I have a lot of United miles and Ultimate Rewards points, and I’m always making sure I can maximize my redemptions (for instance, I always include the free-oneway on International round-trip awards).
Pre-devaluation, I was lucky enough to use my United miles to book the new Lufthansa first class at the old award prices, but plans have changed, and I’ll have to change the date of my travel (without redepositing, of course).
At the moment though, one of the best deals on the United award chart is to fly United BusinessFirst one way between the United States and Europe for 57,500 miles.
United BusinessFirst is an underrated fully flat bed with good service, ice cream sundaes (ok, maybe they are getting a tiny bit overrated), and a great entertainment system. Award space is available across United’s dozens of routes to Europe for an affordable miles price.
You can also transfer Ultimate Rewards points 1:1 to United miles.
United BusinessFirst vs. Partner Business
I would fly United BusinessFirst for 57,500 miles to Europe every day of the week instead of paying 70,000 miles to fly business class on a United partner. Not all United’s partners even have flat beds in business class. And when they do, their beds aren’t any flatter than United’s, the main thing that I want on a transatlantic flight.
In fact, after a canceled United flight, I ended up with a surprise seat in Swiss business class, and I honestly liked my United BusinessFirst seat better.
United BusinessFirst Product
Onboard amenities
- Complimentary amenity kit featuring premium skincare products
- Complimentary duvet and pillow for use during your flight
- 180-degree flat-bed seating on all 747, 757-200, 767, 777 and 787 aircraft
Meals and beverages
- Pre-departure beverage service
- Hot towel service
- Meal selections featuring appetizer, salad and choice of entrée, including local cuisine (where available)
- Dessert selections, including signature desserts, fresh fruit, fresh cheeses, port and after-dinner liqueurs
- Mid-flight snack service on longer flights
- Variety of beverages, including cocktails, beer, international wines and freshly brewed coffee
View additional information on meals and beverages
Entertainment
- More than 150 hours of on-demand entertainment with a 15.4-inch video monitor on all 747, 757-200, 767, 777 and 787 aircraft
Airport arrival and departure
- Premier Access check-in, baggage handling, boarding, deplaning and security lanes (where available)
- Access to United Arrivals Lounge in select locations, offering showers, breakfast and business services
- Access to United ClubSM and Star Alliance® member lounges
Where the Award Space Is
United flies to Europe from its hubs in Newark, Washington-Dulles, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. There is award space in BusinessFirst from all those hubs to Europe. You can search and book the space on united.com. If you don’t live in one of those cities, you can connect from your home airport to those hubs in United First Class for no extra miles.
From the United States to Europe, the taxes on an award are $5.60. From Europe to the United States, the taxes vary by departure country. Avoid departing London at all costs to avoid the approximately $300 in taxes for flying from London to the United States in a premium cabin.
Tips
Non-peak times always have more award space. For trips to Europe that means trips from October to April each year. There are certainly parts of Europe that are lovely during those months.
If you’re willing to be on the air for Christmas (Eve) or New Year’s (Eve), you can find award space. You usually won’t find any award space a few days before Christmas, but if you are willing to fly December 24, 25, 30, or 31, there is usually more award space because people don’t want to be in the air on Christmas and New Year’s.
There is more award space on the return routes from Europe to the United States usually. On the return, you’ll probably be awake for most of the flight, so you’ll get less use out of a bed but more use out of the service, entertainment, and food.
Lastly, United has the good habit of releasing unsold premium cabin seats as award space in the last few weeks and days before departure. If you have the guts to wait until the last second (my speciality), you can usually grab prime award space. Alternatively, you can book economy award space now for a future trip and change it to BusinessFirst as the date approaches and award space opens up.
Bottom Line
Key Application Link: United MileagePlus® Explorer Card
Using United miles to fly United BusinessFirst is a a great value. United charges only 57,500 miles each way in BusinessFirst between the United States and Europe, and there is award space from United hubs to London, Paris, and the rest of the continent.
I personally have enjoyed my recent BusinessFirst flight from Newark to Berlin during a nice weekend in Nice, France last month. I am so glad I didn’t spend the extra miles to fly GlobalFirst.
Which BusinessFirst routes have you had a chance to fly?
While UA does have good availability the thought of being in one of the 777 four abreast narrow seats fills me with dread. I fly UA for work so I don’t need to fly them for leasure. My view, is that 70k is worth the miles to fly in another airline. UA priced it right when they values their own product substantially less than the competition. US will get you there (most of the time), others are a better experience.
If you have to depart from the UK, try making a stopover in another European city. I saved over $100 in by flying LHR-LIS-EWR on TAP and got a nice visit to Portugal.
I’d like to use a combination of my 7000 United Miles, 70979 Chase UR Points and/or 35712 Starpoints to get 2 round-trip tickets from Honolulu to London during Nov 26, 2014 – Dec 7, 2014.
Also, I have 14049 Korean Air Skypass Miles in my own account and have another 13629 and 10374 under our Family Plan that are available to me for mileage family pooling (38052 total).
Kindly suggest which free one-way International round-trip award option and combination of miles/points out of the ones listed above I should use to get the most advantage out of these miles/points.
Thanks!
The Korean Air award chart shows Hawaii to Europe for 50k RT (in econ). You can get to 100k miles for two tickets by transferring your UR to Korean. Whether there is flight availability is another question, but that’s pretty much your only option that I can see. United does have availability on your dates but is 70k RT (econ) between Hawaii and Europe and you don’t have the balances to redeem 140k United miles.
I appreciate the time you took to respond to me. Thank you so much!
“United BusinessFirst is an underrated fully flat bed with good food”. Two days after United themselves admitted their catering sucks…
LOL I agree. Food is not so good. I meant to say good service, haha.
I did fly SFO-NRT upper deck, SFO-FRA upper deck, and round trip ORD-FRA, all four were very nice and comfortable with good service and nice crews…
I’ll happily pay the extra to fly the partners. New LH business lie flat on the 747-8i is way ahead of United in comfort and the food and wine are so much better. I seem to use most of my UA GPU’s on LH as well. Agree the 777 seats seem too narrow, I think I actually preferred the old recliner style seats, especially for daytime flights.
I will miss the upper deck on the 747. Though I do not like the 777 configuration the 767 to Paris from SFO is quite comfortable.
Help! Trying to go Den-Florence in Sept, only enough miles for 1way business resigned to buying return. United doesn’t fly to Flo, haven’t seen any saver awards for business…thought we would fly to Rome then take some cheap air to Flo…everything is 150k miles! Where and WHEN do folks go for fewer miles and how can we fly a partner? THANKS