United’s New Award Pricing Delayed Until Monday, February 3rd

It’s no secret the United Airlines booking engine has its issues.  Heck, it’s only been a handful of months since they had to shut down the entire booking engine because they were selling flights for free and couldn’t figure out how to fix it.

So, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that, per Daniel P on Facebook, United delayed the implementation of their new mileage requirements to Monday to avoid doing it over a weekend when most of their technology folks won’t be around to mash the big red button.

The new Saver and Standard Award mileage requirements will become effective on Feb 3. We have moved implementation to a weekday, to better ensure we are able to serve our customers, particularly those who call our contact centers for assistance.

True enough, I can see saver awards in business class on Lufthansa for 50,000 miles one-way.  If my memory serves me correctly, these awards are going to 70,000 miles one-way once the changes are implemented.

After poking around a bit further, I found a note from Matthew at upgrd.com that showed United confirming this change and also letting folks know that the awards would likely ticket at the higher amount over the weekend but United would refund the difference in mileage within 10 business days.  Interesting, since United.com is displaying the correct (older) pricing for me as opposed to the higher prices, though I’m not sure how it would ticket.  At any rate, a positive development for those looking to squeeze in one last award booking at the old prices.

The award chart changes aren’t pretty, especially partner awards which take a hellacious beating.  But, you’ll have at least a couple more days to book at the old price.