Don't believe the award calendar on united.com!

The calendar should show you for an entire month whether any given day has Saver award space in economy, in a premium cabin, or in both. But the calendar is currently showing no Saver award space on days where there is Saver award space.

Don't believe the calendar. Some of those white days do have award space.

This is very inconvenient for award bookers.

United announced a massive devaluation of its miles on October 31, 2013 to take effect for awards booked February 1, 2014 or later.

There is currently gold mine business class award availability on US Airways flights from the US to southern Europe for this summer.

Award space on US Airways flights is especially advantageous because it means that you can book the space at favorable mileage rates (and no fuel surcharges) with:

US Airways miles
American Airlines miles
United miles (until March 30, 2014)
Ultimate Rewards (until March 30, 2014)
Membership Rewards (until March 30, 2014)

What are the routes? How good is the space? How good is US Airways Business Class?

United announced a massive devaluation of its miles on October 31, 2013 to take effect for awards booked February 1, 2014 or later.

2013 was a year of several major devaluation announcements including:

United (kicks in February 1, 2014)
Southwest (kicks in March 31, 2014)
Delta (already kicked in on current award bookings for travel that starts February 1, 2014 or later)
Hyatt (kicks in January 7, 2014)
Ultimate Rewards (with three major transfer partners devaluing--United, Southwest, and Hyatt--the program took a major hit through no fault of its own)

But the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Last second award availability is routinely fantastic on United flights and on certain Star Alliance partner flights. Use your United miles (or any other Star Alliance miles) to book a last minute trip right now to anywhere in the world for Christmas or New Year's!
Australia
You could be in Sydney Harbour for the fireworks. United flies daily from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Both routes have Saver award space this week in economy, business, and first classes for two passengers.

I just booked myself a roundtrip First Class award from Honolulu to Sao Paulo, Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I also booked myself five nights at a hotel in Sao Paulo.

Rooting for the Home Team (Poland) at the 2012 UEFA Euro Cup!

The cost?

125,000 US Airways miles
100,000 IHG Rewards points
$109

If you want to go see the biggest sporting event in the world in the world's best footballing (soccer) country, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

United announced a massive devaluation of its miles on Halloween to take effect for awards booked February 1, 2014 or later. Until January 31, 2014, I’ll be running posts about the best ways to burn United miles.

Maybe I should have written this last week because I'm cutting it very close, and I might already be too late! But here goes...

It's your last chance to earn and burn United miles before the United miles devaluation kicks in February 1, 2014.

Currently, the following United award (Newark to London, returning Paris to Newark) would cost 60k miles in economy.

Add in a stopover in Newark on the return, and a later one way trip to Jamaica and the price drops 2,500 miles to only 57,500 miles in economy!

 

Unfortunately, this deal I first wrote about last year dies in six weeks!

Per this thread on Flyertalk, United.com no longer displays Singapore Airlines award space. This abrupt announcement might seem like terrible news to award bookers, but it's more of an inconvenience than anything else.

United.com is the easiest way to search for Star Alliance award space. It's far from a perfect booking tool, however.