DansDeals.com

In the next few weeks United will start selling subscriptions for travel in Economy Plus. A subscription will be good for exactly 12 months.

Economy Plus puts you at the front of coach and it gives you several extra inches of legroom and generally makes coach travel far more pleasant. Plus the odds of getting an empty seat next to you and being able to seat your family together are much greater in Economy Plus.

I’m part of the United.com beta testing program and here is the pricing that I’m seeing:
-US48 subscription: $499
-Intra-Asia subscription: $499
-North and Central America subscription: $599
-Global subscription: $699

That’s for one traveler.
For $200 extra that traveler can bring one guest on the same reservation with them into Economy Plus. Or for $400 extra that traveler can bring up to 8 guests on the same reservation with them into Economy Plus.

Economy Plus for a Newark to Tel Aviv flight normally sells for $222 to $318 round-trip per person depending on how good the seat is.
A global plan that allow up to 9 people on the reservation to have access to Economy Plus would cost $1,099.

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United will also sell baggage subscriptions. These are not a good deal as just having a United Explorer card gives you one free bag. Plus a United Club card (click on the club card tab when viewing the Explorer card) gives you 2 free bags.  In addition those cards give other benefits like primary car rental insurance, expanded saver and last seat standard award availability, and for the Club card waived award close-in expedite fees and 50% bonus miles on all purchases.

-US48 subscription: $349 for 1 bag, $399 for 2 bags.
-Intra-Asia subscription: $399 for 2 bags.
-North and Central America subscription: $449 for 1 bag, $499 for 2 bags.
-Global subscription: $799 for 2 bags.

That’s for one traveler.
For $100 extra that traveler can allow one guest on the same reservation to have the same baggage privilege.

For reasons that I don’t understand here is the variable pricing for that traveler to allow up to 8 guests on the same reservation to have the same baggage privileges
-US48 subscription: $300
-Intra-Asia subscription: $300
-North and Central America subscription: $400
-Global subscription: $200

A global plan that allows up to 9 people on the reservation to check 2 free bags would cost $999.

Normally checking 2 bags from Newark to Tel Aviv would run $200 round-trip per person.  Though that’s free with a Club card.

Again, this is part of the beta site, so these prices are definitely subject to change.

Update #2: DDF users chff and ruly101 posted this morning that their 5,000 miles had posted.  I went to my United account and lo and behold my 5,000 miles had posted as well under the description “Chase Bonus”
Did you get a 5,000 mile Chanukah present as well?

Don’t have a United card? Scroll to the end of this post to see how I earned 105,000 miles and $100 cashback for opening a United consumer and business card.
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Originally posted on 10/07:

Update: United has updated the terms of these promos to exclude Americans.  Here are screenshots of the promotions with the original terms:

$1,000 Screenshot Linky

$3,000 Screenshot Linky

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There are a couple links going around for bonus miles for spending on any United credit card.
They appear not to be targeted and I was able to register for both promotions.
It should count all spending back from August 1st, even if you register today.

According to the terms the bonus miles won’t post until mid-January, so we won’t know if this works until then, but it would be pretty sweet if I get both bonuses

Link 1: 5,000 bonus miles for spending $1,000+ on your MileagePlus Credit Card between August 1 and October 31, 2012. DEAD!

Link 2: 5,000 bonus miles for spending $3,000+ on your MileagePlus Credit Card between August 1 and October 31, 2012. DEAD!

Just enter your mileage number and then click on the arrow to register.

HT: Reuven, via DDF

-Find more articles like this by clicking on the “Trip Notes” tab on top of the DansDeals banner at the top of this site.

I flew last week to Chicago to experience the tail end of Star MegaDo 4. Hundreds of frequent flyer enthusiasts from forums like Flyertalk and Milepoint get together and fly around the world together and meet with various airline and hotel executives. Star of course refers to Star Alliance. A DO (pronounced like the word do or due) is simply a get-together while a MegaDo is a really big get together. Space to attend these events is always quite limited and there is a cost from $1,000 up to $5,000 depending on how much of the event you want to attend (domestic or international+domestic) and what class you’ll be sitting in on the plane. Participants were treated to flying a brand new United 787 Dreamliner among many other goodies.

I was invited to attend the United portion of the DO in Chicago for free so that’s what I’ll talk about. United billed it as their “inaugural” DO, so this will likely become an annual event. I’ll also cover the hotel I stayed in, the local DDF (DansDeals Forum) DO, and a small part of the local kosher scene that I experienced.

This is not my typical vacation trip report, rather it is a long and technical trip report about United Airlines. If you slog through it I’d love to hear your feedback in a comment and whether I should cover other such events in the future.

More after the jump…
(more…)

Update: Today is the final day for this promotion. Take advantage of the stopovers you can make as illustrated below and you can check out multiple cities for just 48K miles!

Originally posted on 11/06:

United Offer Linky

These are bookable now online on United.com.

You can view a list all of the cities that United serves in Europe on this Wikipedia link. Or view United’s route map here or United’s interactive route map here.

Although the rules say that stopovers are no permitted and that open jaws are only valid for airports in the same region like JFK and EWR I searched for a flight using “multiple destinations” from Los Angeles to NYC for a week and then Newark to Paris and Paris back to Los Angeles and it priced out at just 48,000 miles.

Or from Newark to Zurich for a week and then from London to Los Angeles and finally from LA back to JFK is 48,000 miles as well.

Click on the images below to enlarge and view these examples:

From LAX:

From NYC:

Rules:
-Book by 11/15/12 at 11:59pm CST
-Travel between 01/15/13-03/13/13
-Valid only on United, not on partner airlines.
-Reduced award mileage prices apply only to travel on United- and United Express®-operated flights. Not applicable on flights operated by other airlines.
-Valid for travel to/from the US48, Alaska and Canada to/from Europe.
-Valid for coach saver award only.
-Stopovers are not permitted.
-Round-trip travel is required.
-This offer cannot be applied to previously issued tickets.

Need United miles?
You can earn them on an United credit card or you can transfer points instantly with no fees from Chase Ultimate Rewards cards including consumer cards like the Freedom Visa, Freedom Mastercard, Sapphire Preferred Visa, Sapphire Non-Preferred Visa, and Sapphire Non-Preferred World Mastercard. They can also be earned from business cards like Ink Bold, Ink Plus, Ink Classic, or Ink Cash.  You or your spouse needs a Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, or Ink Plus to actually transfer points to United.

Update, 09/11/12: Just wanted to share a success story.  A friend of mine was booked on miles to fly on USAirways to Israel before Yom Kippur.  A few weeks ago I noticed that United opened up saver coach award seats and switched him over (and reported the availability in this DDF thread). After switching him over he told me that he really would like to go in business so I called back, had them deduct 20,000 additional miles from his account as if there was saver business space, and they waitlisted him for BusinessFirst on the same flight on which he was confirmed in coach.
Yesterday United emailed him to tell him that he’s now confirmed in BusinessFirst, not bad for peak holiday travel season!
20K miles to have a lie-flat bed on a a 10+ hour overnight flight? I’d take that in a heartbeat!
Have your own success story? Post a comment!
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Originally posted on 08/20/12:

Continental had a policy informally known as “Plan B for BusinessFirst” that was simply awesome.

The way it worked is if you found coach saver award availability you could call them up and request to pay for BusinessFirst and be waitlisted for a BusinessFirst seat. For Newark to Tel Aviv that means paying 120,000 miles instead of 80,000 miles for coach.

A nonstop coach ticket that costs $1,600 for 80,000 miles isn’t a bad deal at about 2 cents per mile, but a BusiniessFirst ticket with a lie-flat bed and upgraded food that normally costs $5,000 for 120,000 miles is a much better deal at a value of over 4 cents per mile.

It’s no secret that Tel Aviv is a very hard award ticket to find nonstop availability for, especially in Business class.  While seats often open up close to the flight, most people like to plan in advance.   There are a smattering of seats available though, and they can be found by searching for nonstop flights between EWR and TLV on United.com

I was curious if the Plan B process still works, so I found award space in November and had United call me up. Most of the reps in this department used to work for Continental so I said straight out that during the Continental days I was able to pay for and be waitlisted for BusinessFirst when there is coach saver availability and was wondering if this is still possible. The agent knew exactly what I was talking about and how to set it up.

After just 5 minutes on the phone and paying 120,000 miles and $45.10 tax I had this all set up for me:

The agent said that this will work for BusinessFirst or Global First awards.

Here’s things to keep in mind:

-This only works on United operated flights, not on partner award flights.

-Be sure to request that the phone booking fee be waived as this can’t be done online.

-The waitlist will keep checking for BusinessFirst awards until 24 hours before the flight.  At that point you will be removed from the waitlist.

-If you have not cleared at 24 hours before the flight you’ll want to go to the airport as soon as you can to be added to the airport upgrade standby list.  It is crucial that you explain to the agent that you a “Displaced BusinessFirst passenger.”  This is true because you have paid the full BusinessFirst rate already.  The agent should give you “PR-1 status” which gives you top-priority status and moves you to very top of the upgrade standby list, ahead of employees and everyone else trying to upgrade with miles+cash.  If one agent won’t put you on the list as a displaced BusinessFirst passenger with PR-1 status then find another one who will.  With this status the odds of you getting into BusinessFirst are very high.

-If the agents in the airport are all clueless you should direct them to look up “gg onestandby” in their system (they’ll know what this is) and look around lines 85-89 which spell out the details of the procedure for this award. (Parenthetically, when trying to get a gate pass to access a club when I’m not flying I sometimes need to tell an agent to look up “gg checkpoint line 53″ which instructs agents to give you a security pass for you and your guests to access post-security United and USAirways clubs even if you aren’t flying.)

-If they need to verify that you are really on a BusinessFirst award then have them call up the reward desk.

-If you do not clear into BusinessFirst just contact United after the flight and they will refund the extra miles you paid for BusinessFirst.  For EWR-TLV this means a refund of the extra 20,000 miles each way they charge to fly in BusinessFirst saver over coach saver.

-If you are on a connecting flight you should be waitlisted for First Class on all of the connecting flights.  Say you are coming from Los Angeles, even if you clear into first class on the LAX-EWR flight, as long as you don’t clear on the international EWR-TLV flight you will still get the 20,000 miles each way refund!

Update, 7:15pm: After greater than 100 hours after ticketing, United has just unilaterally cancelled most people’s upcoming itineraries, violating their own promise to contact all passengers before cancelling any tickets.

Related:
-File a DoT complaint.
-United Refuses To Honor 4 Mile (Hong Kong) Island Awards; At Least 1 DansDeals Forum Member Already Has Flown!
-Award Tickets To Hong Kong For 4 United Miles?

United is in full meltdown mode right now. Here’s a few of my thoughts:

1. By now you’ve probably read about the Hong Kong price mistake it every major news outlet. DDF user “Mordy788″ was even quoted in the Wall Street Journal, though the author neglected to point out that he (along with so many others) learned about the deal on DansDeals. Oh well.
The DoT has came out and said that their new rule that airlines must honor mistake fares does apply to award tickets, but their investigation is still ongoing based on the complaints they have received so far.

2. United has done little up until now to inform people of their decision. They said they would be calling people up but that hasn’t happened as of yet. In fact since the DoT announced that their mistake fare regulation does apply to award tickets we’ve heard nary a word from United. That’s a long time to keep confirmed and ticketed passengers in the dark. Nearly everyone have been able to use the tickets to fly to Hong Kong in first class for just 4 miles so far.

My guess is that United doesn’t want to cancel everyone’s tickets yet lest they be slapped with a $25,000 per ticket fine, so they’ll going to bide their time until the DoT issues a ruling. That’s great news for anyone with a ticket for the near future!

3. DDF user “nd” called United to add an infant to his reservation for his flight today and likely because of that his reservation was cancelled by an agent. They cancelled his ticket unilaterally sometime after he called to add the infant without ever calling him to discuss options as they promised they would. Should’ve taken my lead and booked your infant a ticket for 4 miles as I posted on Sunday!
Rule #1: Don’t call United!

4. DDF user “E” traveled the very same day as the mistake and has returned back home. He has uploaded some pictures from his trip and typed a trip report. Gotta love that Lufthansa 747 First class seat with the full bed next to the seat, such an awesome concept!

The bottom line for him was he booked tickets that would normally cost 440,000 miles for just 8 miles from an account with just 800 miles in them. Nobody ever said a word to him about flying on the 4 mile ticket nor did United ever charge him a single mile.

Are you booked to travel soon? Hit the comments and keep us updated!

Courtesy of DDF user “E”

Sorry folks, no party in Hong Kong will be happening like there was in Las Vegas and in the Bahamas in the past when hundreds of DansDeals members nabbed price mistakes for all expenses paid vacations.

“Hi Everyone, over the weekend, we discovered a united.com programming error that allowed customers to obtain Mileage Plus travel awards to and from Hong Kong for as little as four miles roundtrip per person, substantially below published levels, which we disclose to customers. We have since corrected the error and will be in contact with customers who have tickets issued at the incorrect award amounts. Customers will be given the choice to redeem at the correct mileage amount or re-deposit their award with all fees waived. We regret any inconvenience this has caused you, and appreciate your understanding.

Shannon Kelly
Director, Customer Insights
United Airlines”

In other words: Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.

Feeling bummed?

I’m not going to advise anyone what to do if anything at all, but if you do feel like taking some action I will be happy to inform you of your options. It’s definitely within your rights to file a complaint to the US DOT.  These complaints are big black marks for the airlines and are your way of fighting back should you so desire.  The DOT enforces penalties of up to $27,000 per incident, and says that mistake fares must be honored. United obviously thinks that they will not be found liable under the circumstances for these awards or else they would have honored the tickets.  And of course you can always file a complaint with your state’s attorney general, worst that can happen is that United may throw you a bone to go away.

I’m sure some folks will want to take this nuclear and file a claim in small claims court or maybe even try to create a class-action out of this.  I wish you luck and lots of time to burn as you’ll need both!

So long to my 3 free first class trips we had booked all over the world…I hardly knew ‘ye.  Now I’ll just have to go back to good ole’ reliable card churning to fly around the world in first class for free!

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In the “darn it, I wish I was able to just jump on a plane at the drop of a hat” department, a longtime trusted DDF member, “E” (who was the 30th DDF member out of 4,500 members to signup for a free DDF account and whom I had the pleasure of having dinner with at the sadly closed Clubhouse Cafe at a DDF meetup last year) has posted multiple updates from his trip to Hong Kong to DDF.  Sensing opportunity he used an account with just 1,000 miles in it to book a first class flight that left yesterday on Lufthansa via Frankfurt that left with just 3 first class passengers on it (gotta love the First Class Terminal there and the Panamera ride to the plane!) and he is now in Hong Kong and even has his return boarding passes already in hand!

Congrats man!!!

Update: 6:30pm, The program has been pulled due to overwhelming response (from disgruntled United elites), however some AA representatives are still processing status matches. At this point you may have to make a few phone calls until you get a rep to enroll you in the match. Either way this will be dead very soon.

American normally doesn’t match elite status from other airlines. They have a challenge that grants elite status after you pay a fee and complete a flying challenge, but only for Gold or Platinum status

For a limited time they are poaching matching United elites to the following levels:
United Silver=AA Gold
United Gold=AA Platinum
United Platinum=AA Platinum
United 1K=AA Executive Platinum
United Global Services=AA Executive Platinum (or Concierge Key according to some reports)

You can call AA and ask for AAdvantage customer service by calling 800-882-8880. The elite status will be valid until 02/29/13.

Now the challenge lasts for an extra year if you complete it in July or later. Does this mean that if you wait until July do do a status match that the status will last until 02/28/14? Possibly, but then again this is a limited time offer and definitely may be pulled before then.

HT: FT

What a mess…and we haven’t even left the ground yet.

As a Premier Platinum member at United I get 2 annual confirmed regional upgrades. As I was booked as part of a party of 4 to LAX, using 2 of those upgrades split us into 2 reservations. Of course I had made sure to have everyone seated in economy plus before splitting anything. The upgrade for the return flight could not be confirmed despite the empty cabin, so that confirmed upgrade is still waitlisted.

Today when I checked in for the flight it added me to the upgrade standby list. It also had the option to rebook everyone left in the reservation on another flight for free. After checking in it split the reservation once again, leaving us with 3 reservations.

Later today we realized that we could actually be ready to fly on the 9pm flight instead of the 9am morning flight. However when I went to change the other passengers it wanted to charge $75 for that change. Additionally it was now showing no free bags for everyone else in the reservation. Back when it was Continental when a reservation was split it remembered the proper baggage allowance (3×70 pound bags for everyone booked with a Star Alliance Gold member), but no longer is that true.

I spent the next 4 hours playing HUCA, or hang up, call again. That included 3 calls back from the electronic support desk, 2 calls to the Platinum desk, of which the Platinum desk punted me to an offshore support desk that kept me on hold for an hour. I heard every excuse in the book:
-I’m right, but there’s nothing that can be done once it’s split, even if I didn’t want it to be split.
-Companions of Platinum members don’t get free confirmed standby.
-Free confirmed standby doesn’t work for flights the day before even if it’s within 24 hours.

Finally I called back the Platinum desk again and got a very kind agent who agreed with me and made the changes on all 3 reservations for free. But she wasn’t able to get economy plus seating for my companions. Which led to another hour long phone call with the electronic support desk to get that fixed again.

At the airport the lead checkin agent said that the new policy is that only one companion of a Star Alliance Gold gets 3 free 70 pound bags, and everyone else had nothing. I pulled on the correct policy from United.com on my Galaxy Nexus, but she still insisted that the United.com policy is outdated, but that she’ll make a one-time exception…

I read that United was having teething pains with the merger with Continental, so I’ll cut them some slack for now. But it’s a full month since the systems merger, I sure hope this gets fixed of they’re going to have a whole lot of defecting elites members.

Wish me luck for the actual trip!

Why wait on hold and try to find your way around a phone tree maze when you can have companies call your phone or talk to you over the web for free?

Click here to have Starwood call you

Click here to have United call you

The United line connects to the old Continental.com support desk, which has very helpful agents who have the ability to waive the phone booking fee for itineraries that can’t be booked online.  Plus there are rarely any hold times!

The final flight with a Continental flight number will be Continental 1267 which is scheduled to depart on March 2nd from Phoenix at 11:59pm and arrive in Cleveland at 5:46am.

Saturday March 3rd is the switchover date, and there’s a decent chance it will be a nightmare travel day as the systems are combined and United agents start using the Continental SHARES system.

On March 3rd your Continental OnePass and United MileagePlus accounts will be merged.  The fun part (well, at least for a Continental guy like me) is that everyone’s surviving number will be the Continental 8 digit alphanumeric number.  The United number will be history.  If you only have a United number you’ll be generated an 8 digit alphanumeric number.  So the name United MileagePlus survives, but the Continental number lives on.

If you earned Continental or United elite status in 2010 and didn’t requalify in 2011 that status will expire on March 2nd.

Continental.com will automatically forward to United.com…except that it will look exactly like Continental.com looks like it does now but with the United name and logo (which now has the Continental globe instead of the tulip).  That’s a good thing as Continental.com is far more adept and advanced than United.com.

-If you have miles in your United account transfer them to Continental now. Miles in Continental accounts won’t start expiring until 09/30/13, so you’ll get a nice extension on any possible mileage expiration.

-The Continental OnePass Plus card will be going away, probably on or before March 3rd, so now is the last chance to apply for that card, which along with the United MileagePlus Explorer card can both be matched from 30K up to 50K after you receive the card.
Both cards also give primary rental car insurance (almost all other cards only provide secondary coverage to your own personal car insurance), they make your miles never expire, give free checked luggage and priority boarding, in-flight food, drink, and TV discounts, last seat EasyPass award availability, 2 annual lounge passes, 10K bonus miles for spending $25K annually, upgrades for elite cardholders on award tickets, and double miles for Continental and United purchases.

To celebrate the launch of the United MileagePlus Explorer Card, Chase and United are making Baggage Claim pop-up events where consumers can walk away with MileagePlus bonus miles as well as luxury travel and lifestyle rewards.

The LA and San Fran events are done already, but still upcoming is:
Chicago
Location: Pioneer Court – 401 N.
Aug. 31 – Sept. 1Michigan Ave., Chicago
Time: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Team Visa Olympic athlete on-site: Dan Jansen
September 1: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Washington D.C.
Sept. 19 – Sept. 20
Location: Main Hall at Union Station – 50 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington, D.C.
Time: 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Team Visa Olympic athlete on-site: Kerri Walsh
September 20: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.

“Every consumer that attends our events will walk away a winner. We’re giving away more than 45 million MileagePlus miles, cameras, eReaders and many other prizes and look forward to our next two United hub cities, Chicago and Washington, D.C.”

Prizes include:
1 Million MileagePlus Bonus Miles
100,000 MileagePlus Bonus Miles
50,000 MileagePlus Bonus Miles
25,000 MileagePlus Bonus Miles
Luxury Hotel & Resort Getaway
Fujifilm DSLR Cameras
$200 Tumi Gift Cards
eReaders

United MileagePlus Explorer Visa Linky
Continental OnePassPlus Mastercard Linky

Chase is now synergizing the benefits of the Continental and United cards and has added some great new benefits. If you have an older United card you can call the number on the back of the card to convert it to a MileagePlus Explorer Card. Continental OnePass Plus cardholders will be automatically converted over the the MileagePlus Explorer card next year, but you can also call to convert your card earlier if you so desire, but the benefits are now the same.

This is the last chance you will have to earn the signup bonus on both the Continental and United cards!
Miles can be transferred freely between the Continental and United programs.
With miles from either program you can book travel on any of the dozens of Star Alliance partners. They are both extremely valuable miles and they both can be used for one-way tickets now. However there are still many advantages to Continental miles, so you’ll probably want to transfer your United miles there. See below for a comparison.
Best of all neither program charges any fuel surcharges, something that most other programs can’t say.

For each card you can get 25,000 miles for signing up and making a purchase and 5,000 miles for adding an additional cardholder, so you’ll get a total of 30,000 miles for signing up!
You can add the 2nd user onto the account when applying online.
There is no fee for the first year, the fee is $95 for subsequent years.

Benefits:

-Priority boarding.
Always have room for your carry-ons because you will be able to board in the elite line. On Continental you will board together with elites for now and on United you will board right after elite members and before everyone else.
-First checked bag free.
When flying on United or Continental you will get a free checked bag for yourself and everyone else on your reservation.
You can also add other family members as free secondary users on your account so that they can get free baggage as well when they’re not traveling with you. The fee waiver for secondary users isn’t automatic as it is for the primary cardholder, but you just have to show your card to the ticketing agent and they’ll be able to waive your checked bag fee!
-Miles that never expire.
Currently Continental miles don’t expire but United miles expire after 18 months. It appears in the new program that miles will expire, but if you are a cardholder your miles will not expire!
-Primary Car Rental CDW Insurance.
Most cards have secondary DCW insurance when you rent a car. This means that if you damage your rental vehicle you must file the claim with your own personal insurance policy first, and only if they won’t cover the damage will the credit card cover the damage.
With primary rental car CDW insurance you will not have to file anything with your own insurance company. Chase will cover the entire bill for any damage to your rental car. Just be sure to decline the rental agency’s CDW coverage and Chase will have your back! This primary CDW coverage applies everywhere in the world except in Israel, Jamaica, and Ireland (blame the bad drivers there!)
-United Club passes.
You will get 2 club passes (a $100 value) on every anniversary date of your card.
-Upgrades on Reward tickets for Elite members.
When flying on Continental, elite members can now be upgraded even on a mileage ticket for upgrade eligible flights. This benefit will also be introduced to United flights for 2012.
-Last seat EasyPass availability.
Currently on Continental only elite members can redeem extra miles (typically double) for last-seat availability. This is being introduced on United as well. During peak periods (like for flight to Tel Aviv during the holiday seasons) there may not be availability for non-elites. With this benefit credit card holders will also get last seat easypass availability when they need it.
-Double miles on Continental and United tickets.
-Annual spending threshold bonus.
Get 10,000 additional bonus miles with $25,000 or more in eligible spend each calendar year.
-In-flight Discounts
By having the card you will get a $2 discount off in-flight alcoholic beverages and $2 off in-flight DirecTV service!
-Concierge Service
-Luxury Hotels & Resorts Program
-Cardholders will also be able to use Chase’s new concierge service to book from the “Luxury Hotels and Resorts Collection” When you book through the concierge you will get exclusive benefits, upgrades, and amenities.

The cards also some with ultra-premium benefits and insurances that normally only come with much more expensive cards, including:
-Price protection: If you find an ad, online or in-store, that the price of an item you bought within the past 90 days is lower than what you paid, you can get a refund of up to $500 per item and $1,500 per year!
-Return protection: Return an item up to $300 and up to $1,000 a year within 90 days if the store won’t take it back.
-Free roadside assistance: Up to $50 per event
-Delayed baggage insurance: Up to $300 of essential items covered per ticket.
-Trip delay Insurance: Up to $300 per ticket if your flight is delayed to spend on hotels, cars, etc.
-Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: Up to $1,500 coverage per event.
-Lost or damaged luggage insurance: Up to $3,000 coverage per event
-Travel Accident Insurance: Up to $500,000 per event
-Emergency evacuation, transportation, and medical coverage.
-Extended Warranty Protection: Extra year warranty.
-Purchase protection: If an item you bought within the past 90 days is stolen or damaged or if you have an “involuntary and accidental parting with the item” you can get a refund of up to $10,000 and up to $50,000 per year.
-Ticket Event Protection: If you can’t attend an event ticket for a covered reason you will get a refund of up to $500 per ticket, $2,000 per event, $4,000 annually.
-Identity Theft Protection: $1,000 coverage per stolen identity event.
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Current advantages of Continental miles over United miles:
-Continental has more lenient routing rules (you can go to Australia via Asia for example) on award tickets.
-Continental has no “maximum permitted mileage” policy. If you can find award seats be designing your own roundabout routing it can usually be booked. On United there is a “maximum permitted mileage” policy, although they have just recently been moving towards a more generous policy by allowing people to exceed the maximum permitted mileage by 15%.
-Continental allows free routing changes on award tickets.
-Continental is partners with many non-Star Alliance carriers, like Virgin Atlantic.
-Continental allows for a free stopover and open-jaw on award tickets.
-Continental “Plan B” allows you to book a BusinessFirst award even if there is only coach availability and go on a waitlist and standby for a BusinessFirst seat. If you do not get the BusinessFirst seat (even if you do get a First class seat on the domestic flight) then you will get a refund of the additional miles that you paid for it!
-Continental allows you to book travel on non-Star Alliance partner carriers on the same itinerary and at the same rate as Star Alliance carriers. United has separate award charts for non-Star Alliance partner carriers that make them much more expensive than Star Alliance partners and won’t let you book travel on alliance and non-alliance partners on the same itinerary.
-Continental gives all Elite members significantly expanded coach saver award availability (XN) and coach (YN), first (FN), and businessfirst (FN) last seat standard award availability. Continental also gives Platinum Elite members expanded first and businessfirst (O) saver award availability.
-Continental’s agents are all located in the US. If you aren’t elite on United you will be routed to their offshore agents who can be very hard to understand at times.
-Continental allows you to book many more partner airline flights online than United does, thus avoiding phone booking fees. Although a manager from either airline should be able to waive the fee if you push hard enough due to the fact that it can’t be booked online.
-Continental miles don’t expire. United miles expire after 18 months of not having account activity.
-Continental counts all elite miles towards lifetime million miler status, even if it was flown on a partner airline, purchased on Continental.com, or earned via the Presidential Plus credit card. United only counts miles that were actually earned by flying on a United flight.

Current advantages of United miles over Continental miles:
-United doesn’t charge a fee for changing a booked award flight to a flight within 21 days.
-United offers miles and money options for some flights to stretch your mileage balance with a cash supplement.

Update: Today is the last day to make bookings under the current award chart for Continental and United!

Originally posted on 03/16:

Related:
-United Visa Signature: Get 30,000 Miles For Signing Up, $50 Cash Back, And First Year Free!
-Get 51,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points After Spending $1,000 On The AMEX Platinum Charge Card!!!
-Getting To Israel Using AMEX Membership Rewards Points!
-Continental: Take Advantage While You Can…
-Click here to read about and apply for all of the benefits of the Continental OnePass Plus Card

Effective 06/15 there will be changes to the United award chart, which includes the rate charged for redeeming United miles on any of the 27 Star Alliance partner airlines.

If you book travel prior to 06/15 you will be charged the current rate, even if you are traveling after 06/15.

I’m actually surprised that the changes weren’t worse.  With ticket prices skyrocketing it makes mileage tickets even more attractive and valuable.

Important: This does not affect the rates of any other Star Alliance Carrier.  Meaning you can still book travel on United using miles from any other Star Alliance carrier for the same rate.  It’s always worth checking the rates that other carriers change for a mileage ticket as it can be significantly less.  For example transferring AMEX or Starwood points to ANA can make sense in many cases.

I’m sure we will see Continental announce the same changes as well, or else this would be pointless as you can transfer United miles to Continental. And then AA changes won’t be far behind as some of these changes, like for coach travel to Europe and South America, make their award chart underpriced.

Current United Award Chart Linky

06/15 United Award Chart Linky

Here is a summary to the changes made: (These are the rates for one-way travel from/to the US49/Canada made using saver awards.)

Routes that will get cheaper:
US49/Canada under 700 miles: Was 12.5K coach. Now 10K coach.
Europe: Was 52.5K business. Now 50K business.
Japan: Was 62.5K business. Now 60K business.
North and South Asia: Was 62.5K business. Now 60K business.
North and South Asia: Was 72.5K first. Now 70K first.
Oceania (Excluding: Australia/NZ): Was 40K coach. Now 35K coach.
Oceania (Excluding: Australia/NZ): Was 67.5K business. Now 60K business.
Oceania (Excluding: Australia/NZ): Was 80K first. Now 75K first.

Routes that will get more expensive:
Northern South America: Was 17.5K coach. Now 20K coach.
Southern South America: Was 27.5K coach. Now 30K coach.
Europe: Was 27.5K coach. Now 30K coach.
Middle East: Was 37.5K coach. Now 40K coach.
Middle East: Was 57.5K business. Now 60K business.
Middle East: Was 72.5K first. Now 75K first.
Northern Africa: Was 37.5K coach. Now 40K coach.
Northern Africa: Was 57.5K business. Now 60K business.
Northern Africa: Was 72.5K first. Now 75K first.

Updates:
-If you transfer your United miles to Continental and then back again to United you will extend the expiration date of your miles by 18 months! If you leave them in Continental they currently do not expire at all!
-Continental and United are synergizing many of their policies on 06/15 and some of the advantages of each program listed below may no longer apply after that date.

Originally posted on 03/07:

Related:
-Chase United Visa Signature: Get 30,000 Miles For Spending $1, $50 Cash Back, And First Year Free!
-Chase Continental OnePass Plus Mastercard: Get 30,000 Miles For Spending $1, $50 Cash Back, And First Year Free!
-Chase Sapphire: Get 53,210 Miles For Spending $3,000, And First Year Free!
-Get Your First Year Free, Triple Points On Airfare, And 16,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points After Spending $1,000 On The American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card!
-Getting To Israel Using AMEX Membership Rewards Points!
-Continental: Take Advantage While You Can…
-Click here to read about and apply for all of the benefits of the Continental OnePass Plus Card

You can now transfer miles back and forth between your Continental and United mileage accounts!  The names on both account must match exactly.
Want to know more about the differences between the programs? Scroll to the bottom and I’ll highlight some of them.

You can now for a limited time transfer AMEX points into United miles!  Just transfer to Continental and then to United!
AMEX points must be transferred to Continental no later than 09/30/11.

Transfer Miles Linky
If you get an error online you can also call Mileage Plus Customer Service at 800-421-4655 or OnePass customer service at 800-554-5522 to manually make a transfer or request a status match.

-You can transfer miles only once per day, in 1,000-mile increments with a limit of 200,000 miles per transfer. (Smaller amounts of miles can be transferred by calling United or Continental over the phone.)
-You can transfer miles only between accounts in your name.
-If you change your mind, you can wait 24 hours and move the miles back into their original account.
-Transferring miles won’t affect your elite status in either program.
-Transferring miles does not consolidate your accounts.
-You can also leave your miles in both accounts. Your accounts will not be combined until the end of 2011.

You can also match your status and combine elite miles between the 2 programs as well!

Elite Status Match/Transfer Linky
Use your Continental elite mileage number when flying Continental and your United elite mileage number when flying United to maximize upgrade benefits.
-If you’re currently an elite member of one program, we’ll match your status in the other.
-If you qualify for higher elite status or a match to equivalent elite status, please wait 7-10 days for this information to appear in your online account. Your new card will arrive in the mail four to six weeks after we update your status.
-Combine your elite activity to qualify for a higher elite status in both programs.
-When you register, you’ll make a one-time designation of either your Mileage Plus or OnePass account as your primary account for upgrades for the year. This is where the Regional and Systemwide Upgrades you earn in 2011 will be deposited. You can receive these upgrades in one account or the other, but not both.
-Registering does not link or combine your Mileage Plus and OnePass accounts. Your Mileage Plus and OnePass accounts will remain separate throughout 2011.
-Only EQM, EQS or EQP count toward your elite status. Award miles and bonus miles do not qualify.
-Registration is optional. If you do not register, you will continue to earn elite status based on qualifying activity in each separate program.
————————————————————————————————-
Each program’s miles have their own advantages. For now you can take advantage of whichever suits you better by transferring miles back and forth freely!

-Both airlines belong to the Star Alliance, so you can book travel on any of the dozens of Star Alliance airlines with either program’s miles.
-Continental has always allowed you to have a free stopover and an open-jaw. United used to allow only one but they have just recently matched Continental policy and will allow both on an itinerary, so no difference these as well.
-Be sure to compare both charts as there are some differences between rewards in some regions of travel.
Continental Award Chart Linky
Continental Interactive Award Chart Linky
United Star Alliance Award Chart Linky
United Other Partner Awards Linky

Continental OnePass advantages over United Mileage Plus:
1. Continental has more generous routing rules than United. For example Continental will allow you to travel to Australia via Asia, where availability is significantly better. United requires you to fly directly to Australia. In general Continental will allow more roundabout routings which makes finding availability much easier if you know how to search for creative routings.
2. Continental allows you to change award tickets for free if it is done over 21 days before your flight as long as you don’t change the origin or destination city. This includes changing connecting cities. On United a change to a connecting city will incur a $150 charge per ticket.
3. Continental has much lower award fees. Cancellation of an award ticket is just $75 (or significantly less if the miles came from an elite member’s account). United charges double that.
4. Continental Plan B allows you to book a BusinessFirst Saver award ticket even if there is only Coach Saver avaialbility. If BusinessFirst avaialbility opens up you will be automatically moved to BusinessFirst. If you don’t wind up sitting in BusinessFirst you will get a mileage refund. More discussion on this in the DansDeals Forums.
5. Continental has no “maximum permitted mileage” policy. If you can find award seats be designing your own roundabout routing it can usually be booked. On United there is a “maximum permitted mileage” policy, although they have just recently been moving towards a more generous policy by allowing people to exceed the maximum permitted mileage by 15%.
6. Continental allows you to book travel on any Star Alliance or partner airline if they have award avaialbility. United on occasion uses Starnet blocking and won’t let you book partner travel if they don’t feel like it.
7. Continental allows you to book travel on non-Star Alliance partner carriers on the same itinerary and at the same rate as Star Alliance carriers. United has separate award charts for non-Star Alliance partner carriers that make them much more expensive than Star Alliance partners and won’t let you book travel on alliance and non-alliance partners on the same itinerary.
8. Continental’s agents are all located in the US. If you aren’t elite on United you will be routed to their offshore agents who can be very hard to understand at times.
9. Continental charges significantly fewer miles (160K coach/220K business /280K first) for an around-the-world award than United charges (200K coach/300K business /400K first).
10. Continental gives all Elite members significantly expanded coach saver award availability (XN) and coach (YN), first (FN), and businessfirst (FN) last seat standard award availability. Continental also gives Platinum Elite members expanded first and businessfirst (O) saver award availability.
11. Continental allows you to book many more partner airline flights online than United does, thus avoiding phone booking fees. Although a manager from either airline should be able to waive the fee if you push hard enough due to the fact that it can’t be booked online.
12. Continental miles don’t expire. United miles expire after 18 months of not having account activity.
13. Continental counts all elite miles towards lifetime million miler status, even if it was flown on a partner airline, purchased on Continental.com, or earned via the Presidential Plus credit card. United only counts miles that were actually earned by flying on a United flight.

United Mileage Plus advantages over Continental OnePass:
1. United allows you to book one-way travel at half the rate of round-trip travel. (Stopovers aren’t permitted on one-way travel)
2. United doesn’t charge any expedite/close-in fees on award tickets booked within 21 days of travel. Continental charges varying amounts up to $75 for these depending on the elite status of the redeeming member’s account.
3. United offer miles and money options for some flights to stretch your mileage balance with a cash supplement.

Any other advantages/disadvantages that I missed? Hit the comments and I’ll update the post!

HT: David, via the DansDeals Forums and UAInsider via FT

Related:
Continental: Take Advantage While You Can…
Click here to read all of the benefits of the Continental OnePass Plus Card

United Visa Signature Linky

-Limited Time Offer:
-Get 25,000 miles for signing up and making your first purchase.
-Earn 5,000 additional miles when you add an authorized user. You can do this when you apply for the card, giving you 30,000 miles!
-Receive a $50 statement cashback credit after your first purchase
-No Annual Fee for the First Year, a $60 value.
-Earn 1 mile per $1 spent on all purchases you make with your card with no limit to the miles you may earn
-Receive a one-way upgrade certificate and a $25 travel certificate after your first purchase

United allows you to redeem for one-way award tickets at half the rate of round-trip awards, so a one-way domestic ticket is 12,500 miles and a one-way ticket to Israel would be 37,500 miles. United also doesn’t charge award expedite/close-in fees!

Sometime this year you will be able to transfer your United miles to Continental and Continental miles to United. The program will them be merged and all miles will be combined into the new program.
All elite miles earned on United and Continental this year will be combined as well at the end of the year. Lifetime flown miles will also be combined!

AMEX Membership Rewards points will no longer transfer to Continental after 09/30/11, so be sure to stock up on Continental and United miles wherever you can!

StudentUniverse is offering $40 off United flights booked today for travel by 12/18.

You can use the coupon on one-way flights, so you can save $80 on a round-trip!

You need a .edu email address to purchase tickets.

Use the following code on the final checkout page: United40

HT: FT

Update: DEAD!

www.united.com

Offer Details Linky

Use promo code: TWRAU

Valid for travel in October and November only!

Sample fares:

LAX-SYD, 11/16-11/23, $599+tax=$718

JFK-SYD, 11/09-11/16, $677+tax=$810

www.united.com

You can book mileage tickets now on United for flights that are 700 miles or less for just 8,750 miles for a one-way flight or 17,500 miles for a round-trip flight.

You must book by 08/31/10 and travel by 01/07/11.

Best of all United doesn’t charge any award expedite fees, as you can see in this award fee chart roundup.

You can check the distance of a flight using the great circle mapper, which in this link tells us that Cleveland to Chicago is just a 315 mile flight and is therefore eligible for the 8,750 mile award.

United Award Booking Linky

-Book by 06/07

-Travel between 06/14-08/22.

Effective today you can book one-way awards on United for half of the round-trip miles.

A huge advantage of one-way awards is that you can now mix and match Saver and Standard awards by booking them as one-way awards.  Previously United required you to purchase a Standard award if just one of the flights did not have Saver availability.

One-way awards can currently only be booked online, and are only good for travel on United.  You can’t book a one-way flight on Continental for example or any other partner airline.

Unfortunately you can’t take a stopover on a one-way award.  When AA introduced one-way awards last year they eliminated most stopovers on all mileage redemptions.  However they continued to allow a stopover at the North American gateway city (as well as all connections of under 24 hours).

With the new United one-way awards there are no stopovers allowed at all.  The good news (for the time-being at least) is that unlike with AA  stopovers are still permitted on round-trip award redemptions.


The other major news from United is the launch of Miles & Money Awards which can actually be half-decent.
Miles & Money Awards are unfortunately only valid in economy, so it’s hard to come up with come of the incredible values that you can get from Business or First class redemptions.

Here are some examples with cents per mile valuations compared with buying the ticket: (CPM valuations are generally a good way to determine whether to use miles or buy the ticket.  The higher the CPM, the more bang you’re getting for your miles.  When I was able to book a $400 NYC-Montreal ticket using 6,400 Starpoints+$40 I got a value of $360 for 6,400 points or 5.63 cents per Starpoint.)

1. JFK-LAX, 02/07 (flight 891)-02/10 (flight 84).

Paid ticket: $425.40 with tax

Miles: 25,000+$5 tax. Total CPM value: 1.7

Miles & Money: 15,000+ $140.73. Total CPM: 1.9

-Like buying 10,000 miles for $135.73, or 1.36 cents per mile.

2. Chicago(ORD)-NYC(LGA), 02/07 (flight 674)-02/10 (flight 669).

Paid ticket: $391.40 with tax

Miles: 25,000+$5 tax. Total CPM: 2.57

Miles & Money: 10,000+ $121.38. Total CPM: 2.7

-Like buying 15,000 miles for $116.38, or 0.78 cents per mile.

3. Chicago(ORD)-Paris(CDG), 02/03 (flight 942)-02/10 (flight 943).

Paid ticket: $1,366.10 with tax

Miles: 55,000+$82.40 tax. Total CPM: 2.48

Miles & Money: 30,000+ $399.10. Total CPM: 3.22

-Like buying 25,000 miles for $316.70, or 1.27 cents per mile.

4. Cleveland(CLE)-Denver(DEN), 02/04 (flight 6753)-02/09 (flight 6636).

Paid ticket: $715.40 with tax

Miles: 25,000+$5.00 tax. Total CPM: 2.86

Miles & Money: 10,000+ $131.05. Total CPM: 5.84

-Like buying 15,000 miles for $126.05, or 0.84 cents per mile.

United Reduced Mileage Awards Linky

Fly anywhere in the US48 and Canada for just 20,000 miles!

-Book by 10/19/09.

-Fly between 01/10/10-04/30/10.

-Valid only on United/United Express.

Offer Registration Linky

Same terms as AA’s offer, except it starts for travel from 09/03 and you get to choose between double elite miles and double elite segments! People that fly many short flights or flights with stops may have an easier time attaining elite status via flight segments that via miles.

And now we wait while Continental and Delta figure out what to do about balancing the need for incremental revenue versus bloating their elite ranks.

Effective 07/30 you will no longer pay any expedite fees on United when booking or changing an award ticket!

Expedite fees originated in an era when paper tickets were the norm, and booking an award ticket close to the date of departure had real fees (overnight delivery, etc.) for the airline.

However as the airlines migrated to e-tickets the award expedite fees have stayed and even grown to as high as $150 on Delta.

United charged as much as $100 to book an award ticket within 21 days of departure or to change an existing award ticket to a flight to within 21 days.

What’s really nice about this change is that many airlines now only open up mileage seats at the last minute when they see that the seats won’t be sold and when they will reap an expedite fee.

Hopefully the other major airlines will go ahead on match United in eliminating expedite fees.

Here is a chart that I previously made before this change on expedite fees, based on how many days before departure the mileage ticket is booked (No airline charges an expedite fee for tickets booked 21+ days before departure, USAirways offers a $25 online discount through 08/12 and is the only domestic airline to still charge a fuel surcharge to all US originating award flights) :

www.united.com
Use code: 552KR
It doesn’t work on all flights, but it seems to work on a lot of them!

HT: FT

Offer Linky

Valid only for economy saver awards on United flights.

Travel valid 08/18-11/18.

Book by 07/24.

Sale awards, from North America to:

North America (excluding Hawaii): 20,000 miles

Carribean/Central America: 25,000 miles

Hawaii: 30,000 miles

South America: 44,000 miles

Asia: 50,000 miles

Europe: 44,000 miles

Middle East: 60,000 miles

Australia: 64,000 miles

Offer Linky

Valid for travel to/from the US48 and Canada.

-Book by 07/21

-Travel by 09/02

-Blackout: 07/02-07/06.

Note for Starwood AMEX cardholders: You can transfer 20,000 Starpoints into 50,000 LAN kilometers, which is more than enough for an award ticket to Brazil…

Offer Linky

It’s amazing how overlooked Argentina and Brazil are as vacation spots. They are both beautiful places (well maybe not Sao Paulo…but don’t miss Iguacu Falls or Florionopolis in Brazil) and the dollar goes incredibly far in either place.

-Valid for travel to Buenos Aires (EZE), Sao Paulo (GRU) or Rio de Janeiro (GIG).

-Book by 05/24.

-Travel by 08/31.

Related:
AA/United 2X Elite Offer
Continental 2X Elite Offer

United has relented and will now allow you to register to receive double elite miles even on previously purchased flights. This leaves AA and Delta as the only airlines not allowing tickets bought before the double elite miles promo to earn double elite miles.

Instructions:
-Call 1-800-421-4655
-Say “Manage My Account”
-Enter Mileage Plus number
-Enter ZIP code
-Say “More Options”
-Say “Register for a promotion”
-Say “MPW999″ or something like “M as in Mary, P as Paul, W as in W, the number 9, the number 9, the number 9″
-It will say “Double EQM Ticketing Exception MPW029″
-Say “yes” to confirm
-It will confirm registration.”

Thanks to this FT posting for the info!

Now you can earn elite status twice as fast!

AA Offer Registration Linky

Earn double Elite Qualifying Miles on tickets bought and used between 03/18 and 06/15. Registration is required prior to travel.


UA Offer Registration Linky

Earn double Elite Qualifying Miles on tickets bought and used between 03/19 and 06/15. Registration is required prior to travel.

Offer Linky

Valid for travel between 02/11 and 05/14 to/from the US48 and:
-Amsterdam
-Brussels
-Frankfurt
-Geneva
-London
-Moscow
-Munich
-Paris
-Rome
-Zurich

If you’ve got a few thousand United miles from a flight-dont let them expire-get a free newspaper subscription!

For example a 1 year subscription to the LA Times in the LA metro area will set you back just 2,600 miles!

Offer Linky

Offer Linky

United kicked off round 3 this morning by adding a $50 charge for a 2nd checked bag each way.  (They were the first to implement a second bag fee and were deeply embarrassed by being upstaged by AA in adding a first bag fee.)

For those keeping score it will now cost a family of 4 an additional $520 round-trip to each bring 2 suitcases with them.

Did somebody forget to tell these guys that oil is under $100 now???

United and Star Alliance elite members and all of their travel companions continue to get 2 free checked bags.

(Pretty soon I’ll be able to rent myself out just so that families can check in 2 free bags each-it pays to be elite on every alliance!)

The fee applies to tickets bought starting tomorrow, 09/16, for travel on or after 11/10.

I’m sure it won’t be long before the other sheep follow and United will be able to up the ante on the first checked bag.

The real question is how long can Southwest continue to give 2 free bags and free flight changes and cancellations.  I’m sure that the drive out to Islip is no longer looking too shabby for many NY’ers…

It’s not often that we see an airline reversing a bad decision with it’s tail between it’s legs, but it’s refreshing that they did!  With this reversal hot kosher meals will continue to be available on international flights, although it won’t be available for domestic business class passengers.

Here’s the email I got from United earlier today:

Dear Mr. Daniel Eleff,

Thank you for your direct, candid feedback on the test we
had planned to launch in the fourth quarter for food choices
on some of our flights. We heard you and have decided not to
move forward with the test of offering customers
buy-on-board options in United Economy on certain
trans-Atlantic flights. We will continue to offer
complimentary hot meals on those flights.

The response from you and many of our corporate customers,
even before we launched the test, told us what we would
have undoubtedly learned had we proceeded – you value our
hot meal service in economy class for international flights.

In this environment, where higher costs driven by volatile
fuel prices are now the norm, we must continue to tailor
products and services so that we provide you with choices
and competitive fares. As such, we will continue to be
proactive in testing new ideas.

On October 1, we will proceed with the test of new,
complimentary options for United Business customers on
three-cabin aircraft used for domestic routes, which
represents 16 daily flights. Customers on these flights will
receive complimentary fresh sandwiches, salads, breakfast,
snack boxes or snacks, depending on the length of flight
and time of departure. They will also continue to enjoy
complimentary beverages, including beer, wine and cocktails.
We will evaluate the results and determine next steps by the
end of the year.

It’s also important to note that full meals will still be
served on our p.s. transcontinental flights.

Thank you again for your feedback. We will continue to
listen and make changes that enable us in this environment
to provide you with the choices you value.

Sincerely,

Graham Atkinson
Chief Customer Officer

Quite a few people have emailed me a link for a free 90 trial for mid-tier “1P” status on United.

I’m sure it’s targetted and therefore probably won’t work, but hey it only takes a second to register so why not!

Complimentary United Premier Executive Status Registration Linky

The T’s and C’s say that you must register by 06/30 and to allow 2 weeks for your online status to be updated.  You will not receive a 1P card, but you will receive all 1P benefits such as free Economy plus seating, free international lounge access, bonus flight miles, and free checked luggage for you and your companions.

Related:
United Airlines: We Really, Really Don’t Want Your Business. (Honest!)
Airline Ticket Change Fees Are On The Rise…
2nd Checked Bag Fee Roundup…
United Airlines Continues On Its Downward Spiral Into Oblivion…
AA: No More Free Domestic Checked Luggage For Non-Elites

United just announced that they will start charging for all checked luggage starting with tickets bought on 06/13 for travel on 08/13 or later.

This affects coach travel within Canada/US/Puerto Rico/USVI.

The first checked bag will be $15 each way, the 2nd checked bag is $25 each way.

Additionally, checking a 3rd bag or an overweight or oversized bag will now set you back $125!

United and Star Alliance elite members, along with anyone traveling on the same itinerary as an elite member, will continue to be able to check 2 bags for free.

In other news, United has won the title of Worst. Airline. Ever. Congrats UA!

Update: DEAD!

This deal was sent to all of our dansdeals.com facebook group members. Join the Dansdeals.com facebook group to receive similar alerts.

Try using the flexible search on Travelocity to find valid dates.
Valid for travel though 02/09.
Sample valid trips currently bookable on United.com:
Newark (EWR)-Kauai (LIH) from 09/02/08-09/09/08 for $272 including all taxes.
Houston (IAH)-Honolulu(HNL) from 01/20/09-01/27/09 for $287 including all taxes.

From Newark you should easily be able to get over 10K elite qualifying miles with this fare. You generally need to earn a minimum of 25K elite qualifying miles in a calender year to earn elite status.

If we’re lucky this will set off a response from Continental to set off a new, long-awaited round of hub-war fares to Hawaii! For you Chicago and DC folks-Stay tuned!

HT: Yossi.

Effective 07/01:

• Matching USeless Airways policy of the elimination of the 500 mile minimum mileage earned+minimum elite mileage earned for flights under 500 miles. Accrual will now be at actual rates.

Effective 05/15: United’s top tier 1K/GS members are exempt. No exemption for 1P/2P/3P elite members.

• Change in origin/destination city on an award ticket goes from $100 to $150.

• Change in connection points on an award ticket goes from $100 to $150.

• Cancellation of an award ticket (Mileage redeposit) goes from $100 to $150.

• Award handling fee goes from $15 to $25 over the phone and $30 at the counter. (The industry’s worst website, nicknamed “united.bomb,” is still free)

• Date change on an award ticket to fly within 7 days was $75, now $100.

• Date change on an award ticket to fly within 14 days was $50, now $75.

• Date change on an award ticket to fly within 21 days was free, now $75.

• Expedite fee on an award ticket to fly within 7 days was $75, now $100.

• Expedite fee on an award ticket to fly within 14 days was $50, now $75.

• Expedite fee on an award ticket to fly within 21 days was free, now $75

United will now charge a shocking $150 (plus fare difference) to change a non-refundable domestic ticket. In addition in order to get the cheapest fares they now require a Saturday night stay for all markets in which they don’t compete with a LCC (low-cost carrier).

Now we play the waiting game to see if the other majors match…
United sparked the industry to move from 2 to 1 free checked domestic bag back in February. Over the past few months US Airways, Delta, Northwest, and Continental (in that order) have all matched that policy.

United has also added their own double elite miles promotion.