The Extra Mile, Sept. 4: United’s Expanded Award Availability (For Some), Get $80 For Free & More

💳 United’s Polaris Availability for Cardholders: Solid, No Slam Dunk

In just the last year or two, United has completely reshaped what it takes to book Polaris business class using miles.

Gone are the days of booking United’s lie-flat seats with miles from Air Canada Aeroplan, ANA Mileage Club, or Avianca LifeMiles. United is hoarding all that award space for its own members: You need United miles … and more of them, as United often charges far more.

But there’s a silver lining: With a United credit card, MileagePlus status, or both, flyers get expanded access to business class award availability – and additional discounts, too. That can bring a one-way Polaris redemption to Europe that would cost your average Joe or Jane 200,000 miles or more down as low as 68,000 miles.

That’s an incredible deal … with an important question mark: Just how prevalent are these deals for cardholders? Is it wide-open or slim pickings?

The answer? It’s some of both.

We dug into the data, analyzing tens of thousands of flights and awards over the coming 11 months and found these discounted business class awards on just 5.4% of route days across the globe.

That’s … not great. Sure, it’s a lot better than what the aforementioned Average Joes and Janes will see. But a one in 20(ish) shot at a business class seat isn’t what I’d call “amazing” or “wide-open” or “holy crap, I need to get a United credit card ASAP.”

But there’s some major nuance in how, when, and where United is doling out these awards. Pick your battles and you can do much better:

• Book Polaris back to the States instead! Globally, you’re twice as likely to find these discounted redemptions flying back to the U.S. – and for Europe, there’s almost 3x the availability!
• Off-peak is key – both days of the week and time of year. January and February are the biggest months for scoring these seats by far. And more than 50% of the availability we found departed on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
• Last-minute availability is a no-go, which is a surprise considering that had been a go-to way for booking Polaris for years. One exception? Flights to and from Asia, where booking within the last 14 days of departure is a surprisingly solid bet.
• Don’t bother planning far in advance, because United isn’t releasing many of these discounted business class awards 10 to 11 months in advance.

There are tons more data, insights, and tips than I could ever hope to share in an email, so be sure to check out the full story – especially for a top 20 list of routes where these discounted business class fares are most common!

Read our full report here!

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

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Heat scale (out of 3): 🔥🔥🔥

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Sign up, add the Capital One Shopping browser extension to your device, and you’ll get $80 in rewards 90 days later – no purchase required!

Best of all, you don’t even need a Capital One Card.

Get started with Capital One Shopping now!

– Kyle Potter, executive editor

🎙️ On the Pod: Delta’s Weird Card Offer & Google’s Huge Move

⭐ Google Flights is making a big move into the points and miles game, so we dive into that and a bevy of other travel topics in this week’s news roundup.

Watch it now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

🎄 An Offer Tailor-Made for Avoiding Pricey Holiday Flights

If you’re planning a trip home for the holidays and staring down $1,000-plus fares, amid rising fuel costs, Delta and Amex have provided the perfect solution.

The *delta reserve card* just rolled out one of the strangest – in the best possible way – welcome offers we’ve seen on a credit card: two round-trip Delta Comfort flight certificates plus 50,000 bonus SkyMiles after spending $10,000 in your first six months.

Those bonus miles are no doubt useful, but it’s the two roundtrip Delta Comfort flights that could prove invaluable this holiday season (or next). While there are a few restrictions to be aware of – namely you can’t use them within 21 days of departure – they’re uncapped, so you could use them to save thousands of dollars on flights.

We checked prices for flights departing Dec. 23 and returning Dec. 27, and pretty much everywhere we looked, Delta Comfort fares were running north of $1,000 roundtrip. A couple examples:

• Miami (MIA) to Burlington, Vermont (BTV): $1,108 roundtrip, per person
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Augusta, Georgia (AGS): nearly $1,400 roundtrip, per person
• Phoenix (PHX) to New York (JFK): $1,108 roundtrip, per person

Redeem both certificates on a trip like that with a travel companion, and you’re looking at $2,000-plus in savings – for around $30 or so in taxes and fees. That’s a whole lot of holiday travel for next to nothing.

That’s a first-of-its-kind structure, too. Delta usually just piles the bonus miles higher on its flagship card and calls it a day. This time, the certificates are the real star of the show.

But the 50,000 bonus SkyMiles aren’t a bad consolation prize, either. We’ve been leaning on Delta more than usual lately thanks to a string of good SkyMiles deals, including:

• Roundtrips to London-Heathrow (LHR) for as low as 19,000 SkyMiles
• Roundtrips to Brisbane (BNE), Sydney (SYD), and Auckland (AKL) for just 25,000 SkyMiles

That’s enough to turn 50,000 miles into a pair of international roundtrips – on top of your holiday flights. Or even enough to make a solid dent in a fancy Delta One redemption …

Yes, the Reserve Card carries a hefty annual fee – but between free checked bags, Sky Club access, an annual companion certificate, and this bonus offer alone, it’s an easy one to justify for the first year or two.

Read our full breakdown here!

– Jackson Newman, senior editor

📡 On Our Radar

Welcome to On Our Radar – a weekly look at the news and trends we’re watching lately!

🗺️ Delta Retaliates Against American/Alaska

We talked last week about all these awesome new routes to Europe from United, American, and Alaska … but it seems Delta’s not amused.

The Atlanta-based airline retaliated against the some new American routes with three seasonal extensions into this spring. It also had to respond to a big Alaska move, too.

• 🇺🇸 American’s new route: Philadelphia (PHL) to Porto (OPO) starting Mar. 28.
  • 🔺 Delta’s retaliation: New York (JFK) to OPO – now starting Mar. 27 (was May 21 last year)
• 🇺🇸 American’s new route: Charlotte (CLT) to Barcelona (BCN) starting May 27
  • 🔺 Delta’s retaliation: Boston (BOS) to BCN – now starting April 12 (was May 7 last year)
• 🇺🇸 American’s new(ish) route: PHL to Prague (PRG) – started May 26, 2026, restarting May 27
  • 🔺 Delta’s retaliation: JFK to Prague (PRG) – now starting April 12 (was May 7 last year)
• 🐻 Alaska’s route extension: Seattle (SEA) to Rome (FCO) – now starting Mar. 22 (was April 28 last year)
  • 🔺 Delta’s retaliation: SEA to FCO – now starting April 12 (was May 8 last year)

So Delta is doing some damage control based on these announcements, but remember, Delta hasn’t released its own new 2027 routes quite yet either. I expect the other airlines will have to respond to them, too. When the airlines compete, we all win! 🙂

📅 Schedule Odds & Ends

🇵🇪 United moves Newark (EWR) – Lima (LIM) flight to Houston (IAH). IAH service now becomes 2x daily.

🌺 flight now that there’s no competition. Hawaiian exited that same route in Nov. 2025. (Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Delta bullies out a competitor and then cuts service …)

🐋 Lufthansa puts the A380 on Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Munich (MUC) in November. A fun chance to catch the double-decker “whale” between the Capital and Munich four times a week for one month only.

🎰 Delta cuts Las Vegas (LAS) – San Diego (SAN). The SAN service was part of Delta’s “focus city” efforts in Vegas. Stiff competition from Southwest and Alaska likely pushed Delta out there.

🪓 Alaska takes a hatchet to more than a dozen routes. Flights to Santa Rosa (STS) were particularly affected, as were interesting one-offs like New York (JFK) and Sacramento (SMF) to Puerto Vallarta (PVR). Burbank (BUR) flyers also lost Bend (RDM) and Eugene (EUG), Oregon nonstops.

– Gunnar Olson, travel reporter and flight deal analyst

💙 KLM Business Class Review: My Ride on the 787

Everyone loves a good medium take, right? Not too hot, not too cold – just somewhere right in the middle. How’s this: When it comes to KLM Business Class, you’ll find a lot better and a lot worse.

Let me be clear: KLM Business Class has a lot going for it. The price (from just 60,000 Flying Blue miles each way), the KLM Crown Lounge in Amsterdam, the food and warm service, all make it a great experience. But the seat itself feels … old.

My qualm: The seat

The business class seats on the 787-9 have simply been passed by in terms of technology and the bells and whistles of modern business class products. The entertainment screens feel small and old, as do the headphones.

Make no mistake. This is still a comfortable, spacious airplane seat that turns into a lie-flat bed. If that’s all you require for your next booking, you should not hesitate to book this. But KLM is due for an upgrade in this cabin, no question.

My loves: The Lounge, the Food, and the Price

The KLM Crown Lounge is excellent. Massive, airy, and featuring some fun seating features like “The Mountain” (pictured above). The upstairs restaurant and bar plus the outdoor terraces are a nice touch, too.

The food and service onboard KLM Business Class were also top tier. There were a few options to choose from on the menu, all of which sounded great. I went with a chef’s choice platter of several foods from around the world that was delicious and fun.

As I’ve experienced before on KLM, the service was warm, friendly, and prompt. Lovely people from the lounge to the air and everywhere in between.

But the best part about KLM Business Class is the price:

If you can secure these seats for just 60,000 miles each way (and between $350 and $490 each way in taxes and fees), you should – just be sure to do it quick. Even with those higher fees, Flying Blue miles are so easy to earn (transferable from just about every bank) that booking these seats is easy and cheap.

Check out my full review of KLM Business Class on our website.

– Gunnar Olson, travel reporter & host of the Thrifty Traveler Podcast

✈️ Other Travel Tidbits

• 👋 Salt Lake City (SLC) airport is now allowing those with TSA PreCheck to go through security for gate-side goodbyes and reunions … even if they aren’t flying. (Axios)
• 💸 You’ve got one week left to earn a $10 statement credit when you spend $10 or more (up to 10x per card) with eligible merchants using Paze. (Doctor of Credit)
• 🤝 Air Canada Aeroplan and World of Hyatt just introduced a new partnership with reciprocal elite benefits, point-earning opportunities, and more. (Air Canada)
• 🎧 ICYMI: Volume 2 of the Thrifty Traveler Podcast “Starter Kit” series dropped this week, and it’s all about mastering credit cards and piling up points!