Stealth Chase UR point devaluation (United Dynamic Pricing)

[Shadowfactor]

United Airline is switching to Dynamic award pricing on its own Metal.

United is a chase UR transfer favorite among many so it’s another decent blow to UR in my opinion, although this one isn’t chase’s doing.

It will only be a matter of time before United removes its partner award charts and starts Dynamic pricing on partner awards as well. This will compound the devaluation in my book.

With the loss of Korean Air and United moving to Dynamic pricing, it seems like the only excellent redemption left is BA (if you can avoid outrageous YQ) and Hyatt.

Amex MR keeps looking better and better

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thepointsguy.com/news/united-pulling-award-chart/amp/

[MAZDA3]

Partner awards using Skymiles don’t use dynamic pricing (unless there is a DL domestic segment), so i’d hope UA keeps partner awards at the current levels. Nonetheless, Aeroplan has better partner redemption levels than UA so Amex MR is certainly more valuable in that regard.

[UpperNwGuy]

Not only is United going to dynamic pricing, but Chase appears to be tinkering with the annual fee and travel credits on the CSR.  The rumor is that they will add a food delivery credit, and it will likely be offset by either an annual fee increase or by reducing the existing travel credit by the amount of the food delivery credit.  My two main travel cards have been United Explorer (since 2012) and the CSR (since 2016).  I fear that they will both become useless to me within the next year.

[Shadowfactor]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

Not only is United going to dynamic pricing, but Chase appears to be tinkering with the annual fee and travel credits on the CSR.  The rumor is that they will add a food delivery credit, and it will likely be offset by either an annual fee increase or by reducing the existing travel credit by the amount of the food delivery credit.  My two main travel cards have been United Explorer (since 2012) and the CSR (since 2016).  I fear that they will both become useless to me within the next year.

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This change also devalues the United card as well. The close in award fee perk through the credit card will now be obsolete. 

I can see either one happening in regards to thr AF, but for some reason I think chase will lower the travel credit by the food delivery credit rather then raising the AF. The travel credit is too easy to use to be sustainable long term. 

[Anonymous]

Well, i can't say its a clear cut devaluation. Dynamic pricing comes with downs for some, and ups for others. If all fails, fall back to that 1.5cpp and still comes out ahead of skypesos. lol

But hey, the industry trend is devaluation... they won't stop until its 1cpp everywhere.

[UpperNwGuy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well, i can't say its a clear cut devaluation. Dynamic pricing comes with downs for some, and ups for others. If all fails, fall back to that 1.5cpp and still comes out ahead of skypesos. lol

But hey, the industry trend is devaluation... they won't stop until its 1cpp everywhere.

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I don't understand what you're saying here.  If Skymiles is the model that United is trying to emulate, why would they come out ahead of Skymiles?  I think Delta and United will end up exactly the same.

Unless you're suggesting that we should use URs to buy United tickets through the Chase portal without transferring points over to United.  That approach has its own problems as the portal has been known to sell Basic Economy fares without warning the customer in advance.

[mongstradamus]

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@Shadowfactor wrote:
United Airline is switching to Dynamic award pricing on its own Metal.

United is a chase UR transfer favorite among many so it’s another decent blow to UR in my opinion, although this one isn’t chase’s doing.

It will only be a matter of time before United removes its partner award charts and starts Dynamic pricing on partner awards as well. This will compound the devaluation in my book.

With the loss of Korean Air and United moving to Dynamic pricing, it seems like the only excellent redemption left is BA (if you can avoid outrageous YQ) and Hyatt.

Amex MR keeps looking better and better

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thepointsguy.com/news/united-pulling-award-chart/amp/

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I have actually thought about this subject a lot the last few days. I am starting to lean more and more towards MR now. I am probably going to drop using INK and FU unlimited for non category spending and move to them all to MR. Another thing that I have noticed when it comes to United which isn't really uniteds fault is their partners eva and asiana don't seem to be releasing a lot of award availability, so if you are trying to get to Asia with UR its a bit more difficult.  I don't even think BA is a really good option for UR since a lot of times there are a lot of fuel surcharges you have to deal with. I am starting to wonder if chase ur are just going to turn into glorified hyatt transfer partner. After my next trip I probably will have used up all my UR, so i wonder if i want to keep any of my af UR cards or not.

[Anonymous]

What I was saying, is chase portal gives you 1.5cpp. With miles earned, it's close to 1.6cpp.

Transferring to delta only gives you average 1.3 cpp.

I'm perfecly fine with basic economy, I happily take basic that is typically 20% off the economy tickets. Although, sure buyers should be notified.

[iced]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Well, i can't say its a clear cut devaluation. Dynamic pricing comes with downs for some, and ups for others. If all fails, fall back to that 1.5cpp and still comes out ahead of skypesos. lol

But hey, the industry trend is devaluation... they won't stop until its 1cpp everywhere.

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I don't understand what you're saying here.  If Skymiles is the model that United is trying to emulate, why would they come out ahead of Skymiles?  I think Delta and United will end up exactly the same.

Unless you're suggesting that we should use URs to buy United tickets through the Chase portal without transferring points over to United.  That approach has its own problems as the portal has been known to sell Basic Economy fares without warning the customer in advance.

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I think emulating the dynamic pricing model of DL and going as far as DL did with it are two different things, and that difference (which remains to be seen with UA) is the key.

For example, today I can book a R/T BOS-JNB flight for 150,000 miles on a good day and around 400,000 miles on a bad one. I have *yet* to find a DL day/time where I can book that same flight for under 600,000 skypesos, with it often approaching 1 million.

If UA goes to a dynamic model where some flights get more expensive and some get cheaper, so be it. That doesn't bother me. If UA goes to a model where it becomes difficult to impossible to find any availability for flights that don't devalue the mile to around 1cpm as DL has, now we have a problem. I'd still rather pay 500,000 miles to fly to JNB than 600,000.

Edit: my DL filter was 2 passengers, adjusted mileage.

[jdbkiang]

I bet this is a big reason why Chase was giving out that huge SUB for the United card just a few weeks ago.