LFKB

I am planning on attending the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and will be flying from LAX to Rio. When I look on the United website at random dates in late 2013 and early 2014, I see "Saver Award" tickets where Business/First can be purchased for between 50,000 to 67,500 points each way.

If I look to book my flight as soon as United releases their schedule (I believe this is 330-350 days prior to flight) do you think it will be possible to get a saver Business/First class seat? Or will United not offer those due to the World Cup?

I guess it may be dependent on how many people will be travelling from LA to Brazil for the tournament but wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on this or other suggestions for my trips.

Thanks!

harryhv

For the last world cup, was able to book biz class seats to/from S Africa from Australia at the 330 day mark, but not for the peak times.

Into S Africa, awards were ok up to about 5 days before the opening sarah-moany.

The latest departing flight that had award seats in biz class was just after the quarter-final stage. [But for followers of Australia's team, that's the best you could expect them to do.]

Now, there are programs which offer 350-day advance award bookings. Qantas is one, and Avianca seems to be another. Personally I will be looking on lifemiles.com at D-350.

OT - maybe there's a thread in the social pages for the world cup?

LFKB

Thanks Harry, that is helpful. I will check out lifemiles and the social topic.

WineCountryUA

Beware, UA also knows when the World Cup is happening (as it did for the last one and Olympis and ...) and award seats are likely to be very limited and may not be released early. UA (and other carriers) will be more focused on selling seats, so award seat releases my not follow typical patterns. You may need to consider arriving a bit ahead of the major events or a bit afterwards.