way. Add a flight and get a discount!

If you get crafty with utilizing United's rules on stopovers and open jaws, it can make for some really cool itineraries. United has tons of partners with awesome availability throughout Europe. The region covers Iceland to Russia! Here is a sample itinerary for only 30,000 miles round trip where you can see Madrid, Copenhagen, Moscow, and Budapest... all on one itinerary!

 

How do I book United awards?

Almost all of United's partners are bookable on their website, save for three notable exceptions:

• Singapore Airlines
• Brussels Airlines
• LOT Polish Airlines

Partners that cannot be booked online must be phoned in at 1-800-UNITED-1.

The ultimate in Star Alliance award availability is the search engine on the ANA (All Nippon Airways) website. ANA's calendar gives the true picture of all Star Alliance availability across all carriers. If you see space there, you can book it using United miles.

Remember, if you can't seem to find an award you want, or are looking for some guidance in general on booking an award trip, please comment or send me an email and I can help! I know how to search every United partner to maximize convenience and luxury while minimizing your out-of-pocket cost.



Any questions? Did I miss anything? Please feel free to leave me a comment!



Peace, love, and an extra pack of peanuts,

LC

DAY 15 - Delta SkyMiles

This post will focus on Delta SkyMiles, which are pretty useful for many reasons, and also completely useless for even more reasons. (Alternatively called SkyPesos in the frequent flyer world due to their lack of usefulness, and amount needed to redeem for simple travel.)

In this post, we will cover the following questions:

• What are the basics of the Delta SkyMiles program?
• What airlines can you fly with Delta miles?
• What are some of the routing rules when booking award tickets?
• What are some special features of the SkyMiles program? 

What are the basics of the Delta SkyMiles program?

If you are a frequent flyer with Delta, or are looking to gain status with them, they have a very unique system, along with United for obtaining Medallion (status) levels.

As you know, your flight miles, your butt-in-seat gives you miles based on the distance of your flight. If you fly a 2000 mile trip, you get 2000 miles. These are called MQMs. Hit 25,000 in a year, and you get Silver. Or, if you don't fly long distances, but many many times, you can hit Silver with 30 different flights (or, segments). However, this past year, Delta has added another qualifying criteria along with the flight miles. You have to hit 25,000 MQMs, along with at least $2,500 in spend on Delta. These are called MQDs.


In 2016, these numbers will be going up. Delta will require Silver members to spend a minimum of $3,000 (up by $500), Gold members $6,000 (up by $1,000), Platinum members $9,000 (up by $1,500) and Diamond members $15,000 (up by $2,500).

 

These are in effect for the 2016 qualification year starting January 1, 2015. Delta SkyMiles members with an address outside of the United States don’t have MQD requirement. Also, those that spend excess of $25,000 with their Delta American Express cards issues in the United States have waived MQD requirement.

Also, remember how I mentioned that when you take a 2,000 mile trip, you should get 2,000 miles? Well this only applies to MQMs. This MQM thing is ONLY for miles needed to qualify for status. It does not apply to how many miles you actually get in your account. With most carriers, if you take a 2,000 mile flight, you will get 2,000 miles in your account. With Delta, you earn REDEEMABLE miles based on the price of your ticket.



So in essence, they are trying to reward those who spend the most money with Delta. That means the average joe can't leverage this like they used to. However, we should still study what we can do with those miles we already have, or are going to obtain; either by flying, or credit card bonuses.

Why do we collect Delta SkyMiles? Because we can.

Delta SkyMiles, like most other U.S. legacy carriers (AA, United, etc.) are region-based miles. See my previous post on American Airlines for a more detailed description of what region-based miles are.

The next thing I should be posting is the award chart, right?

Wrong.

DELTA DOESN'T HAVE ONE.

They used to. I might live and breathe miles and points, but I don't claim to have award charts memorized. Sure, there are sweet spots in every program, and I know those because I've used them, but I don't claim to automatically know how many miles this airlines charges for a flight between New Zealand and Dubai. Fortunately, airlines publish this information by way of an award chart, so that anyone can see how many miles an award ticket should cost. It encourages loyalty and involvement right? If I'm John Smith collecting Delta miles as a frequent business traveler, I will get excited when my balance hits, say 60,000 because then I have enough miles to redeem to Europe and back! A transparent program means more engaged members.

Delta SkyMiles definitely has tendencies towards sneakiness. In the past they’ve changed award prices overnight (and claimed that it was illegal to notify consumers of price changes in advance), so they’re hardly on my list of trustworthy programs.

However, now, if you google "Delta SkyMiles award chart" you get this:



And my favorite part:



Gone are the charts telling you how many miles are required at each of the five pricing tiers.

Gone are the charts telling you which countries fall into which regions.

Gone is any indication of what the price should be.

Therefore, Delta has decided to declare whatever the online pricing engine (or the call center representative) decides, that is what it costs. Very clever actually, no more complaints or bad publicity about devaluing miles, no lawsuits etc. they just can do what they want with impunity.

Now, booking is more difficult for us, and making award charts unavailable serves no purpose other than obscuring redemption values to less informed travelers.

But alas, that's the name of the game. The frequent flyer world keeps changing, and you and I, we are to go along with it. Flexibility is the name of the game.

 

I know, I know, I am a complete negative nancy when it comes to Delta. However, if there is one thing that positively sets them apart from the rest of the pack here in the U.S. it would be the quality of their product. Their in-flight experience is second to none. Most all their seats have seat-back entertainment. The food is good, (arguably delicious in First Class). Their flight attendants are great. The safety video cracks me up. The airline runs a tight ship, is insanely profitable, and has lots of style and substance. 

 

So if you're a frequent flyer, someone making lots of work trips with them, you will be handsomely rewarded. If you're like the rest of us, you just have to fake it til you make it, I guess. That's where I come in.

 

What airlines can you fly with Delta miles?

 

Delta is part of the SkyTeam alliance. That means you can use its miles on all these airlines:

• Delta Airlines
• Aeroflot (Russia)
• Aerolineas Argentinas
• AeroMéxico
• Air Europa (Spain)
• Air France
• Alitalia
• China Airlines (Taiwan)
• China Eastern Airlines
• China Southern Airlines
• Czech Airlines
• Garuda Indonesia
• Kenya Airways
• KLM (Netherlands)
• Korean Air
• Middle East Airlines (Lebanon)
• Saudia
• TAROM (Romania)
• Vietnam Airlines
• Xiamen Airlines (China)

Delta also has several partners that are not a part of SkyTeam. You can also redeem miles to fly these airlines:

• Air Tahiti Nui
• Alaska Airlines
• GOL (Brazil)
• Hawaiian Airlines (only interisland flights, no mainland to Hawaii redemptions)
• Virgin Atlantic (United Kingdom)
• Virgin Australia

The airlines highlighted in red are the only airlines for which the Delta website does NOT show availability. You will have to call to book these awards by phone. (800-323-2323)
 
Subject to other routing rules, which I’ll detail below, you can freely combine Delta flights, SkyTeam partner flights, and other partner flights onto a single award.

What are some of the routing rules when booking award tickets?

 

You can book one way award tickets for half the price of a round trip ticket. 

Roundtrip Delta awards cannot have any stopovers.

Beyond that, awards have the same routing rules as paid tickets. You can search the routing rules for paid tickets on Expert Flyer. For most domestic itineraries, your legal layover points are specified. For most international awards, a Maximum Permitted Mileage that you can fly is specified, and you can layover anywhere.

All award travel must be completed within one year of the original booking. Changes can’t extend this time frame, so if you can’t fly within one year of your original booking, you’ll have to cancel your award.

Stopovers

Not allowed. This is defined as a layover of more than 4 hours on a domestic ticket, or a layover of more than 24 hours on an international ticket.

Open Jaws

Since you can book one way awards, you can technically book as many open jaws as you like.

Example: LAX-JFK then returning by BOS-LAX.

Remember, an open jaw is not a hole in the middle of a single one-way award trip. Open jaws only happen at origin/destination points. 

Free One Ways

 

Since you can't have free stopovers, you can't have a "free one way." See this post for a refresher on a free one way.

Taxes

 

Delta awards require you to pay the government taxes associated with the itinerary. These start at $5.60 each direction for domestic awards and go up to $300 if you fly roundtrip to the United Kingdom in Business Class. Generally, international awards range from $50 to $150 roundtrip.

Fees

 

There is no fee for booking online. Calling Delta reservations line to book costs $25 per person, which is waived if you are a Gold medallion or higher.

There is a $150 change fee per person to make changes to Delta awards, unless you are Platinum medallion or higher. No changes are allowed within 72 hours of your flight.

There is a $150 fee to cancel your award, again waived for Platinum or higher. No cancellations within 72 hours of departure.

Fuel Surcharges

Delta unfortunately charges a fuel surcharge on many of its partners.

For European travel, there are no surcharges on KLM, Air France, Alitalia. There are moderate charges (~$250) on Aeroflot, and INSANE surcharges on Air Europa (~$500).

In the Americas, there are no charges on Aerolineas Argentinas or AeroMexico, and obviously, none on any domestic flights within the U.S.

To Asia, Korean, is the only partner that Delta will not charge fuel surcharge. China Airlines charges ~$250, China Southern ~$330, China Eastern ~$360.

Virgin Australia does not charge fuel surcharges. Or, you could take Delta from LAX. 

Lastly, to French Polynesia, Air France (none) but Air Tahiti Nui charges close to $450, so you will want to avoid at all costs. American will let you book the same Air Tahiti Nui space with no charge!

Keep in mind that booking economy tickets will incur a smaller surcharge than business class. There are SkyMiles options to every continent with zero surcharges; you just have to know which partners to use and which to avoid!

What are some of the special features of the SkyMiles program?

 

YOU CANNOT BOOK FIRST CLASS INTERNATIONAL TICKETS WHEN USING DELTA MILES.

How bad does that suck? You are stuck in business class or economy.

As I write about these different frequent flyer programs, and credit card points rewards, you can see how some currencies are much stronger than others. That being said, the value of your miles depends greatly on how you redeem them

The best use of Delta miles is for redemption to Australia. As I mentioned above, Virgin Australia does not charge fuel surcharges. You get a fully flat bed with a duvet and pillow, access to an onboard bar, and a personal in flight entertainment screen.

 

Real sleep!

 

Award availability on these routes can be tight, but space does tend to open up either far in advance (11 months out, when they release the calendar) or at the very last minute (sometimes on the day of travel). Here’s a sample business class round trip, outbound on Virgin and returning on Delta, in business class for 160,000 miles and $136 in taxes and fees.

Delta miles are also great for intra-European awards. They partner with SIX European airlines, so one of the bright spots in its award chart can be redeeming for sometimes expensive intra-European awards on partners like Air France, KLM and Alitalia for 30,000 miles roundtrip in economy or 50,000 in business class. To take an extreme example, let’s say you were in Paris and wanted to pop over to Vienna. You could book this non-stop business class award on Air France for 25,000 miles and 82 Euros. 

Or, you could pay $751 out of pocket for the same 2 hour flight...

 

 

 At the end of the day...

I don't love Delta miles, but I collect them as part of a balanced strategy. You can use them to fly to six continents, and the actual product is unmatched in the U.S. industry. If you are a road warrior who flies for business, you will be treated very well especially if you're a high spender.

However, they are known for being sneaky by way of their lack of award calendar, and how they don't let you book for international first class.

Do you have some Delta miles to burn? I can search and book your awards for a small fee. I have the expertise to search every Delta and its partners to maximize convenience and luxury while minimizing your out-of-pocket cost.  

If you have any additional questions, or if you think I may have missed something, please feel free to leave me a comment or any feedback!


Peace love, and an extra pack of peanuts,

LC