Bad news hit this morning when One Mile At A Time shared that LifeMiles has devalued award pricing between the US and much of Europe and North Asia. That’s disappointing, but there’s a silver lining if you live in the northeast or can easily position there because award pricing to the UK and Ireland has gotten cheaper.
The Bad News
There’s more bad news than good with these award pricing changes. Previously when flying from the US to much of Europe, award pricing was 30,000 LifeMiles in economy one-way, 63,000 in business class and 87,000 in first class. Following today’s changes, those award prices are 35,000, 70,000 and 130,000 miles respectively. For economy, that’s a 16.67% increase, for business that’s an 11.11% increase and for first class that’s a whopping 49.43% increase.
Similarly, award pricing to North Asia has gone up in price. For example, first class awards to Japan now cost 120,000 miles one-way rather than the 90,000 miles that were previously required – a 33.33% increase.
The Good News
What’s a little strange is that LifeMiles did sprinkle some goodness into this devaluation. AwardWallet has picked up that award pricing from the east coast starting from the mid-Atlantic and up (i.e. Washington D.C., Newark and Boston) now costs less if traveling to the UK or Ireland.
On those routes, if you can find availability on United then you’ll be looking at only 22,500 miles one-way in economy or 45,000 miles in business class.
They also found this discounted award pricing to Scandinavia too, although I wasn’t able to recreate that with the searches I did.
Mixed-Cabin Pricing Still Available, But More Expensive
One of LifeMiles’s sweet spots has long been the ability to tack on an economy flight after a business class flight to reduce the overall award pricing, despite flying farther. Following these changes, that mixed-cabin pricing is still available, but it’s also more expensive than it was previously.
For example, flying from Paris to Washington D.C. should ordinarily cost 70,000 LifeMiles in business class. However, if you add on an economy class flight to your itinerary – such as Houston in the example below – the total cost will reduce, despite you flying farther. In this example, the Paris to Washington D.C. portion in business class prices out at 53,320 LifeMiles, with the D.C. to Houston leg costing 8,820 miles for a total cost of 62,140 miles.
Any Other New Sweet Spots?
These changes only occurred today and without any notice, so we’re still digesting what’s happened. The reduced pricing to Ireland and the UK was unexpected, so let us know in the comments if you notice any other new sweet spot awards.
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