JVPhoto

As with other people here I can be skeptical of UA's IT systems.

I have two o/w award bookings coming up and I'm monitoring them because I may want to go a day or two early & coming back I am a little flexible and if LH F opens up I want to grab that.

I have plenty of miles. I am thinking if I see a new flight I want just make a new reservation, let it ticket and then just cancel the existing booking. Shouldn't be a problem with that, right?
I worry about changing flights within the reservation to different carriers and things not ticketing or getting out of synch and end up with zilch.

mahasamatman

I've done it both ways. The only real advantage to a change over a repurchase is if there's limited inventory for part of the itinerary - you may not be able to score another seat and there's no guarantee that cancelling one ticket will open up inventory.

afrozenfyre

I usually cancel and rebook (or if you have the miles: rebook, then cancel), which results in a "cleaner" reservation. On some itineraries that I've changed many times, the agents start to get confused reading the history and/or trying to calculate add/collects.

As long as you're not abusing the system, either should be fine.

goodeats21

Count me in the book, then cancel, club.

I have been keeping fairly low balances of late and called in to change an existing award reservation when something better opened up. It did not go smoothly.

My preferred method is to book the new itinerary, wait for it to ticket, confirm it ticketed with operating carriers (choose seats, etc). Then once I am convinced the new itinerary is good, I will cancel the previous one. Usually doesn't take more than an hour or two.

Good luck. I was LH First earlier this month after a lengthy hiatus.
Great experience, as always.

JVPhoto

I usually like to keep about 100-150k balance in the event that I got into a real bind halfway across the world I could have a comfortable escape route (hoping to at least).

I've only changed one award which was TG/OZ that I changed to TG/NH.

It's been 2 years since LH F as I've mostly been using GPUs on UA to fly TATL and a mix of paid/awards for TPAC J/F. In any event right now both legs are OS J which will be my first time trying it so as it stands it'll be a good trip.

goodeats21

I have adjusted my thinking a bit on miles balance.

I was running lean on the general premise that they will decrease in value. I am finding that a balance of 130,000 or so gives me much more flexibility in changing awards, now that United has changed the ability to deal with individual segments.

The cushion against a "real bind" halfway around the world is an admitted bonus.

OS is a great experience. You should have a very enjoyable ride.

codex57

I just changed an award flight twice. Granted it was in the initial 24 hours, but it's gone smoothly I think. Outgoing leg is with a partner airline, but I've called that airline and everything is confirmed on their end. I only changed the United return leg twice. I did call United and all the changes were confirmed. Got e-mail of a confirmation (the ugly reservation listing one).

The only weird things are that the auto-email just gives me the "you're booking is in process" and not the later auto confirmation e-mail (the pretty e-mail). The processing e-mail says it's waiting on the partner e-mail to confirm. That and the difference in taxes/fees refund hasn't posted yet. It's only been a couple of days though and it's about $20 so I'm not sweating it much.

If you thinking UA's IT system is wonky, check out Asiana's website.