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It depends on the flight, but sometimes award prices drop if you have United status or a United card. In some cases, the price decrease is drastic. Other times, not as much (but a discount is always welcome).
Here’s an example. We found award flights from Denver (DEN) to Houston (IAH) listed for 15,600 and 30,000 United miles. Both dropped to 15,000 miles after logging in as a United cardmember.
In each case, you get an exclusive discount to save miles. But here’s why you’ll always want to check the award price against a Money + Miles ticket.
For the first flight, the cash price is $193. With Money + Miles, you’d pay $113 in cash and 8,000 miles for the rest. In this case, your 8,000 miles cover the remaining $80, which is exactly 1 cent per mile.
However, if you pay 15,000 miles and $5.60—the discounted award price for United members—your miles are worth a little more than 1 cent each.
Each gets you roughly equal value, so it’s a decent choice either way. But with the other example flight, it’s miles better (pardon the pun) to go with the discounted award flight.
That’s because the cash price of that ticket is $473. United is asking $339 + 13,440 miles for the Money + Miles option. In this case, those 13,440 miles are covering a difference of $134 which is, again, 1 cent per point.
Or, you could take the rate of 15,000 United miles + $5.60 in taxes and come out ahead on the money and miles side. Here, your miles are worth over 3 cents each, which is triple the value over the Money + Miles choice. It’s a much better deal as an award booking, which is why we recommend checking the prices.
In both cases, United members and cardholders get a better deal. But sometimes, you can get an even better deal booking a regular award flight instead of a Money + Miles ticket.
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