United is once again “enhancing” its frequent flier program, Mileage Plus. My first thought was, “Oh no, here we go again.” I immediately flashed back to American’s rollout of one-way awards — which killed one of the best award ticket features, the free stopover.

With United, it’s actually a better proposition, on the whole. Don’t get me wrong: It’s a good news/bad news scenario. But on the whole, it’s better than AA’s offering.

The program changes actually incorporate two new policies: Cash+miles tickets, and one-way awards.

• Good: Cash+miles options
  United is offering a “Miles and Money” option, so a smaller mileage balance can be supplemented with cash. A nice option for flexibility.
• Not so good: Availability and fees
  However, it’s not available on every flight (“select flights”). I ran a few searches, and there was no cash-supplement option.

  Note also that you’ll be responsible for more fees (like airport passenger facility fees) which aren’t typically charged for tickets paid 100% with miles. So the cost for the Miles and Money option will be more than just the cash fare paid.

  The complete rules are here.

• Good: One-way awards
  One way awards are a great feature, especially if you’re traveling to a city that’s serviced by another airline that offers a similar award structure. (Say, fly one-way there on AA, and one-way back on UA.) United is making one-way awards available only via united.com, and you can only book flights operated by UA (no codeshares or partners). The one-way redemption chart is here. (pdf)
• Not so Good: The threat to stopovers
  Booking a ticket on entirely UA metal can no longer include a complimentary stopover. Each leg will need to be booked separately, as a one-way segment. This will drive the number of miles required higher. But this shouldn’t be a big concern for true stopover buffs. For example, if I were to fly from New York to Paris, spend a few days there, then fly on to Istanbul, and eventually return, that would have to be booked using a Star Alliance ticket. Those ticketing rules appear unchanged. But all-UA award itineraries — already less desirable than most Star Alliance partner flights — will be even less desirable. And I worry that Star Alliance tickets are next…

On the whole, this really does strike me as a program enhancement. Perfect? No. But I’m not going to complain.

(image)