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One of our favorite sweet spots in points and miles was eliminated without notice earlier this month when LifeMiles conducted its second devaluation in five months. Before this change, award travelers could book hundreds of domestic United routes for just 6,500 LifeMiles. Now, award travelers will need to pay at least 7,500 LifeMiles for domestic United awards.
An increase of 1,000 miles doesn't sound too bad, right? That's what we thought at first glance. Now that a couple of weeks have passed, we've accumulated enough data to see just how bad the changes were. And the changes are pretty brutal.
Here's a breakdown of the changes and a look at LifeMiles' illogical new award chart.
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LifeMiles Domestic U.S. Award Devaluation By the Numbers
We compared the LifeMiles redemption rates for United domestic award flights before and after the devaluation. In total, we found award before-and-after award rates for 1,225 unique domestic United routes.
Here's the summary of the changes:
- 805 routes increased (66%)
- 417 routes stayed the same price (34%)
- 3 routes decreased (0.2%)
- 157 routes where the LifeMiles award rate doubled (12.8% of total routes)
- 2,606 average LifeMiles increase per route
For reference, we found that LifeMiles implemented this devaluation at exactly 6:00 UTC on February 7, 2025. That's midnight at the LifeMiles loyalty office in El Salvador.
New LifeMiles Domestic U.S. Award Pricing
After this devaluation, LifeMiles now prices domestic United awards at one of five rates — with just three outliers:
| Award Rate | Routes Found | % of Routes Found | Total Distance Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6,500 | 1 | 0.1% | 514 miles |
| 7,500 | 140 | 10.1% | 290 to 2,100 miles |
| 10,000 | 285 | 20.6% | 109 to 2,600 miles |
| 12,500 | 226 | 16.4% | 913 to 3,478 miles |
| 13,500 | 26 | 1.9% | 1,403 to 3,165 miles |
| 15,000 | 702 | 50.8% | 510 to 3,887 miles |
| 25,000 | 2 | 0.1% | 1,916 to 2,647 miles |
LifeMiles seems to be teasing us by leaving just one route (that we've found so far) priced at 6,500 LifeMiles. At least for now, you can still fly between New York LaGuardia (LGA) and Cleveland (CLE) for 6,500 LifeMiles:
On the other extreme, LifeMiles is now charging 25,000 LifeMiles for an economy award between Memphis (MEM) and Portland (PDX). That's double the 12,500 LifeMiles rate on this route before this devaluation.
But the real pain is in the middle of the chart. Previously, around one-third of United domestic routes we analyzed were priced at 6,500 or 7,500 LifeMiles. Either of these prices made for an excellent deal. Now, only around 10% of routes are priced at 7,500 LifeMiles — plus just one route at 6,500 LifeMiles.
Another 21% of United routes now price at 10k LifeMiles each way. This rate could be competitive depending on the route and what programs like Air Canada Aeroplan and United MileagePlus charge for the same awards.
But the majority of domestic United awards are now priced at 15,000 LifeMiles. That's an uncompetitive rate compared to what United, Aeroplan, and even Singapore KrisFlyer charge for United domestic awards.
Related: 1,850 United routes you can book for14,000 KrisFlyer miles
No consistency in how LifeMiles is pricing awards
So far, we haven't found any rhyme or reason for how LifeMiles is now pricing United awards. For example, the 529-mile route from Charlotte (CLT) to Newark (EWR) now costs 15,000 LifeMiles — on both nonstop and one-stop routings.
That's a miserable rate, considering Alaska Mileage Plan now charges 4,500 miles for American Airlines awards on this route while Air Canada Aeroplan charges 10,000 points for the exact same United awards:
Meanwhile, the almost three times as long 1,497-mile route from Kansas City (MCI) to Orlando (MCO) via Houston (IAH) prices at just 7,500 LifeMiles — half of the example above:
That's an excellent rate for a longer route such as this, especially if you can pair it with numerous LifeMiles transfer partners and frequent transfer bonuses.
Final Thoughts
A few weeks back, LifeMiles implemented its second devaluation in just five months. While the damage didn't seem as bad then, a deep dive into the impact on just one sweet spot shows how drastic the cuts were.
Award travelers should still be able to find value in the new LifeMiles award chart — even on domestic United awards. But this value will be much harder to find than before, especially since the new LifeMiles award pricing doesn't follow any discernable pattern.
Stay tuned to our upcoming post listing all of the domestic United routes pricing at 7,500 LifeMiles.
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