United is currently offering 3 separate promotions where you can redeem United miles for cheaper than you normally would be able to. They are also offering some promotions where you can earn more miles on certain routes, but those aren’t as interesting to me as I try not to pay for stuff 😀
Discounted business class to Europe
Normally, United charges 57,500 miles one way for business class on United metal between North America and Europe, and 70,000 for flights on partners. Currently, they are offering flights on alliance partners such as Lufthansa for the lesser price (57,500 miles one way). Though personally, if I was flying something like New York – Frankfurt, I’d just as soon do it in Singapore Suites Class for even fewer (57,375) miles!
(SEE ALSO: Introduction to Air alliances)
(SEE ALSO: Ins and outs of Lufthansa’s 3 region award chart)
This offer is currently available for flights in January, February and March of 2015. There is some discussion about whether this is intentional (there is no official announcement from United) or some sort of glitch, so if you want to take advantage of this, I’d recommend doing it sooner rather than later.
20% off to Hawaii, Mexico and select US destinations
An official promo from United is offering 20% off to Hawaii, Mexico and what United calls “ski and beach” destinations.
So that would be 20,000 miles roundtrip to the US locations, 28,000 miles to Mexico and 36,000 miles to Hawaii. Note that you must travel roundtrip to get the discount – one-way tickets are not eligible. Again though, if I were going to Hawaii, I’d go on Singapore, which is only 35,000 miles to Hawaii all the time (though no Suites Class to Honolulu)
(SEE ALSO: 4 sweet spots on Singapore Airlines’s amazing award chart)
Book between now and December 30th for travel between January 12 and February 12 of next year.
20% off from the US to Japan
You can also get 20% off on Economy Saver flights from the US to Japan
This goes all the way through March, though in this case you can not open-jaw nor stopover – you must do a classic roundtrip
(SEE ALSO: Stopover, layover, open-jaw? What are they and what’s the difference?)
The 20% off means an Economy ticket from the US to Japan is 56,000 miles roundtrip
Note that the top flight (direct SEA-NRT) is flown by ANA, so it is not eligible for this discount (as the 20% off only applies to United-operated flight)
None of these 3 deals is SUPER exciting, but if you had plans for visiting any of these places, it might help you!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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