BostonFlyer1624

:-::-::-:

Does Singapore award space show up on united.com?

I'm trying to get to Athens next year and was thinking about doing BOS-JFK-FRA-ATH, but don't see any SQ flights.

UA-NYC

Not any longer

BostonFlyer1624

But still bookable? If so, where is the best place to search availability?

UA-NYC

Via a paid service like KVS, or on the NH/Aeroplan sites

WineCountryUA

see wiki and discussion in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ec-2013-a.html

alex_b

Absolutely not true. There hasn't been a two-ocean rule since the merger and there never was on United (rather than *A awards). Many agents will tell you differently, but the OJ/Stopover thread has dozens of examples of valid two-ocean bookings.

Also an "around the world" award gives you five stops and must travel in only one direction, simply crossing two oceans doesn't make a simple roundtrip an around the world award.

villox

Had an agent transfer me to the RTW desk yesterday (I gave up after 15 minutes on hold) because he said I was going around the world and therefore they had to price it. I argued with him, and he said at the very least they're more experienced with "this type of ticket" - anyone have any experience if they are indeed better at realizing that a journey isn't necessarily RTW just because it crosses both oceans?

I ended up getting what I wanted to calling back and talking to someone else who just let the system price it and therefore accepted it.

alex_b

If you get that type of agent, hang up and call again, essentially it's code for "I'm too stupid and/or lazy to make this work, so I'm going to fob you off onto someone else". As you found out the next agent priced it just fine.

villox

To be fair, including the Aer Lingus portion really threw things off, since it doesn't by default show availability and they have to look into weird stuff. The agent I talked to this morning (after MUC-YYZ opened up on LH to make it simpler) was able to just plug everything into the computer and see if it priced and it did.

But at least she didn't say things like "You can't do this! This is just TOO MUCH." without actually giving a reason why it was too much, as the agent last night did.

shinmiri2

Is this legal:

ORD - LGA (change airport), JFK - TPE - SIN// MLE - PEK - CGQ/ CGQ - ICN - ORD

The only thing I am worried about are too many segments on this booking. The website would not take this booking at all =(. Any idea how difficult it'd be for me to book this over the phone? I can't even get on a hold queue with united right now.

villox

It think that is valid. You don't have too many segments (in fact you could add more). You have one open jaw at your destination and one stopover on the return. There's a maximum of 5 segments each way, and you only have 3 each way.

Just have the exact flights you want ready to go to be fed to the agent. I paste mine from United.com into word or TextEdit to make my own itinerary.

shinmiri2

Thanks so much! I am aware of that I could add another open jaw so is it valid if I add say...something like Dev - CUN for future travel as the last open jaw?

Also, shouldn't it count as 4 segments each way or 3 connections cities in my case?

villox

No, you can't really do that, because that would mean you have two stopovers. The "free one-way" you are thinking would be available if you weren't doing the stopover in CGQ. Then it would be like your stopover was in ORD and you could continue on to somewhere else (as long as it doesn't change the regional pricing) at a later date. The way you're doing it now, you could continue on to another city from ORD but it would have to depart <24 hours after arriving ORD.

I miscounted the return, but you're still fine cause you can have 5. LGA/JFK is considered a co-terminal. so it looks like this:

Way there (3 segments):
ORD-NYC
NYC-TPE
TPE-SIN (destination, with open jaw)

Way back (4 segments):
MLE-PEK
PEK-CGQ (stopover)
CGQ-ICN
ICN-ORD

shinmiri2

I got it. Really appreciate your help.

BostonFlyer1624

Trying to book an award flight from Athens to Santorini (ATH-JTR).

Is this not a valid award route? Nothing shows up on any date in August 2014.