5 Tips for Scoring a Better Deal on United Airlines Flights

This guide offers 5 tips to help you secure a better deal on your next United Airlines flight, potentially lowering your fare or even landing you a discounted business class ticket.

Scoring a great deal on a United Airlines flight

Whether you’re searching for a domestic flight within the US or need to travel internationally, United Airlines could be a great option.

In fact, of all the airlines in the US, it is United Airlines that has the largest international network, making it the preferred choice for many when flying to continents like Europe or Asia.

With the world’s economy in flux and inflation high, many travellers are looking for ways to save money on their flight tickets by searching for special deals.

Fortunately, there are several handy tips that can help you save money on your United Airlines flight, from exclusive deals and discounts to cheap upgrade offers and search tricks.

Let’s explore 5 of the best ways to secure a better deal on your United Airlines flight.

1. Don’t rely on a free upgrade, but buy it cheaply

Unlike European or Asian carriers, airlines from the United States, including United Airlines, rarely leave a seat empty in their domestic first class or international business class cabins.

When there are empty seats in the first class cabin close to departure, they are usually assigned to the highest-ranking passenger on the upgrade list, primarily based on their status within United’s MileagePlus Program for frequent flyers and the price paid for their ticket.

However, getting a complimentary upgrade this way is becoming increasingly difficult unless you rank among the top-tier elites, as United Airlines is nowadays actively monetising upgrades, whether by selling them for cash or miles.

Simply put, if you want to fly in domestic first class or international business class, you need to pay for your upgrade in advance to secure it, or purchase a seat in a premium cabin outright.

Fortunately, there are still ways to get a cheap upgrade on United Airlines, as the airline sometimes offers them at surprisingly affordable prices.

Go to the Manage My Trips page on the United website or app, log in with your ticket’s PNR (confirmation number) and your last name, then select your booked flight.

Either find a link titled “Upgrade Cabin” or go to the seat map, where you can select a seat in the domestic first class or international business class cabin, and it will then show you the current price for the upgrade.

If you bought your original ticket for a small amount of money or miles, such an upgrade can sometimes be a surprisingly cheap way to secure an upgrade on United Airlines.

However, if the fare difference between coach and first class is small to begin with, you’re better off buying a higher-class ticket outright.

2. Use United Airlines discount coupons or exclusive deals

If you know where to look, you might find a surprising number of discount coupons or exclusive deals for United Airlines.

These offers can include simple discount coupons or vouchers, exclusive flight deals sold through specific partner websites rather than directly on the United website, and special deals for vacation packages when you book your flight and hotel together.

Such vacation packages sometimes offer a significant discount on your United flight and may also include other valuable perks, such as a generous resort credit to spend at your destination.

One of the best places to look for special United deals is Capital One Shopping, as it offers many discount coupons and exclusive United Airlines vacation package deals.

Although having a Capital One credit card or bank account is beneficial, it’s not necessary to use Capital One Shopping, and even people outside the United States can access its deals.

3. Avoid United Airlines and other Star Alliance hubs

If you want to take a direct flight between United Airlines hubs, such as Newark and San Francisco, you’ll typically pay much more than for a flight itinerary with connecting flights, where neither your departure airport nor destination is a United hub.

This is simple economics as convenient direct flights always command a premium over one- or two-stop flights and airlines tend to charge higher prices for hub-captive passengers who have limited choice in their airline.

Indeed, this applies not just to United Airlines, but to nearly every other airline in the world, as Delta will generally be much more expensive than its competitors if you want to fly between its hubs of Atlanta and Detroit, just as American Airlines is usually the most expensive airline if you want to fly out of one of its hubs, such as Miami or Dallas.

If you’re set on flying with United Airlines because it’s your go-to carrier but want to get a cheaper ticket, it might be worth checking alternative destination or arrival airports nearby to see if it can lower your fare.

For example, if you live in Western Colorado, driving to Denver Airport might be your first instinct to catch a United flight, but since it’s a major United Airlines hub, fares are likely to be high.

In this case, it could be worth it to fly out of Salt Lake City instead.

Given that Salt Lake City is a Delta hub and offers direct flights compared to one- or two-stop flights on other carriers, airlines like United must compete on price, and you’ll likely see them undercutting Delta’s fares.

Note that the above doesn’t just count for domestic flights in the US, but also for international flights.

United Airlines is part of Star Alliance, so if you plan to fly with United to Europe, the highest fares will typically be to the European hubs of Star Alliance carriers, such as Frankfurt and Munich (Lufthansa), Brussels (SN Brussels Airlines), Zurich (Swiss), Istanbul (Turkish Airlines), Lisbon (TAP Air Portugal), Athens (Aegean Airlines), and Warsaw (LOT Polish Airlines).

If you want to fly on United or another Star Alliance airline from the US to Europe, it’s often easier to find cheaper tickets by flying to the major hubs of rival alliances like SkyTeam and oneworld, such as Amsterdam (KLM, SkyTeam) or Madrid (Iberia, oneworld), or to smaller airports where no single airline has a near-monopoly.

Simply put, this means your direct flight from Chicago to Frankfurt on United will likely always be more expensive than a Chicago to Amsterdam flight, let alone a one-stop itinerary like Detroit-Chicago-Amsterdam.

4. Get bumped from overbooked flights

Life is becoming more expensive by the day, and if you’re not flush with cash, any extra earnings could provide a major boost.

Luckily, you can potentially earn some money when flying within the United States with an airline like United Airlines.

A potential cash-cow when flying United Airlines is the sometimes substantial sum of money they offer to passengers who voluntarily give up their seat on an overbooked flight.

At the departure gate, you’ll often hear gate agents make public calls for volunteers willing to be bumped off an overbooked flight in exchange for compensation and a seat on a later flight.

Sometimes this works like an auction, with gate agents initially offering a smaller amount of money and increasing the offer if no one is interested.

However, it’s increasingly common for them to begin with a high offer of $1,000 or simply invite volunteers to come forward and negotiate directly.

If you’re flexible with your time, this can be a great way to earn some money and leverage your willingness to give up your seat for other perks, such as an upgrade to first class on the next available flight.

As gate agents are often under time pressure in such situations, they’re likely to accept many of your requests, but make sure to keep discussions professional and to the point.

If such a situation occurs before your United Airlines flight and you want to take advantage of it, ensure that all conditions are right before you make a deal.

For example, it’s always better to ask for compensation in cash rather than future flight credits, and if the next available flight is the following day, ensure you’re offered a free hotel stay as well.

5. Redeeming miles for a United Airlines flight can be cheaper with partner airlines

If you have a large stash of transferable points or miles from your credit card and want to use them for United Airlines flights, your first instinct might be to transfer them to your United MileagePlus account.

However, this isn’t always the best option, as you can sometimes find much cheaper redemption options for United Airlines flights by booking through the frequent flyer programs of partner airlines.

In particular, Aegean Airlines Miles+Bonus, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, and Avianca lifemiles are great programmes for booking United Airlines flights using points.

Before transferring your credit card or hotel points to one of these programmes for frequent flyer miles, it’s important to be aware of some potential drawbacks.

The main drawback is that flight redemption availability is often more limited when using a partner airline’s frequent flyer programme, as United doesn’t always release seats for booking through its Star Alliance partners.

Once you’ve transferred your transferable points, they will be locked within that frequent flyer programme, so if the flight you were hoping for gets taken at the last minute or no redemption options open up, your miles will be stuck in another programme.

First of all, remember that just because a seat is available to book within United MileagePlus, it doesn’t mean it can be booked through another program as well.

Make sure to verify availability first within the other frequent flyer program and confirm whether a flight redemption can actually be booked.

Also, keep in mind that third-party websites assisting with award flight searches may sometimes show availability that doesn’t actually exist, something which is known as phantom award space.

Conclusion

There are many ways to score a better deal on your next United Airlines flight or even benefit from a free or affordable upgrade to domestic first or international business class.

In this guide, we’ve shared 5 tips to help you score a great deal on United Airlines flights, from cheap upgrade opportunities to discount codes and exclusive vacation packages found on websites like Capital One Shopping.

Flexibility can also pay off when it comes to securing a better United Airlines flight deal, whether by flying to or from airports that aren’t United or Star Alliance hubs or by using your transferable credit card points with partner frequent flyer programmes instead of MileagePlus to book your United flight.

Those who are flexible with their time should also stay alert for overbooked flights, as volunteering to be bumped can earn you a substantial sum of money and provide leverage to negotiate perks like a guaranteed upgrade on your rebooked flight.