Lurker

FT experts,

Am I being misled or is there a workaround here?

We are looking at flying family on an award ticket RDU-SFO-RNO and return. The transcon is available as a nonstop and there is F saver availability. the SFO-RNO is UAX with no F cabin offered.

Agent and website are telling us that we cannot book the F Saver award because there is no F saver availability on the SFO-RNO leg. Well duh there is no F cabin on that leg.

Any work around?

Thanks in advance


Lurker

UAmainbird

I don't want to assume too much here, so have you confirmed that there is sufficient Saver availability in Econ for SFO-RNO? (i.e., if you look at that segment independently) I haven't had a problem with the web site combining segments in those cases. So I'm wondering if it is just a poor choice of terminology on their part.
In fact, I would normally start out building as a "multiple destination" award trip, so that I could see, specify and select individual segments. But as long as there is available inventory, and the connection time fits within bounds, it should still show up as a valid combo when booking "round trip" -- with a note that it is "Mixed Cabin (Single-Cabin flight)".

That's how I booked a trip we took earlier this month, but of course when I try to replicate it now it isn't working. Perhaps something changed with the system in the meantime? (it was ticketed about 6 weeks ago) However, in this case, the combined flights still appear correctly (available as mixed cabin), but if I try to build individually I get an error saying there is no availability at all. That was definitely not the case before.

Lurker

mainbird, i believe that you have solved the issue 9while creaing a new one for yourself! Sorry about that).

There is indeed NOT saver econ availability SFO-RNO on the connecting flight; only std econ. I believe that is the problem.

Many thanks
Lurker

GoAmtrak

I don't know if it's a SHARES limitation or an accounting roadblock, but I certainly find it asinine that Saver F can't be mixed with Standard Y on a domestic award. They'd each cost 25K miles on their own, so why not together?

revigik

I heard from an agent that you can have a mixed award like this on a roundtrip, but not a one way award. So I would call back and try again a few times.

GoAmtrak

I'm sure the agent meant you could mix levels in different directions on the same itin (i.e. 25K miles for Saver F AAA-CCC and 25K for Standard Y CCC-AAA, for a total of 50K). I have done just that, even with partner segments in the Saver direction.

But that does not help you for two cabins in two levels in a single direction, AAA-BBB-CCC for 25K. Calling back will not help.

sbm12

Absolutely not. This wasn't allowed back when UA didn't use SHARES either.

raehl311

Nope, saver is saver. You can't book a saver ticker unless every segment has saver availability, and you pay the miles for the highest saver cabin in the itin.

GoAmtrak

Okay, but that doesn't mean this wasn't a deliberate policy decision. Maybe SHARES could handle this kind of accommodation if they wanted it to.