pinkhighlighter

Hi all,

Thanks for allll the help so far. Now we're on to round two of making our way to Europe next summer.

We would really like to figure out a way to get to Europe next summer business class... But we don't quite have enough miles. As of right now, we have 270k miles combined and will need 3 seats (myself, my husband, our 3 year old, and a lap infant).

I've been able to find 140k RT business class saver tickets on the itinerary we want on Turkish Air. So, 420k miles needed... 150k miles short.

Or if we're able to find 115k RT biz class saver tickets, then we'd be 75k miles short.

From what I've been able to deduce from these forums, our options are:

1. Award Accelerator -- we'd have to book a bunch of flights to buy enough miles... would end up costing about $2250-$4500 to buy the additional miles, assuming $0.03/mi.

2. Buy a coach ticket and then upgrade using miles, but is there a simple way to figure out if we can upgrade to coach on a ticket using miles ahead of time? I saw the thing about changing your united profile to advanced, but then just got really confused about all the different types of flights. Is there "for dummies" version of this??

Are there better options we're missing? We can't afford to just buy 3 business class tickets, unfortunately.

What would you guys do if you really wanted to fly business?? BTW: I've mapped out flying from SFO -> Madrid and then back from Rome -> SFO in June 2015. But we're flexible about where we fly into in Europe (but probably need to fly out of Rome... but if there's some stellar deal, can fly out of somewhere else and just purchase some intra-Europe flight/train ticket).

Other details: we recently each got the Mileage Plus Explorer card and my husband is close to Elite status (about $600 short of PQD -- any tips on how to get that quickly?? Are currently planning to try to get his United card to the $25k spending amount in the next couple of months to get the waiver). Would his having Elite status help us in securing a business class ticket?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!!!

aacharya

Fly out in Business, fly back in Coach.

It's not worth the high miles and upgrade fee for that approach. Short of really reading how expert mode works - just understandthat if R is not open, that as a non-elite, your chances of that approach are slim.

Or have your husband buy the ticket outright, with the rest on miles. That will go a long way towards his PQD/PQMs next year.

As for status - unless he is Platinum or above, business saver does not open more - and if it does, it's only UA metal.

Not at all worth buying the miles.

Wx4caster

Also, be advised that the fee for the lap infant on award seats may be quite high. I've seen reports on FT that UA charges 10% of the highest fare. I don't know what the cost will be in your case, but the lap child will not be free.

woody1173

Last year I used UA miles for UA/LH operated J flights to Europe, and lap child was charged 10% of the best available J fare for the *actual* flights that I booked with miles.

Artpen100

It is worth it to figure out expert mode and look for "R" and other code availability for either saver award business, upgrade to business with miles and copay from economy, or even deep discount business. That is really the way to look for UA TATL business class. That said, it seems there is a lot less of it than there used to be, but it all depends. You might also consider the other major airports - BRU, FRA and LHR seem more likely to have it than FCO. Keep in mind you can even use the "multiple cities' search to deliberately plan connections through various major airports and find more saver and upgradable flights than a plain round trip search will show. Unfortunately, there is just no other way to do this than spending the computer time since UA shut off expertflyer's automatic search capability (you would just set it for various flights and it would email you if the right space became available - that was great). And you need to search frequently - space might come up and be available for less than a day.

Definitely look to cards for the miles. I get most of my miles from credit cards. Finally, I have a tendency to pay for my own ticket (preferably econ upgraded to business with miles), and get award tickets only for the family, since the miles are more valuable to me and that means I need fewer miles.

WineCountryUA

the present rate for many is 1.9cpm
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...es-2014-a.html

pinkhighlighter

Is there a more recent link with info on how to do the expert search? All the websites I find are dated, and I cannot figure out how to find the fare class!

pinkhighlighter

Even better! So then between $1425-$2850 to get the miles for us to all fly business, which is cheaper than a business class ticket.

And it does look like it'd be about $1k for the lap infant on a RT business class ticket. Rather steep, but still much cheaper than a seat. It's actually nearly the price of an economy ticket... :|

hughw

And are you aware for accelerator you can buy economy tickets several long flights, purchase the extra miles, wait a few hour until the miles show up in your account, and then cancel the tickets within the 24 hour free cancellation period?

mmack

You have to log in and check on your Profile: there will be a link to Expert Mode with a disclaimer that you're using this because you know what all the fare buckets mean. You accept this, and then when you search for flights if you toggle over fare class (highlighted) it will show all the alphabet soup of fares. For your purpose you just want R. If R0: no seats. If R6: six seats, etc. R means you can use a GPU or miles and money for international travel.

I spend most of my life looking for R since UA did away with Expert Flyer.

Caution: There is a bug on keeping Expert Mode in your profile. Each time I go to the UA site, I log in, and that keeps me linked to the fare buckets. Others may have a different experience

hscottm

still your call on buying miles, but looks like there is a 35% bonus promotion going on now (e.g. buy 100k get 135k). Cuts that cost a little.

WineCountryUA

Check out http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...es-2014-a.html first, likely significantly cheaper (but a little more complex) than the 35% promo.

RNE

OP, please keep in mind that Accelerator rates may vary by person and are subject to change anytime. The current 1.9¢/RDM is a recent minimum.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...es-2014-a.html

RNE, advising the OP—and anyone who is a would-be buyer—to strike while the iron is hot.

pinkhighlighter

Yes, that would be the plan if we went this route

pinkhighlighter

I've set expert mode, but don't see fare classes when searching for flights.

Thanks, WineCountry, RNE, and hscott. Don't know how I missed a thread on the award accelerator!