azzurro

With pmUA there was. Saver inventory opened the day flights became bookable. Back in late 2000's I got word of a new route opening direct DEN-LHR, so I checked on the date it became available and snagged the only 4 coach saver seats, when there were very few saver seats on established routes to Europe at that time (about 9-10 months out at that point).

Now I have to search daily for a week or so after they become bookable and the logic behind what days might have saver awards is impossible to figure out. Probably b/c there is no customer focused logic to it. I appreciate the no fee to redeposit miles (1K) as I often book many one-way options into different cities that might work and later cancel the ones that don't. Flexibility is now more important than ever if you want an award ticket.

Same experience here...

Sykes

Is that entirely true? I always assumed that UA and LH managed award inventory jointly in the JV much the same way that they do for revenue inventory. Is that not true? It seems counter-productive to disconnect those two.

Nonetheless, I suspect that the dearth of award inventory over the holidays is largely due to United redeploying international capacity on domestic routes, which makes the remaining international flights much more full.

Bonehead

Same with pmCO. I recall booking some low-mile Europe and Asia awards by nailing them at 330 days out. Now the channa strategy is the one that seems to work best.

escapefromphl

I managed to snag LH space for this summer and already have some for next summer. Its pretty sparse though. A few North American cities have more availability than others. (DEN, DTW, YYZ etc)

I would say just book economy when you can and switch when it opens up. You may need to be flexible a day or two each side, but LH space starts to open 3 weeks ahead of departure, somewhat reliably.

JDS747

Yep! Exactly... 2-3 days out is the magic number these days.

Just booked one for the in-laws on Monday for a flight today. I've been watching it for several months now and boom 3 days out 3 saver seats opened up.

spin88

Not so clear that its not LH being blocked by UA, an old problem. If you (or others) have run a large number of searches on ANA and UA, found the same results, I would be interested to hear about it.

Regardless, the OP and others are talking about UAfkaCO, which has really cut back on own-metal saver availability. A bunch of us have commented on it, and its a fact of the last year. People can repeat the canard about UAL being better for redemption (it was c2010-12), but its about as accurate today as saying CO's food is great (it was c2000-6), or UAL is great to elites (it was c2000-2012).

That united is better for redemption is just not true at this point. Partner "saver" rates don't exist any longer, its all basically "standard rates" at this point on *A, and United does not open up its own space.

Its now Jeff's "MilesMinus" program. All that remains is peoples memories of what it used to be.

Someone would need to take the time to check ANA and CO.com side by side on a number of flights, see if there is any difference.

I had trouble finding anything on about 10 different routing both SFO-Asia, or Europe-SFO so far this year. There were a few times in Y from Europe to gateway (usually ORD or IAH or IAD) but then zero space on the Gateway to SFO leg, and nothing at all TPAC (over-water legs on UAL from SFO). And all of my searches were on the days when the fares were lowest, and on several, I checked the actual flights I had wanted day of departure and they had lots and lots of space. I am at 0% success finding anything on UAL in 2014 in saver. Luckily, almost all of my miles are gone at this point, Jeff has made them basically SkyPesos, but unlike SkyPesos (where Delta promised to make them more usable, and has been delivering) there is no promise of improvement.

Well that is not the trend. The only actual study out there is this: http://www.ideaworkscompany.com/wp-c...eat-Report.pdf Which does not address "premium" rewards, but it clearly shows United is getting worse, and Delta (and AA) are getting better. Assuming Delta has continued its promised improvement, its not clear from what people with miles in both programs are saying that there is any difference at this point, and on DL, if you find a partner award, its (unlike United) at saver.

Read the actual data, see if you can counter it.

I think this reflects the actual reality at this point, especially with no "saver" awards on *A for premium seats, and is certainly backed by what survey's (the ideawords was from March 2014) are showing.

p.s. I 100% agree with your 3 day rule, its just so obvious at this point that it is what is going on. I was looking for a ticket from either MUC or VIE or ZUR to SFO this summer, happy to have anything (J or Y) as it was for someone else. I looked nearly daily and Nothing, nada, zilch. Looked all summer, and reliability, on about 1/2 of the days, space would open up 2-3-4 days out. Never before. But even on flights when it did not open up, I would check the seat maps and expert mode and find Y was well over 9, and J was not full, on flight day. RM is not opening up space early, and then is reluctant to dump to many seats at the end (for fear of having people use miles rather than paying) resulting in seats going out empty. That is stupidity, but that is the new normal at UAL.

SJOFlyer

I've seen the awards for leaving/returning to SJO be less every day, very hard for me to book any award to US/Europe, etc...

Cargojon

I know the LH nonstop from PHL-FRA is usually wide open for business saver awards. Plenty of savers to FRA from PHL on UA metal in economy via ORD/IAD as well.

I still rank UA way ahead of DL in terms of redemption. It's just been my experience and it's recent.

lhrsfo

FF programs are all about getting rid of unsellable inventory. With a vibrant economy, and capacity discipline, it's not remotely surprising that there's less unsellable inventory overall, and very little inventory which RM expects to be unsellable.

spin88

Because the current CO management does not understand loyalty or customer retention, I am sure that you are correct on their mindset, but this has little to do with the actual reasons for Mileage programs. The reason for them was/is to get folks to buy travel on a particular airline (rather than as folks used to do pre-deregulation, just fly whomever had that route) AND as LLC started in the US, and foreign carriers got better, and then much better than US carriers, retain traffic that might go elsewhere for lower fares or better service.

Its part of a package, and looking at that package, its clear that other airlines, equally impacted by high loads (DAL and AA) have chosen to open up more seats at saver, while United has opened up less. And given that United has not done well at selling those seats, and as Channa points out, now offers them 2-3 days out, that strategy is not exactly working out, but it does hurt the value of "MilesMinus" as a business driver. Its just another bone headed move by the CO folks. They don't appear to understand that decisions in one area impact the buying decisions in others.

At this point, MP miles are IMHO basically useless to me, and as a result, I am far, far, far, less likely to fly United.

lazard

You have to take into account everyone who burned their miles before the devaluation.

VPsych

Is there a general date that August and September award dates are released by? Noticed United's Reward Mile page only goes to July 2015. Hoping to snag two saver tickets to Europe.

andrewwm

So why do Lucky and Gary, professional award bookers, say that UA miles are some of the easiest to use? AA is generally very stingy own metal and DL is very stingy domestic own metal on releasing saver seats ime, and this is also what professional mileage bookers also report.

Instead, we should believe the same 2-3 people that bash any and everything about United to give us "accurate" information.

I guess, like FoxNews, a stopped clock is occasionally right, but I think the burden of proof would have to be on you to counter the experience of people that do this daily and for a living.

enviroian

That makes complete sense. Maybe next Christmas will be better.

If I can build my own trip segment by segment and each segment is saver business or domestic first can I get UA to ticket it as one trip?

andrewwm

Yes, definitely, assuming your final routing doesn't violate maximum number of segments rules. I'd start with finding the overwater flight first and then build around that.