Even though United Airlines doesn’t provide a standard off-peak award chart, I find that they’re pretty good about promoting their awards with discounted rates. Right now you can take advantage of a few different offers to redeem fewer miles when you redeem MileagePlus miles for your next award. (These promotions are often published on the United Airlines website in case you don’t get an email notification.)
20% off Economy Class within North America
The first is a generous 20% discount on economy class award travel within North America. You can go to Hawaii for 36,000 miles round trip or within the contiguous U.S. for between 16,000 and 20,000 miles round-trip. Although you must book by August 23 the eligible dates for travel run from August 23 to December 15, with blackout dates of November 22-23 and November 26-28. This should cover almost any non-holiday travel through the end of the year.
22-25% off Economy Class to North and South Asia
A second promotion was shared by View from the Wing for 22-25% off round trip travel to North Asia (essentially China) and South Asia (Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, etc.). Gary shares a screenshot of the offer but has a broken link to the offer page. It’s not clear if the promotion was published and then removed since, according to him, it won’t be available until Thursday morning anyway.
- U.S. and Canada to North Asia: discounted from 70,000 miles to 52,224 miles round trip
- U.S. and Canada to South Asia: discounted from 80,000 miles to 62,224 miles round trip
This promotion requires flying on United Airlines-operated transpacific flights, though there are many partners available for connections within Asia. Travel must occur between August 29 and April 30. Again, there are blackout dates from December 9 through February 3 to exclude most holidays. Travel must be booked by August 22.
50% off Economy Class within Japan
Finally, Japan is its own region and does not have any promotions for travel to/from the United States. But there is a long-running special for award travel within Japan. These awards are marked down 50% to either 5,000 or 8,000 miles one-way, depending on the distance of the flight. No expiration date or other special restrictions are listed for this promotion.
