Xyzzy

Award space is not magically opened up 330 days from the date of flight. Dn't assume that, and look at flights a few months out instead of 11 months out and you'll have a much better time of it. It also pays to be flexible. If in doubt, call up and ask an agent to search for you. Often there are flights but the site won't put odd connections together to make them up. I recently found availability to/from Eastern Europe in June/July in saver despite the web site not listing any. I just pieced together what I needed and viola - I was booked.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I just picked May as a random month SFO-OGG. There're saver awards (coach and first) coming out of the wazoo. Same for Boston. I'm not sure what the problem is...Are you trying to book peak travel periods? Europe looks tougher, but if you can travel in next two weeks, plenty of availablity to CDG, for example. I'm not going to look up everything for you, but if you're flexible you can find something. Europe definitely looks like you want your bags packed and ready to travel on relatively short notice.

AZjohns

So I'm not sure where this 330 days out really came from, but see it mentioned a lot here. The truth, as far as all my award booking this past 6 months, have opened up 336-337 days out (on *A flights).

As far as advanced (like OP's 330 days) west coast to OGG, inventory has been real tight lightly. I see some open up 337 days out (especially the 767 lie flat configured SFO-HNL-OGG) and then a few days later all the saver inventory is gone. I have no idea what inventory looks like for a trip a month or two out because I make plans and reservations a year out.

As far as US-Europe inventory, it's more available but you got to be flexible where in Europe you fly into. Like this weekend I needed to book OW for wife and I for Feb 12 and found 2 saver awards (F and GF) OGG-LAX-SFO-FRA-ZRH. There hasn't been any direct EWR/IAD-ZRH flights for a while now for mid Feb.

The point is, I had to play around a lot on EF, KVS, and UA's web site to find some type of route that would work. And then call and book it early AM as soon as it was available 337 days out.

Good luck!

cesco.g

ZRH can be tough, and some flights/times seem to have gone down to 2-class config. Valuable feedback. Thanks!

EWRTravelers

Anyone had any luck with SAS to the Nordics from Newark recently? There used to be a nice amount of SAVER seats but now it pretty scarce.

rinconmike

Hi. I am new to booking awards. I just booked a trip for four of us departing end of December 2013 and returning beginning of January 2014 from JFK>FRA>BLL and the return BLL>FRA>JFK. All on LH.

I got it with a saver award in economy.

I have been searching for different routes going from either JFK or EWR to either BLL or AAR to see if I can find a business saver award and have had no luck.

I have a couple of questions. I searched for forums but really could not find an answer.

1. Am I late in the game to book for the 2013 Holiday season for a business saver or are those seats not released this far out?

2. Is there any better site than united to find the awards or is United the best way to go about it.

thanks,

Mike

cheltzel

You may have to go through a different US gateway (IAD, ATL, MCO, ORD, BOS, etc). Or split up into 2 groups. It is easier to find 2 seats on a flight rather than 4.

view-with-a-room

The only award availability Europe -> USA is phantom Lufthansa award availability. Booked well in advance DME -> USA with 5 AM depature Saturday, June 1 but concluded an evening flight w/ a long layover in MUC or FRA or BRU would be the better option. Endless options a few weeks ago but nothing at all available now on noted date or the entire month for that matter. I cannot find one seat in First June 2 from Europe -> USA. So where is all of the SAver Award Inventory? The seats in First are not sold as I can view as such via ExpertFlyer.

PV_Premier

question for those who monitor this much more closely than me...

i am trying to go to NYC area on short notice, based on a limited sampling of routes and o/d pairs, i can see that if you book "day of" there is a ton of availability in saver, with less the "day before" and virtually none "two+ days out"

is this normal behavior or just happens to be the case since i am looking at midweek travel currently?

in other words does there come a point when UA opens up XN for basically any route, say within xx hours of departure? if so what is the best estimate of what "xx" is equal to?

in this case i do have this level of flexibility.

trying to depart on Wed or Thurs redeye, or Friday anytime.

anc-ord772

Yup within T-24 to T-20. Ff there are seats available they open it all up for grabs. This is a sCO thing and really nice.

wildabeast4

I'm trying to use UA miles to get back to SFO from Southeast Asia in mid August (anytime from Aug 15-24). I need a business or first saver award. Can't find anything. Willing to go out of VTE, BKK, SGN, KUL, PNH, HKG, or HAN. Willing to go into SFO, LAX, SEA. Any ideas?

rankourabu

BKK-DXB/CAN/CAI-IST-IAH-LAX Aug.19

Think outside the box.

wildabeast4

Nice! Thanks for the help. I guess I should have mentioned i'd much prefer to go TPAC. Any ideas for something TPAC?

cheltzel

Welcome to FlyerTalk wildabeast4!

You may not have much choice about flying TPAC or TATL.

You are in a blackout period for OZ awards and it looks like there is very little seat availability on CA, UA, TG and NH for flights to LAX, SFO and SEA. I also checked AC on flights to YVR.

TG does has a lot of business and first seats from BKK to Europe during your travel period.

wildabeast4

Thanks cheltzel! Much appreciated.

Nothing has come up TPAC online for a few weeks now, but I gave them a call today and they had multiple openings, including a BKK-SFO (exactly what I wanted) in first. For anyone else looking for UA flights to and from Asia in July/August, it may be worth calling them.