United Airlines has announced a promotion for the new (and finally maybe actually flying) Denver-Narita route, scheduled to enter service on 10 June 2013. Alas, the promotion is only for 50% bonus miles and, even worse, only for the highest fare buckets. Oh, and the fine print says that it is also only valid for tickets purchased after the promotion was launched. 
Among the important bits in the fine print:
- Members can earn 50% more bonus award miles on paid qualifying roundtrips in United Global First℠, United BusinessFirst® and select United Economy® fares (J, C, D, Z, P, Y, B and H fare classes).
- Offer is valid on tickets purchased between May 24, 2013, and September 15, 2013, for travel between June 10, 2013, and September 15, 2013.
- Connections into and out of the U.S. or Japan are allowed, however the bonus is only valid for segments between Denver and Tokyo Narita.
- You can earn the bonus an unlimited amount of times.
For anyone who got in on the sale B fare last year when the route launch was initially put on sale the fare class portion of the requirements will be met. For everyone else, well, odds are the promo actually won’t be very useful. The bigger question is whether the valid purchase dates part will be enforced or not. Historically Continental (whose systems are used for this stuff in the combined United) hasn’t been particularly good at keeping up with that aspect of things. I suppose I’ll find out in a few weeks after I fly on the inaugural.
