Save 25% on Round-Trip United Awards to Asia
Earlier this week, United put domestic round-trip award tickets on sale, and now it's discounting award tickets to Asia. From today (August 11) until August 22, you'll save 17,776 miles when you book a round-trip award ticket to many Asian cities.
Normally, United requires 70,000 miles to fly round-trip from the US to destinations in North Asia, but with the sale it'll cost you 52,224 miles and $36 to travel to China, for example. With the example below (Newark to Shanghai), if you were to pay cash for this itinerary, it would cost you $890. Since TPG values United miles at 1.5 cents per mile, you'd be redeeming $783 worth of miles for an $890 flight — an acceptable redemption, but keep in mind that you won't earn miles on award tickets.
Even with the award discount, United's nonstop San Francisco (SFO) to Chengdu (CTU) flight doesn't represent a good value because you'd have to redeem $783 worth of miles to pay for a ticket that only costs $621 in cash.
If you'd like to travel to Singapore and are willing to include a connection in your itinerary, this sale could represent a decent value. You'll pay 62,224 miles and $81 to fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Singapore (SIN), while if you booked this exact routing with cash it'd cost you a whopping $2,299. But do keep in mind that United operates a non-stop flight between the two cities, which is pricing out at just $802 round-trip.
The discounts are valid for travel between August 29, 2016 and April 30, 2017 on flights that are operated by United and stop in either Mainland China or Hong Kong, meaning United's nonstop SFO - SIN flight would require the normal 80,000 miles for a round-trip fare.
