Last week my friend flew 24 hours of Lufthansa First Class and had a 3.5 hour layover in the famous Lufthansa First Class Terminal, which he booked for 125,000 United miles and $58.

Elite members of United’s MileagePlus frequent flyer program get access to extra Saver award seats in economy class. (Platinum and higher members also get extra business and first class seat availability.)

United credit card holders also get the extra Saver economy award space set aside for elites. That includes people with the United Explorer, Business Explorer, and Club cards.

I consider this one of the biggest benefits of the cards, and, oddly, it is a benefit that is completely unadvertised and possibly unintentional.
Recent Example
I have the United Business Explorer card and no elite status with United.

Update: I used this trick successfully. Here was my experience.

As I led a session at the Chicago Seminars this weekend on "Special Awards," someone chimed in with an intriguing tip:

There is a simple method to avoid the $75 "close in ticketing fee" on United awards that is triggered when you try to book a ticket within 21 days of departure.

I tested out the proposed method yesterday, and I have some input on how it works.

It is cheaper to book the exact same United flights to Hawaii with Singapore KrisFlyer miles than with United miles.

United charges 22,500 miles each way in economy and 40,000 miles in First Class between the mainland and Hawaii
Singapore charges 17,500 miles each way in economy and 30,000 miles each way in First Class between the mainland and Hawaii

That's a humongous difference. Instead of costing 90,000 United miles to get two people from your home airport to Hawaii and back, you could pay 70,000 Singapore miles.

Update 4/13/16: Expert Mode was down for weeks, but now it is up and working again.

United.com is the fastest way to search most Star Alliance award space. I frequently use the search engine even if I'm using another type of Star Alliance miles.

I often use the site's calendar to search two months of award space at a time on a single route.

On roundtrip United awards, you get one free stopover in addition to your destination and up to two open jaws.

Get 1,000 United miles just for signing up for MileagePlus dining. Get another 500 miles per qualifying restaurant visit in the next two months up to an additional 2,500 bonus miles.

These aren't huge miles, but they are easy to get, since signing up will just take a few minutes and is free.

Generous reader Caveman is donating two United Club passes that expire June 30, 2017–bout a year and a half from now–to one lucky winner.

United has lounges all over the world. The clubs are a pleasant place to relax in a comfortable chair, use free wifi, and enjoy free snack and drinks. Here are the amenities. One-time entry goes for $59, so this giveaway could be worth up to $118.

There are two ways to enter this contest:

Comment on this post for a chance to win the passes.

United.com was redesigned last fall. Most of the changes were neutral or positive, but one was atrocious.