[table_opt style="blue-header" id="2394 " width="" alignment="center" responsive="all" heading="thcenter" rows="tdcenter"]
[["<font size=\"5\"><strong>New Fares:<\/strong><\/font>","<strong><font size=\"5\">American<\/font>\n(Fares were just pulled;\nwe expect them to return, however)<\/strong>","<strong><font size=\"5\">United<\/font><\/strong>"],["<strong>East Coast<\/strong>","<strong>Started at $2,197<\/strong>","<strong>Starting at $3,131<\/strong>"],["<strong>Flat Upgrade Cost<\/strong>","<strong>$0 to $1,300<\/strong>","<strong>$400 to $1,300<\/strong>"],["<strong>West Coast<\/strong>","<strong>Started at $2,557<\/strong>","<strong>Starting at $3,145<\/strong>"],["<strong>Flat Upgrade Cost<\/strong>","<strong>$0 to $1,300<\/strong>","<strong>$400 to $1,300<\/strong>"],["<strong>What Just Happened<\/strong>","United followed American, slashing fares on many routes to S\u00e3o Paulo. American, over the last few months, has been offering free upgrades to First Class on some routes (Chicago and Los Angeles to Buenos Aires); and for a short while, First Class was even lower than Business Class (Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Seattle to Santiago).","#colspan#"],["<strong>Motivation<\/strong>","What else can you do with lackluster seats?","#colspan#"],["<strong>Travel Seasons<\/strong>","Most are valid year-round.","#colspan#"],["<strong>Ticketing Deadline<\/strong>","As of now, none, but that can change overnight.","#colspan#"],["<strong>Breadth of Destinations<\/strong>","S\u00e3o Paulo (Buenos Aries, Rio de Janeiro, and Santiago intermittently on American).","#colspan#"],["<strong>Restrictions<\/strong>","Advance purchase: usually 0 to 50 days; minimum stay: 3 to 7 days; maximum stay: 12 months.","Advance purchase: usually 28 to 50 days; minimum stay: 7 days; maximum stay: 12 months."],["<strong>Impact to Miles Mindset<\/strong>","Free-mileage-award redeemers will have a harder time finding seats over time as these fares increase demand, which generally lowers award-seat inventory.","#colspan#"],["#rowspan#","Better to save miles for travel on American and United to high-priced destinations or on international carriers to other destinations.","#colspan#"],["#rowspan#","More First Class fare inventory than mileage upgrade inventory available.","#colspan#"],["#rowspan#","Often a better deal than using miles to upgrade from Business to First Class on American and United, as co-pays can cost more than the upgrade; plus you save 50,000 miles.","#colspan#"],["<strong>Misc.<\/strong>","Consider making these routes your primary flight. Buy a second ticket to the U.S. gateway with the great fare and\/or to your South American destination.","#colspan#"],["#rowspan#","Given that there are seldom seasonal First Class fare discounts to South America, it's often better to buy a low-cost First Class ticket on American or United.","#colspan#"]]