{"id":1068,"date":"2016-10-22T21:48:26","date_gmt":"2016-10-22T21:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2016-10-22T21:49:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T21:49:47","slug":"uniteds-award-flight-changes-worse-expected-4-reasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/10\/22\/uniteds-award-flight-changes-worse-expected-4-reasons\/","title":{"rendered":"United’s Award Flight Changes: Worse Than Expected for 4 Reasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunrise in Iceland<\/em><\/p>\n

I previously wrote about changes that United planned to make to its award flight booking policy<\/a>, but the actual changes are even worse than anticipated. \u00a0Just to summarize, United planned to eliminate its free stopover on one-way flights–replacing it with a stopover on round-trip flights in either the origin or destination zone–but United ended up eliminating so much more. \u00a0These additional devaluations may not be readily apparent, but they’re nonetheless significant:<\/p>\n

1. Hard\u00a0to Book the Excursionist Perk<\/span><\/h3>\n

There is no easy way to book the Excursionist Perk, you must book a multi-city award ticket that meets all of the nuanced requirements in order to see a qualifying segment available for zero miles. \u00a0Most importantly, you need to make sure your desired excursion is in the same award zone as either your origin or destination. \u00a0That brings us to the second issue.<\/p>\n

2. Narrowly Defined Award Zones<\/span><\/h3>\n

To utilize the new “Excursionist Perk,” you can book a free stopover in either your origin or destination award zone but not in any other award zones (even if you transit other zones). \u00a0United defines its award zones<\/a> as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/caption>\n
Region<\/em><\/th>\nCountries<\/em><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Mainland U.S., Alaska & Canada<\/em><\/td>\nMainland U.S., Alaska & Canada<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hawaii<\/em><\/td>\nHawaii<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mexico<\/em><\/td>\nMexico<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Caribbean<\/em><\/td>\nAntigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Barbuda, Bermuda, Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman), Curacao, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands (British and U.S.)<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Central America<\/em><\/td>\nBelize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Northern South America<\/em><\/td>\nColombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Southern South America<\/em><\/td>\nArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Europe<\/em><\/td>\nAlbania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Middle East<\/em><\/td>\nAzerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Northern Africa<\/em><\/td>\nAlgeria, Canary Islands, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Central & Southern Africa<\/em><\/td>\nAngola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote D’lvoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Reunion Island, Rwanda, South Africa, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
North Asia<\/em><\/td>\nChina (Mainland), South Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Central Asia<\/em><\/td>\nAfghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
South Asia<\/em><\/td>\nBangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Japan<\/em><\/td>\nJapan<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Oceania<\/em><\/td>\nAmerican Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Australia & New Zealand<\/em><\/td>\nAustralia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

At first glance this limitation may not look problematic, but if you are traveling to Hawaii, Japan, or Mexico, you will be unable to book an “Excursionist Perk” in your destination zone outside of the destination country. \u00a0This occurs because the zones are defined narrowly, as either a single state or nation. \u00a0Theoretically, you should be able to book an intra-country flight for your Excursionist Perk, but I was unable to get any to price properly.<\/p>\n

3. Website on the Fritz (STILL)<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you try to book any award flight online, you risk the website breaking down and not completing your search. \u00a0You see this message:<\/p>\n

We are unable to process your request. Please see the message below for details.<\/em><\/p>\n

-We\u2019re sorry, but united.com was unable to complete your request. Please try later or contact united.com Support in the U.S. and Canada at 1-888-491-6573; the U.K., phone 0800 028 5003; elsewhere use the local phone number<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition, you may notice that the saver award calendar does not always show available saver space, so you need to check available flights for each day, individually. \u00a0I’ve seen these\u00a0issues since the new award booking rules went into effect, but it is unclear if United is fixing the problem (there is little incentive for United to fix it).<\/p>\n

4. Some Awards Not Available Online<\/span><\/h3>\n

This issue is perhaps the most frustrating because there is no reason for it. \u00a0United does not show some routes as available even though each individual segment is available on United website. \u00a0For example, you may want to route to India through Singapore, so you can fly Singapore Air. \u00a0You may see JFK-SIN and SIN-DEL award availability, but the JFK-DEL booking is unavailable. \u00a0Instead, the United award search tool may decide that you must fly non-stop on Air India. \u00a0Many savvy travelers would prefer to fly on Singapore Air, even though there is a layover, than fly Air India.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

United greatly decreased the value of its miles by 1) eliminating free stopovers on one-way tickets, and 2) failing to offer an effective online booking tool. \u00a0I’m considering switching my primary airline from American to either United or Delta. \u00a0These changes make United a less attractive option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunrise in Iceland I previously wrote about changes that United planned to make to its award flight booking policy, but the actual changes are even worse than anticipated. \u00a0Just to summarize, United planned to eliminate its free stopover on one-way flights–replacing it with a stopover on round-trip flights in either the origin or destination zone–but United ended up eliminating so much more. \u00a0These additional devaluations may not be readily apparent, but they’re nonetheless significant: 1. Hard\u00a0to Book the Excursionist Perk There is no easy way to book the Excursionist Perk, you must book a multi-city award ticket that meets all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[28,31,21],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnited's Award Flight Changes: Worse Than Expected for 4 Reasons – The Traveling Millennial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/thetravelingmillennial\/2016\/10\/22\/uniteds-award-flight-changes-worse-expected-4-reasons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"United's Award Flight Changes: Worse Than Expected for 4 Reasons – The Traveling Millennial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sunrise in Iceland I previously wrote about changes that United planned to make to its award flight booking policy, but the actual changes are even worse than anticipated. \u00a0Just to summarize, United planned to eliminate its free stopover on one-way flights–replacing it with a stopover on round-trip flights in either the origin or destination zone–but United ended up eliminating so much more. \u00a0These additional devaluations may not be readily apparent, but they’re nonetheless significant: 1. 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