jsloan

Not new -- LH has been doing this for several years. They often seem more willing to release award space on connecting itineraries than on nonstop flights, because they know that the nonstop flights are more desirable. It's the same reason that it might be cheaper to fly JFK-MUC-AMS than JFK-MUC.

cfischer

You can always throw away the extra intra-EU segments

SmileyJoyz

United Gold, will hit Platinum in next two weeks (although will have enough PQF for 1K…sigh), have the United miles CC, and planning our honeymoon to the Maldives for next fall, which is low season for the Maldives. I’ve read numerous threads here and multiple other blogs to understand upgrading but still feeling overwhelmed by which choice to make to maximize our upgrade option for the longest portion of itinerary (EWR-DXB). Full route will be ORD-EWR-DBX-MLE and then reverse for the return.

(ETA sadness as I just realized Maldives are not in the same region as UAE according to United. Question still remains.)

As I understand it, these are my options:

1. Book economy with $$ (roughly $1800 RT) and put in for miles upgrade waitlist (70k RT)—will be charged for highest level and refunded fully if I don’t get it/partially if I only get premium.
2. Book premium economy with $$ (roughly $2800 RT) and put in for miles upgrade waitlist (70k RT/person + $600) for Polaris business. I’ve read that booking premium economy and being on the waitlist clears first before all others and would maximize Polaris chances.
3. Book economy with miles (80k/person RT) and wait to see what they might offer as a paid upgrade in the app. But this will eliminate mileage upgrade waitlist and I won’t have enough PP being only Platinum.

I have expert mode on and currently do not see any availability showing for instant upgrade for R/PZ/RN—although I honestly don’t see it for any of the months I’ve checked for the EWR-DXB route. But that also seems to be the norm?

The bare minimum we’re willing to fly for EWR-DXB is premium economy.

I welcome any insights and suggestions on how to maximize our chances!

jsloan

Option #1 also has a co-pay. The co-pay looks wrong for option 2 -- it should be slightly lower than option 1. As for option 3, Platinum members can't use PlusPoints to upgrade award tickets anyway; only Global Services members do.

#2 is not quite correct -- anyone using Global Services instruments, regardless of cabin, will be upgraded before a Platinum member in Premium Plus. Also, you're going to find that a significant number of people in the Premium Plus cabin will be attempting to upgrade, and many of those are likely to be GS/1K and thereby have priority.

Yes, that's quite normal.

Then I suggest you purchase PE and waitlist for J, rather than purchasing economy and waitlisting for PE.

WineCountryUA

From deep discount economy, S, T, L, K, G, it will be 35,000 miles + $600 co-pay to Polaris
From discount PremPlus A, R, it will be 35,000 miles + $450 co-pay to United Polaris business
Note not all the flights have PremPlus, only the EWR-DXB. Not sure about the DXB to MAL -- and the UA upgrade will not cover that flight

Ericka

I have personal experience with this one in the last year on two separate itineraries. We checked every day but weren’t offered ANY cash upgrades until check-in. It’s a real nail biter. I don’t recommend it.

beltway

[snip]

SmileyJoyz

Thank you. This is the option I’m leaning towards since it’s our honeymoon. Appreciate the additional knowledge added here as well re: GS.

SmileyJoyz

Was that your experience for this exact route? Or just in general? I’m frequently offered cash upgrade options and last year was offered them for Mexico to/from Chicago but that isn’t long haul. If it was for EWR-DXB, wondering if the lack of cash upgrades had anything to do with it being a newer route?

lhoutz

I've been trying to book the following as an award reservation:

SZX-ROR 12/12/2023
NH966 + UA827 + UA157

ROR-MAJ 12/16/2023
UA192 + UA176 + UA133

MAJ-SZX 12/18/2023
UA132 + UA151 + ZH8064

The first segment has X/XN availability with no issues. The second segment shows XN availability when searching using expert mode, but does not show any availability when I search for an award ticket. The third segment shows X/XN availability with no issues.

Regarding the hidden award availability on the second segment, I contacted UA via chat/call, and they confirmed that award inventory does exist for ROR-MAJ on 12/16.

They compiled all three segments manually, though told me that "it won't price" when they went to finalize everything. They claimed that the fares on some of the flights were "non-combinable," and were unable to explain what that meant. I asked to be pointed to a specific policy about such "non-combinable" fares, and was told that it was just an "internal" rule that was not published anywhere. The agent encouraged me to reach out to Customer Care to seek a full explanation—I'm waiting for their reply now.

The agent did say that she was able to book my itinerary as three one-way tickets instead of one multi-city ticket, but then I cannot get the excursionist perk discount on the second leg.

In all, I've now spent 12 hours on the UA booking page, online chat, and phone line trying to make this itinerary happen, but nothing seems to be working and I am running out of options, it seems.

Any suggestions on next steps, if anything?

Ericka

The two award trips that did not produce cash upgrade options were both to Europe in summer high season.

jsloan

Welcome to FlyerTalk! This is going to turn out to be the crux of the issue here.

You’re not going to get anything coherent from Customer Care. You’re running into people who are trying to make sense of what the computer is doing — no more, no less. The computer doesn’t seem to like the itinerary, although I don’t see anything obviously wrong with it besides the rather obvious fact that it sounds like a slog.

Combinability refers to the fare rules and indicates what flights can be sold together on the same ticket. It’s an industry term, though it rarely comes up in the context of award travel.

Don’t argue or try to demand answers, as that’s just going to get somebody defensive. Don’t escalate to a supervisor. HUCA (Hang Up and Call Again). The only way that this is going to work out in your favor is to find an agent who is dedicated to pushing this through, which is probably going to involve manual pricing, which is a PITA, so you may need to call several times. Yes, this is frustrating advice — but ultimately, your problem here is that the UA computer seems to have some sort of issue with the long en-route layovers or something; even if I try individual pieces of your longer TKK/GUM/PNI/MAJ trip, it will only give me results with short layovers, as if it were applying North America routing rules (anything over 4 hours is a stopover, as opposed to anything over 24 hours in other markets) — and awards don’t even follow North America routing rules in North America. Finding someone to overrule the computer, even when you know you’re right, can be extremely challenging.

WineCountryUA

The concept of piecing awards segments together disappeared 5 or so years ago. You can only book what is provided by awards search, manually constructing awards of segments with availability, if not offered is not an option. The agents have essentially the same tool and see the same options and will not be able to price a manually build itin. The agent have no more idea than you why the routing is not offered and will make up some "plausible" reason that is like not relevant.

This was a major change many years ago. You may get a rare agent to go to the awards pricing desk but they will usually be stonewalled.

jsloan

Agreed, but the weird thing here is that it does show the XN if you do a simple ROR-MAJ (cash) search. It just somehow doesn't turn into any awards, XN or YN.

WineCountryUA

Available of award space and a logical option but not showing in an award search has been reported many time.