UnitedMileagePlus STD/Savers miles question to fly in Aug
Jan 29, 2015, 6:04 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 26
UnitedMileagePlus STD/Savers miles question to fly in Aug
Hi guys!
I am new here. We have miles&more (80k miles) and UnitedMileagePlus(115k) accts.
(my question in blue below)
We are a family of 3 trying to go to Alaska on a cruise (AK to Vancouver)...between July last week and Aug 1st week this year.
We wanna fly PHL - Alaska (Fairbanks) , return from Vancouver - PHL.
Miles&More as usual sucks and says no award seats avl for those dates yet.Usually they have them few weeks before .
UnitedMileagePlus says they have std. miles avl for Vancouver to Philly(via ORD) in aug but not saver miles currently , so for 3 people 1-way its 105k miles.
Am I better off taking this offer and booking now or risk waiting for a savers ticket that would cost only 75k miles 1-way?
BTW on the 1-way to AK from PHL I might book later with Miles&more but need to get the return decided soon.
Pls advice
thanks...Kris
I am new here. We have miles&more (80k miles) and UnitedMileagePlus(115k) accts.
(my question in blue below)
We are a family of 3 trying to go to Alaska on a cruise (AK to Vancouver)...between July last week and Aug 1st week this year.
We wanna fly PHL - Alaska (Fairbanks) , return from Vancouver - PHL.
Miles&More as usual sucks and says no award seats avl for those dates yet.Usually they have them few weeks before .
UnitedMileagePlus says they have std. miles avl for Vancouver to Philly(via ORD) in aug but not saver miles currently , so for 3 people 1-way its 105k miles.
Am I better off taking this offer and booking now or risk waiting for a savers ticket that would cost only 75k miles 1-way?
BTW on the 1-way to AK from PHL I might book later with Miles&more but need to get the return decided soon.
Pls advice
thanks...Kris
Last edited by miserkris; Jan 29, 2015 at 6:16 pm
Jan 29, 2015, 6:31 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
Welcome to FlyerTalk, miserkris.
True Standard awards won't disappear anytime soon. They'll stay around as long as there are at least 3 seats really* for sale in coach.
(*3 seats for sale in coach when coach is oversold don't count.)
Now, seat selection may better when booking Standard awards further ahead of time, but other than that there's no real reason to rush.
Meanwhile, keep in mind that niether UA nor Miles&More may show all Saver availabilty online. Now that you're a FlyerTalk member, you qualify for a number of free searches at www.awardnexus.com. At the bottom right of the main page there, click on "more signup options" in the bottom right (under the green Purchase Membership button) and it'll let you input your FlyerTalk info to create a logon there. Once you have an account established there, do a search using the Star Alliance selection (which enables both Air Canada and ANA searches).
If Award Nexus does seem to show Saver avilability, you can try calling UA on the phone and seeing if they can book it at Saver rates. That may or may not incur a phone booking charge (sometimes they waive that once you explain that you couldn't book it on ua.com, but I can't guarantee they always will), but even if they charge that, that might be worthwhile if it gets you the flight at half the miles or so.
Another thing to look at is if they have 1 or 2 but not 3 saver award seats. Finding 3 Saver award seats on the same flight may often be tricky. If you can split it up to have 2 people fly one routing and 1 person fly a different routing, that may be easier to find at Saver levels. Or even on the same routing, you may be able to get 1 or 2 people at Saver levels but the rest at Standard levels. That's still better than everyone at Standard levels. But you can't figure that out unless you search for 1 person, then 2 people, then 3 people on the same dates.
True Standard awards won't disappear anytime soon. They'll stay around as long as there are at least 3 seats really* for sale in coach.
(*3 seats for sale in coach when coach is oversold don't count.)
Now, seat selection may better when booking Standard awards further ahead of time, but other than that there's no real reason to rush.
Meanwhile, keep in mind that niether UA nor Miles&More may show all Saver availabilty online. Now that you're a FlyerTalk member, you qualify for a number of free searches at www.awardnexus.com. At the bottom right of the main page there, click on "more signup options" in the bottom right (under the green Purchase Membership button) and it'll let you input your FlyerTalk info to create a logon there. Once you have an account established there, do a search using the Star Alliance selection (which enables both Air Canada and ANA searches).
If Award Nexus does seem to show Saver avilability, you can try calling UA on the phone and seeing if they can book it at Saver rates. That may or may not incur a phone booking charge (sometimes they waive that once you explain that you couldn't book it on ua.com, but I can't guarantee they always will), but even if they charge that, that might be worthwhile if it gets you the flight at half the miles or so.
Another thing to look at is if they have 1 or 2 but not 3 saver award seats. Finding 3 Saver award seats on the same flight may often be tricky. If you can split it up to have 2 people fly one routing and 1 person fly a different routing, that may be easier to find at Saver levels. Or even on the same routing, you may be able to get 1 or 2 people at Saver levels but the rest at Standard levels. That's still better than everyone at Standard levels. But you can't figure that out unless you search for 1 person, then 2 people, then 3 people on the same dates.
Last edited by sdsearch; Jan 29, 2015 at 6:37 pm
Jan 29, 2015, 8:20 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 26
Hi Sdsearch.
Thanks for replying. Is the site always slooow ? Or is it just me?
I didnt know that UA.com won't list all saver seats . I once asked the agent and she said its the same system that they will use to look for award seats. I did sign up free for awardnexus. Since the searches are limited I better search when I am fully awake
I did try and search in UA with savers miles (75k) for 3 , there are few connections that are red eye, 1 that is 6am leaving ! Since I can wait a bit let me do this right starting from awardnexus.
BTW Lufthansa M&M is worse than UA. We need to call them to book and no way to check seats or book online. We did go to hawaii last year using M&M but I had to call them 3 times /week for few months to get the right flights. Saved >$1500 in that process though.
Thanks
Kris
Thanks for replying. Is the site always slooow ? Or is it just me?
I didnt know that UA.com won't list all saver seats . I once asked the agent and she said its the same system that they will use to look for award seats. I did sign up free for awardnexus. Since the searches are limited I better search when I am fully awake
I did try and search in UA with savers miles (75k) for 3 , there are few connections that are red eye, 1 that is 6am leaving ! Since I can wait a bit let me do this right starting from awardnexus.
BTW Lufthansa M&M is worse than UA. We need to call them to book and no way to check seats or book online. We did go to hawaii last year using M&M but I had to call them 3 times /week for few months to get the right flights. Saved >$1500 in that process though.
Thanks
Kris