New United.com Award Calendar Design, How to Navigate It

Million Mile Secrets

8 years ago

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United Airlines has made changes to its website!

Without a peep from United Airlines, the award calendar received an extreme makeover. It appears that everything else on the site has remained the same.

You Can’t Sneak an Update by Million Mile Secrets!

I’ll show you the changes.

Another Update to the United Airlines Award Calendar

This isn’t the first time United Airlines has redesigned its website! But folks seemed to enjoy United Airlines’ previous changes, including me! The old calendar looked clunky and outdated.

This time, United Airlines has switched from a festive, colorful award booking experience…

United.com’s Old Calendar, With Splashes of Yellow, Blue, and Green

…to dots and dashes that look a bit to me like Morse code. But the changes are straightforward so there’s no need to panic with an SOS! 😉

United.com’s New Calendar, Which Has Developed a System of Dots and Lines

Thankfully, the steps for booking an award seat are the same!

What’s the Difference Between Saver and Standard Awards?

United Airlines, like most airlines, has 2 kinds of award seats:

“Saver” level award seats, which let you use the fewest miles for an award ticket. These are usually capacity controlled, meaning the airline limits the dates and number of seats that are available for this price.
“Standard” level award seats, which are usually available for double (or more!) the miles needed for a saver award. There are many more seats available, and are a good choice for less flexible travelers.

What’s Different With the New Calendar?

The process of booking an award seat is the same, but this time coach Saver Awards are represented by a solid line, and Business and First Class Saver Awards display as a dotted line.

Another change is that Standard Awards do NOT appear on the calendar. This is a negative change, because you will now need to search day-by-day for available Standard Awards, instead of giving the calendar a quick glance!

You Will Need to Select a Date and Scroll Down and View the Available Flights to Find a Standard Award Seat

While I don’t find the changes helpful, I suspect folks with colorblindness will will have a easier time identifying shapes rather than colors! Although I wish they’d have added the shapes instead of replacing the colors.

Don’t Have United Airlines Miles? Here’s What to Do!

Link: United MileagePlus® Explorer Card

Link: Chase Sapphire Preferred

Link: Chase Ink Plus

United Airlines miles are some of the most valuable miles! That’s because their award chart is generous with stopovers, open jaws, and free one-ways! Here’s my series on the usefulness of United Airlines miles for Big Travel!

There are plenty of ways to earn United Airlines miles. You can earn LOTS of United Airlines miles with all the possible cards that earn United Airlines miles, like the Chase United Explorer card.

And, if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Ink Plus, or Chase Ink Bold (no longer available), you can instantly transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United Airlines at a 1:1 ratio!

Bottom Line

While the award booking process remains the same, United Airlines has updated the appearance of its award booking calendar. The only benefit I can see is for folks with colorblindness in the miles & points community!

If you don’t have United Airlines miles, they are easy to earn. You can apply for cards like the Chase United Explorer, or transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United Airlines with cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

What are your thoughts on the new United Airlines calendar look?

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)