US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - Are future United flights being blocked for award travel?

Well - we're planning a trip to Hawaii far in the future (Fall, 2005) - the main reason is that we've been trying to coordinate with several other people and we have to plan a year in advance. Anywho - I had planned to book our tix on United metal with dividend miles (yes, we know the risks, we planned to book United in FC and also in coach on American - then re-deposit the AA miles if we could actually fly on united then). I could not find jack to Hawaii available for award travel....some playing around on the US website with different dates and destination cities showed absolutely ZERO award flights available to any city on United metal (only US metal) from July, 2005 onward (I didn't look further back) - even on dates where a flat-out purchase option showed US and United metal available - going to the award screen showed only US metal flights for the same dates and destinations. Even to Denver.

Am I just doing something wrong? Should I call DM directly to try and book this? Or has United stopped accepting award reservations with DM miles (either completely or past a certain date).

Well - we're planning a trip to Hawaii far in the future (Fall, 2005) - the main reason is that we've been trying to coordinate with several other people and we have to plan a year in advance. Anywho - I had planned to book our tix on United metal with dividend miles (yes, we know the risks, we planned to book United in FC and also in coach on American - then re-deposit the AA miles if we could actually fly on united then). I could not find jack to Hawaii available for award travel....some playing around on the US website with different dates and destination cities showed absolutely ZERO award flights available to any city on United metal (only US metal) from July, 2005 onward (I didn't look further back) - even on dates where a flat-out purchase option showed US and United metal available - going to the award screen showed only US metal flights for the same dates and destinations. Even to Denver.

Am I just doing something wrong? Should I call DM directly to try and book this? Or has United stopped accepting award reservations with DM miles (either completely or past a certain date).
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Can you book online for Star Alliance carriers?

I know that the US website used to have a lot more references and special "procedures" for using United prior to US entering Star Alliance, but it seemed like US was trying to standardize the way it dealt with UA like any other carrier in the alliance....

You cannot book UA awards on-line using US miles. The only way to get award seats on UA using US miles is to call US. That is why you are not finding anything.

I just booked Us airways Hawaii(koa) for my family of 4. Paying for the flight and upgrade with miles. PHL-LAX- Koa. (80000 dm)I was able to get FC from PHL - LAX but not the United code share from LAX - KOA. Us told me I could not use DM for FC on the United flight. Didn't sit well with me but what can I do.

I'm also doing a GP Challenge 10,000 or 14 seg, but the united flight does not count even with booking with US. I should still make it with a few flights before 12/31/04

Only itineraries wholly on US and US Express can be booked online.

USAirways.com cannot book award tickets on any partner airlines.

I recently reserved seats PHL-HI, but didn't ticket. Whether the best way or not, I found availabilty by searching on ual.com from the west coast (SFO/LAX) to Hawaiian islands, and then PHL-SFO/LAX on usairways.com. Once I found an itinerary I called up US and they were able to hold it.

I don't know if was governed by the last in - first out rule, but I made the trip work by reserving the last US flight that flew into SFO, followed by the earliest one the following morning that flew to Hawaii. I don't know whether they treated that as an acceptable layover, or whether it was as stopover that's allowed on HI flights.

Jeff

Assuming you have UA MP# and some miles, try booking a sample UA award itinerary at ual.com. Then call US and provide the CSR with your preferred flight times. I recently used this method to snag UA seats to LAS. This is particularly useful when you encounter a lazy CSR who won't check all the possible routings.

You could also call UA and see if the agent will tell you what the MP availability is for your particular dates and times.

Caveat: I had one CSR tell me that UA uses a different bucket for US award inventory but I do not believe that is true as the dates I checked online were identical to the ones offered when I called US.

I was just able to book a trip to ABQ on UA/UX metal no problem.

I was just able to book a trip to ABQ on UA/UX metal no problem.Revenue or award? No problem booking paid UA tickets via US - it's the DM tickets that won't book (or - usually - even show up as an option).

I was researching DM flights for PHL-DUB over the weekend. Every once in awhile it would come up with a routing via MAN with the connecting flight on Aer Lingus. Trying to get that itinerary (with miles) would crash the booking session. Interesting.

With UA annoucing reductions in its domestic flights and expansion of its international flights, there could be some availability issues next year.

Revenue or award? No problem booking paid UA tickets via US - it's the DM tickets that won't book (or - usually - even show up as an option).

Sorry for the confusion. I got the ticket using miles. Award ticket. Worked out great.