uspcommuter

Hi all,

I am a govt employee traveling using fedtraveler based out of ORD. My job requires moderate travel (~45k). Originally, I thought I will be on AA for the year since my first 2.5 months of the new year was all AA flights. I signed up for the AA elite challenge and made gold. With that said, fedtraveler gave me UA flights for the next 4 months. Went to our travel admin, basically said no (even tho AA prices were hundreds cheaper). Of course my boss gets a waiver since he is a 1K (haha). With that info and some basic math, I will be 25k with AA and 15k with UA for the duration of the year.

In case anyone is wondering, in terms of personal travel. I might just 5-10k on AA (for non-MR purposes). And why I want UA status too? For 2012, i will head to tokyo and LHR ^_^.

So basically, I have a few questions:
Should I just go as is not doing anything?
Anyone have any experience of getting elite status for UA and/or maintaining both of them at the same time?
Lastly, does anyone know how to force a CA or YCA govt fare in fedtraveler?

Thank you all in advance.

mvoight

I don't know how fedtraveler works. Is there a way to book flights if AA is the only eligible carrier that has flights close to the time requested?

uspcommuter

I have tried waiting for a flight to sell out. Even if it does sell out, your only option is to flight a different time or day on UA. From what I guess, its the destination that determines the carrier (I might be wrong).

flyermatthew

I can't help with any of the fedtravel questions.

I've always been of the opinion that the biggest jump in how an airline treats you is from dirt->lowest status (the second biggest jump is almost top tier to top tier; on AA it's PLT->EXP, on UA it's 1K->GS). So, I would head over to the mileage run forum to see if there are any UA deals you can snag. Surely you want to check some luggage to NRT & LHR? More importantly for UA status, you want E+ for those trips, right? There's sometimes a buy-up option at ticketing, but IME it is around $200 for a transoceanic flight.

Several years ago, I was PLT on AA and Premier Exec on UA. I liked feeling able to take either airline and not have status hang-ups, and I definitely liked being able to select E+ on UA. Out of SFO, I found that Premier Exec meant almost nothing because of the loads of 1K & GS passengers above me.

I no longer have status with UA. About six years ago, I did 52,000 miles on AA and 49,000 on UA. I asked them to let me keep Premier Exec status, and they (predictably) said no. That was about 1.6 million miles ago on American for me because my travel picked up the year after and I was darn well going to keep flying the airline that I had better status on.

emma dog

OP, I believe you are talking about GSA negotiated government fares. There are some other threads to look at to better understand the system:

United Airlines forum
A Listing of City Pairs and the Airline You Will Fly (GSA)
Alaska Airlines Forum
American Airlines Forum (Question about eVIPs)

Anyway, the short of it is this. To be overly simplistic, there's little or nothing you can do to fly a different airline than what the GSA has negotiated (IIRC, you can purchase your own ticket for less than the negotiated rate but reimbursement can be difficult depending on the department/agency/etc.).

Yes, I have experience being elite on several airlines at once. With my own personal travel patterns I'd rather be a low-mid tier elite on 2 airlines than be the highest on 1. You don't get "the best" perks on any particular airline, but you also get many of the annoyances taken care of by two (call center stuff, seat assignments, possibility of upgrade, free luggage).

You can't necessarily force a YCA. And to be honest, as a taxpayer, I'm glad to hear it's become harder to game the system. Sorry.

rfrost

I received a status match (or half of one!) to AA Platinum when I switched to them from UA, and for that first year I was still 1k on UA and Plat on AA. I have lifetime PremEx status on UA and have been EXP on AA for several years, so yes, I have status on them both (as well as on BA). Although I rarely fly UA nowadays, I do fly CO occasionally, and I think it's helpful to have status in two alliances. And for someone who doesn't have an unfettered choice over airlines, I think it's even more helpful.

bniu

our tax dollars at work, haha!

GunsOfNavarone

"even tho AA prices were hundreds cheaper"

The fare price differences may not be comparing apples to oranges. I am a FED flyer (DTS- Army) and can often find a cheaper fare, but they have restrictions. My DTS fares are as good as buying a full fare refundable ticket. I flew MSP ORD yesterday and arrived at MSP 5 hours early. AA moved me right over, no issue whatsoever. Since I have no status, if I was flying a super savor it would of cost me $50 to move to a earlier flight.

rjw242

OP was trying to get a lower fare than was allowed by the system, if I understand correctly.

edit: never mind, didn't know what a "YCA" was. Nonetheless, I don't think that the system is particularly good at saving taxpayers money.

uspcommuter

Emma dog: not trying to game the system per se. As rjw242, I am trying to figure out lower fares to save the govt money. As I have mentioned previously, I don't exactly know how fares are chosen. Your links were very helpful so thankyou for your assistance on that.

For the record, I did foot out my own money for the challenge (AA) because I did think it through that if I get status it eliminates bag fees (~$60/trip) and rebooking fees (fedtraveler charges something astronomical I heard), which would be worthwhile for the govt. Did I have to do that? not really because I can MR on my own and get status by myself (since I travel enough to get at least gold), and just let work reimburse me those fees but I think I should make the situation where its a win-win-win for the taxpayers, govt, and I.

Gunsofnavarone: I don't disagree. The idea is that we get a fare that allow us to change the booking at will. But that doesn't mean its free to do so through FT . Lastly, the overall idea is that while not explicitly mentioned (my bad) of the OP is that should I dump my own personal travel into UA, so my govt UA travel will get waived bag and rebooking fees...

greenwichgolf

Emma,

Don't worry, after the GOP House has its way, OP will be fighting for status on Greyhound. Please don't blame me, I voted for President Obama.

QUOTE=emma dog;15988471]OP, I believe you are talking about GSA negotiated government fares. There are some other threads to look at to better understand the system:

United Airlines forum
A Listing of City Pairs and the Airline You Will Fly (GSA)
Alaska Airlines Forum
American Airlines Forum (Question about eVIPs)

Anyway, the short of it is this. To be overly simplistic, there's little or nothing you can do to fly a different airline than what the GSA has negotiated (IIRC, you can purchase your own ticket for less than the negotiated rate but reimbursement can be difficult depending on the department/agency/etc.).

Yes, I have experience being elite on several airlines at once. With my own personal travel patterns I'd rather be a low-mid tier elite on 2 airlines than be the highest on 1. You don't get "the best" perks on any particular airline, but you also get many of the annoyances taken care of by two (call center stuff, seat assignments, possibility of upgrade, free luggage).

You can't necessarily force a YCA. And to be honest, as a taxpayer, I'm glad to hear it's become harder to game the system. Sorry.[/QUOTE]

emma dog

Yeah, as you discovered, YCA is "expensive". It's the government equivalent of full fare coach. Although it's a heck of a lot cheaper than "Y".

Anyway, I disagree about saving taxpayers money. The first benefit is 100% accountability. There were a fair number of people over-purchasing fares for the sake of getting upgraded. Secondly, the tickets have few if any restrictions. That means there are no change fees and they are 100% refundable.

Finally, the fares are fairly cheap. ATL-BOS is $139 each way. Currently $330 r/t is the cheapest fare which carries a ton of restrictions. SEA-SFO is $59 each way vs. commercial prices. JFK-SFO is $114 each way. Remember, these are fully refundable and are also frequently changeable without additional charges.

masonp123

For international travel it is possible to fairly 'game' the system depending on destination, and to do so while keeping costs low. It's easiest in Europe - if you want United chose FRA as your European 'landing point'. For AA, chose Brussels. Of course that only works if your ultimate destination is somewhere where those entry points make sense. If your destination is a non-hub city, you can usually save the gov't and taxpayers a boatload of $'s by travelling from the hub to destination by rail. Gov't forces us to buy fully refundable fares which is a good deal for Feds on the US-owned carriers (i.e. city-pair/contract fares) but means for travel on foreign airlines we often pay full-fare Y. Most of the time, the short hop from a European or Japanese hub to final destination is more than (sometimes TWICE) the cost of the TATL/TPAC segment. Ridiculous. I just take the train and refuse to pay $800 for a BRU - VIE Y fare.

Recent case in point: had a conference in Saskatoon. Contract fare from ORD was something like $1700 due to the DEN-Saskatoon flight on Air Canada in full Y. I literally had to write a cost justification in order to have my TA purchase a non-refundable fare AND I HAD TO AGREE TO EAT THE CHANGE FEE should the conference have been cancelled. I absolutely refused to pay $1700 and got a non-refundable for a total of $600. Sadly, I'm considered a bit of a troublemaker with the travel folks because I'm always doing these kinds of things which 'take special efforts'. Ugh.

Big benefit on United for the gov't traveller is that UA 'recognizes' YCA fares (full fare contract fare) as a full Y and gives you the upgrade benefits (i.e. no co-pay, minimal miles). AA does not, and formally does not allow the use of eVIP's though many have found this rule to be enforced laxly. Some at my agency have taken advantage of the UA upgrade ease by requesting the full YCA or by requesting 'odd' routings which the TA happily issues. I've gently pointed out the error of their ways, to middling success.

000123UA

IMO, there's nothing better than maintaining elite status on AA and UA if you're ORD based. I concur that the biggest jump for airline status is from nothing to first tier - on UA you'll get E+ and a chance at free upgrades; on AA you'll get exit rows and cheap upgrades that you can actually clear. Both airlines will give you free checked luggage and a 25% RDM bonus.

Look past the AA vs UA fighting around here and learn to love both programs and airlines for what they are - and never wait in a regular security line at ORD again!

mikelat

If I had the ability to maintain status on 2 carriers I'd definitely go for it. I matched to CO last year and tried them out but it just didn't work well for me. This year my travel miles will be down about 30% from last year so no way would I have enough miles to have EXP + even basic status on another carrier. And I'm not willing to give up EXP in order to get a second FF program