Act fast: United award flights from just 3,000 miles or $29 each way

Thinking about booking a United flight for travel by May 26, 2021? You might want to lock it in today.

In celebration of "National Plan your Vacation Day," United Airlines has dropped its fares on some routes to $29 each way, with awards starting at just 3,000 miles. You need to book your flight today, Jan. 26, 2021, for travel between Feb. 9 and May 26, 2021 in order to take advantage. You can find a complete list of discounted flights here.

The lowest fares are available on United's shortest flights, such as San Diego (SAN) and Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO):

You can book these flights for $29 each way, but the lowest fares generally require traveling in basic economy, without a seat assignment or carry-on bag. Note that free changes are permitted for all United flights issued by March 31, 2021, including basic economy.

Alternatively, you might want to consider booking an award for 3,000 miles, since those tickets include full economy perks.

You can also find $29 fares or 3,000-mile awards on other short-haul United flights, such as Boston (BOS) to Washington, D.C. (IAD):

Or Houston (IAH) to New Orleans (MSY):

Longer flights might cost you a hair more, but they're discounted as well, such as Chicago (ORD) to Los Angeles (LAX) for $39:

Or 3,500 miles each way:

If you don't already have miles in your account, you can consider a transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards — miles generally post instantly, but there are occasional transfer delays, so there's a small chance you won't have the miles in your United account in time to take advantage of this sale.

With fares so low, though, it may make more sense to save your points and miles for another booking, and pay cash, instead. Alternatively, you can redeem directly through Chase's travel portal — customers with a Chase Sapphire Reserve can redeem points for 1.5 cents each, while those with a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card can redeem for 1.25 cents.

As always, be sure to compare fares before you decide to lock in an award — TPG values MileagePlus miles at 1.3 cents apiece, but it's easy to get much more value out of your miles than that. 3,000 miles is an incredible rate, but with fares of $29, you may want to consider paying cash, instead.