The massive devaluation of United miles that I first reported earlier today is unambiguously bad news for miles collectors.

Don't flame the comments of this post by saying I am calling it a good thing. The devaluation and introduction of a second chart are bad things, very bad things.

But there are some pieces of good news or relative good news in the devaluation, and this post will focus on those.

What are the eight silver linings in today's disastrous United devaluation?

1.

Late last night, United massively devalued its award chart for redemptions from February 1, 2014 on.

United has split its one award chart into two new ones: one if all segments are on United planes, the other--far more expensive in some cases--if you use partner segments.

Some First Class redemptions will increase 130k miles per person roundtrip.

United will operate its 787 Dreamliner between San Francisco and Chengdu, China three times a week beginning June 9, 2014 according to Airline Route.

I follow United's Dreamliner route announcements because United has an awesome Business Class product (confusingly called "BusinessFirst"), United releases good award space on its own routes, and the Dreamliner is an awesome plane with great passenger comforts and environmental benefits.

What is the flight schedule?

While booking a family of four to Australia through our popular Award Booking Service, I ran into a  vexing problem with Star Alliance award space.

On a certain Air Canada route, Air Canada's own Aeroplan members  had access to more award seats than its Star Alliance partners. That's not a surprising practice on the surface. Air New Zealand never releases transpacific space to Star Alliance partners.

The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14.

You can take way-out-of-your-way stopovers on United awards that cause you to massively backtrack and add tons of increased flying to awards.

For instance, you can fly from New York to London via Los Angeles for no extra miles even though routing through Los Angeles is about two-and-a-half-times more flying than flying a direct flight.

This laxity toward massive backtracking has some great uses.

You can back track for a free oneway.
If the only routing with award space involves backtracking, you can fly it.
You can have an out-of-the-way stopover to combine

According to Airline Route, United will fly its Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Houston to London from December 20, 2013 to May 5, 2014.

I like to track the routes of Dreamliners that fly to the US because they're a great way for beginners to get a state-of-the-art business class flights that are easy redemptions.

This route from Houston to London has the best business class award availability I've seen on any United Dreamliner route.

When is the award space?

Update October 5, 2013: United has cancelled this one-off route, but there are other opportunities to get on this flight domestically.

United's 787 Dreamliner will fly a single roundtrip from Seattle to Houston over with perfect flight times for this Thanksgiving.

How can you get on the Dreamliner on a domestic flight for far less than an international flight?

There's currently only Standard (double-price) award space on the flight in both directions.

That means a roundtrip on a flat bed would set you back 100k United miles.

I recently booked two flights for only $102 total on Asian low-cost carriers. Asian low-cost carriers are so cheap that there are effects on United and American awards you might be considering booking.

I booked Kuala Lumpur to Lankawi for $27 on Air Asia, and I spent another $75 on a Firefly flight from Penang to Phuket.

Yesterday I booked an award with United miles from Los Angeles to Phuket, Thailand with a later free oneway from Los Angeles to Newark.

The award illustrates last-second award searching, problem solving with error messages, free oneways, and free changes to awards within 24 hours.

How can you book a similar award?

To convince my friend in Los Angeles to meet me in Phuket next week, I offered to book his ticket with miles.