If you're a United Mileage Plus member and want to fly to Europe, check out this special offer.

Responding to an apparent glut of empty seats, United Airlines has started offering a discount on Mileage Plus award tickets to Europe. Reducing the miles required from 55,000 to just 40,000 is a great way to fill empty seats while at the same time removing the value of these unredeemed miles off of United's profit-challenged bottom line. As many observers such as smartertravel.com's Tim Winship have noted, "This is a great way to build goodwill for United because the seats would have gone unsold anyway, thus the real cost of flying a few extra award passengers is minimal."