BrittNeal

Hello!
I'm hoping for some advice on purchasing tickets with mileage plus miles.

Trip Details
June 17 (or 18) BFL-->LHR
July 8 ZUR-->BFL

I have two main questions...
1)I've been watching the Saver availability for these dates very closely for the last few weeks. A pattern I have noticed is that the dates are released with no Saver availability, then a few days later Saver is added.

Currently, there is a Saver flight for July 13,14,15, and 18, but not the 16th or 17th. I'd rather leave on the 17th but I can make the 18th work. I'm nervous to pass up this availability.

Has anyone else seen this pattern or have a point of reference from years past?

2)Should I buy this one way ticket when the return dates are not available yet? It will be a few weeks still until my July 8 return tickets are even available. Again I'm nervous if I wait and book then that the flights to europe might be snapped up. Any thoughts?

Thank you!

aacharya

If you're not looking for a flight for free from LHR to ZRH (meaning LHR is your stopover), booking one-ways makes sense in your case, if you are definitely going on this trip.

BrittNeal

Yes! Just got confirmation of our tickets to EuroCup 2016 today. So we are going no matter what . I had forgotten the stopover option. Would BFL-LHR (Stopover)- CDG make sense? Then our own transport from paris to switzerland and a one way from ZRH-BFL?

manneca

I just had UA join a one way I'd booked to another trip I hadn't booked so I could add a stopover. So, you might be able to do it. (I had booked ROR-MEM (a return) and added MEM-HNL(stopover)-CNS) (an outbound) . I couldn't have done the stopover at HNL had they not joined the two tickets. (Of course now who knows what I'll be flying since UA isn't flying to CNS)

PV_Premier

you can't have a stopover on a one way. but, one other thing to remember is that you can have open jaws at the origin, stopover point, or destination, up to a maximum of two for the round trip.

so you could do:

BFL-LHR(STOP)
LHR-CDG (destination/OJ)
ZRH-BFL

this would give you an open jaw at the destination, you could add another at the stopover if that made sense.

you can book a one way BFL-LHR, then call to add segments as they become available, but each time you will have to pay a ticket change fee if you don't have the benefit of premier status to waive or decrease those fees.

you also have to watch that you don't end up with too many segments, which can happen in EU pretty easily due to the fact that LHR-CDG would require connecting in CPH, FRA, MUC, or BRU. instead, consider doing LHR-BRU on SN and making BRU your destination, then taking the train from BRU to CDG, and buying a ticket on LX, AF, or an LCC for CDG-ZRH.

returning from ZRH to BFL will require a minimum of 3 segments unless you get lucky and can find availability on LX from ZRH to SFO/LAX (unlikely to happen).

BrittNeal

I'm not feeling confident enough in my travel hacking skills. Seems like straight shots BFL-LHR one way and ZRH-BFL maybe the most straight forward and quickest to be able to execute!

PV_Premier

Those are perfectly serviceable, but you miss out on opportunities to maximize your miles on a single award if you don't know and leverage stopovers and open jaws.

For instance, my honeymoon was USA->AKL (dest)->HNL (stopover/open jaw)->USA. if I just did a simple set of one ways, or a round trip, i'd have missed out on Hawaii or had to pay for an expensive oneway from AKL to HNL. as it stands, the only ticket i bought was a one way HNL-ITO for $68pp.

BrittNeal

Maybe I'm thinking it is more difficult than it is. To book a stopover I go to United's website and use the Multiple Destination search type?

I followed the directions I found in this article (http://travelisfree.com/2013/05/18/h...ers-on-united/)
And looked for
BLF-LHR
LHR-BRU
ZHR-BFL

When I did that I wasn't able to see any Saver options on days there had been Saver options when I was just doing a one way from BFL to LHR. Any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong?

aacharya

The intra EU flight is messing you up. Best to find everything individually and call in to have the agent book.

Kacee

Specifically, the OJ and the stopover. The website doesn't like even moderately complex itineraries.

Note that LHR has among the highest departure taxes in the world. If you're going to do an OJ in Europe, I'd suggest you OJ between LHR and the continent. E.g., BLF-LHR//BRU-ZRH//ZRH-BLF

BrittNeal

So if I look up each flight as a one way, get the flight numbers and then call in they should be able to compile all for the Saver fares?

MatthewLAX

Correct. Just get it booked quickly, or else someone else will grab your saver space.

BrittNeal

Ah ok! Which brings me back to my first point only my first departure date (June 17 or 18) is even available right now. If I understood manneca right I should be able to add these other legs as they become available, but will be subject to change fees each time :S.

Sorry if this is totally obvious newbie stuff...I just had a bad experience where I quickly pulled the trigger and transferred miles to AVIOS for a Hawaii flight thinking I could use them to get to Europe if that didn't work. Well, it didn't and then I learned about all the horrible surcharges on BA and now I have 40,000 miles sitting in avios that are not helpful right now. So I'm a little gun shy now double and triple checking my understanding of the info and policies!

skimthetrees

BA Avios could be useful in your case if you want to use the book the LHR-ZRH leg on BA.

I've heard you can add segments to a ticket by paying a change fee (add the return later) but you cannot join tickets. You could book the outbound first yourself but you would have to call in to an agent to get them to add the return to make a round-trip with a stopover.

kvan

Can't help you with all this stopover business....but regarding your original question:

We started planning our July 2015 (leaving a week from today) trip to France in January. I was able to find award availability in business for a day that worked for us, but no returns in any class for the entire month of August at that time. Even our outbound was on a red eye that really wasn't my first choice, but I booked the one way. It wasn't until late April that returns started opening up. Once again, I grabbed an acceptable one way flight for the return. Sometime in early June availability was suddenly wide open in both direction throughout July and August, and I was able to change both legs to flights that worked better for us. Of course, this year is not next year, and who knows how things might work out by then, so I think that your plan to go ahead and book the outbound and not worry yet about the return will work out fine for you.