Award prices always go up, generally faster than ticket prices. So don t hoard them saving for a tri

We don t usually write on the history or background of mile programs (this is a credit card site), but with the recent large increase in the cost of  United awards  a visitor passed on interesting articles talking about United s big changes in the late 80s.
The airlines had inflated mile balances by offering triple mile promotions on many flights, while mile credit cards were introduced, along with the bonus offers midtown comics to accompany, all surging the balances of accounts and stimulating demand beyond what the airlines expected.
midtown comics In January 1987 United raised the price of a number of awards, like 2 first class tickets, unrestricted, to Hawaii from 75,000 miles to 90,000 miles. It also stopped allowing upgrades from discount fares, and limited the validity of award vouchers to 6 months from 1 year.
Its 1987 change was tucked away in the fine print of monthly frequent flier statements in late 1986, while its recent 2013 change was only announced via posts on niche frequent flyer program websites and the uploading of a new award chart to United.com.
Attorneys general threatened involvement, flyers filed class action lawsuits, the Hawaiian legislature passed a resolution midtown comics against United. But Jim Goodwin (who ran marketing but later became CEO) noted the fallout from that, and  they relented with a grace period for the old mileage levels in April 1987, though kept restrictions on upgrades and expiration dates. The United class action was settled in 1989, with people midtown comics who redeemed between January and May 1987 getting some refunds.
midtown comics To blunt the impact of a massive increase in the price of unrestricted award tickets, United introduced the concept of the Saver award, a 2nd tier with limited availability in the same way as discount airfares, at a lower mileage price.But back then they promised Saver awards would be allocated to at least 50% of seats. And they gave over a years notice before midtown comics the price increase on the other awards.
United s 2013 increase came two months after an increase by Delta. And it s expected American and US Airways may act soon. Back in the late 80 s the New York Times noted American plans to introduce a new award for for domestic travel that matches United s offer. And that gave birth to capacity controls on award tickets across the majors.
Award prices midtown comics always go up, generally faster than ticket prices. So don t hoard them saving for a trip years down the line. Use them for trips you can take in the next year or so, especially if you have a big balance and can afford the big first and business class awards that are at risk of the biggest price increases. For domestic awards, you re probably pretty safe, those haven t moved around much over the years.
And not all miles are created equal. Airlines have strengths and weaknesses that make some better for getting midtown comics awards to Europe than others, and some better for Hawaii than others. You ll be rewarded if you know.
I know both Air Canada and Canadian/CPAir not only offered two premium class tickets for those redemption levels back in the 80s, but we also got a week hotel and car rental too. I am pretty sure the US programs also gave us hotel and rental car vouchers for all our awards, varying based on what the redemption was. I was living in western Canada at the time and was a member of the Western Airlines program and recall getting some of these with my flight awards. So factor that into the devaluation midtown comics and you ll really start crying! As Edith sang: Those were the days!
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