jsloan

In the middle, so to speak. An itinerary only qualifies for the ExPerk if it begins and ends in the same region; the ExPerk flight is then the first flight entirely within a second region.

So, you cannot go ORD-CDG, CDG-ORD, BKK-HKG. You could go ORD-CDG, BKK-HKG, MEX-ORD on one itinerary and CDG-ORD on a second, if you wanted to do that. (The MEX-ORD flight may be cheaper than the BKK-HKG flight).

You could probably put that all on a single itinerary -- ORD-CDG, CDG-ORD, BKK-HKG, MEX-ORD -- but I'm not 100% confident UA would price it properly.

pandazzz

I'm trying to book NYC-ATH in saver J in late May, with the goal of then taking ATH-JTR on a separate cash ticket. Online search allows me to get EWR-DUS-ATH landing at 8:25pm, which is a bit late for a JTR connection. I can find a EWR-DUS-MUC-ATH itinerary manually landing at 2:45pm, but cannot make it show on search, even in Y. Is there a way to book this / check if it is a valid itinerary? (I'm fine taking the DUS-MUC-ATH legs in Y).

avi8tir

I've done IAH-FRA-BKK on LH/TG F numerous times and only had to use the normal amount of miles - as in, it looked at it the same as IAH-NRT-BKK, for example.

When I try yo do FRA-ICN-LAX, it is splitting it into 2 flights and trying to charge for them separately.

Is this correct or should I just call a GS agent?

MCIUnitedGuy

Covered ad nauseam in a thread this will probably be merged into. The only valid routings are the ones that .bomb produces when you search FRA-LAX. If you're putting it in multi-city search it will price as two awards. That's the way the system was "enhanced".

EWR764

I don't believe Asia ever was a legal transit region on a NA-EU award even under the 'old' system. I'm sure some might have been able to get such a ticket to price from time to time with manual intervention, or in error, but I never saw NA-Asia-EU autoprice.

OTOH, as you note, NA-EU-various regions of Asia and v.v. is still legal and often will return in search results.

Madone59

This is correct, we now can only rely on what the website spits out.

Regardless I do believe Europe-Asia-USA was never permitted even though Asia-Europe-USA was.

Exleftseat

The website never ceases to amaze me. Searched for award ticket LAX-AMS. Look at this :


"LAX to ZRH
Los Angeles, CA, US (LAX) toZurich, CH (ZRH)
FLIGHTLX 41
Aircraft typeBoeing 777-300ER
Flight advisories
Operated By Balkan-Bulgarian Airlines

• 2h 25m connection
• ZRH to AMS
  Zurich, CH (ZRH) toAmsterdam, NL (AMS)
  FLIGHTLX 734
  Aircraft typeAirbus A321
  Flight advisories
  Operated By SWISS International A"

Balkan Bulgarian Airlines went out of business in 2002. Amazing

MCIUnitedGuy

That is pretty nuts, but in fairness to UA's table look ups Swiss Global Airlines IATA code is LZ, which was Balkan-Bulgarian's. I didn't realize there even was an Swiss Global Airlines to differentiate from Swiss International Airlines (LX) and I look at this stuff a lot.

WineCountryUA

And defunct (2013) Belle Air

The code has been used multi-times

Exleftseat

It will just not allow any more stopovers, as it did before. And that's a huge devaluation.

747FC

Just another data point:

I have an O award LHR-FRA-SFO that was booked prior to October 2016.

Just tried to get an earlier flight from LHR into FRA, but told by agent that they could not book, even though the LH award space was available on multiple earlier flights LHR-SFO. Agent said that they would have to rebook the entire itinerary, and they would not be able to give me the O award FRA-SFO.

The new world of UA. I've made numerous changes like this in the past..

Kacee

There are agents who can do it. It's just hard to find them.

The problem is the new interface requires the entire award be rebooked when a ticket is reissued, and most agents lack the tools and/or knowledge to get around this restriction.

andy2016

What's the status with MilagePlus routing rules? Trying to get it to route JFK-HND-BKK-SYD F but it keeps doing JFK-HND-SYD (with the last leg in Economy). Can I find seats leg by leg and call or did those changes of "computer says no" stick?

jsloan

It's much closer to the latter. You can ask, but be prepared to be charged for multiple legs as if you were buying each flight individually. Note that JFK-FRA-BKK-SYD is actually shorter, and closer to a "straight line," so you may get more luck with that -- but, probably not.

bajrbajr

I am trying to book CGN-CLE in J or F, but I am encountering a problem with availability of one leg. (one-way booking)
I currently have no status with UA

If I search CLE-CGN, the routing is, (in J @57.5k miles or F @ 80K miles)
CGN-MUC-IAD then DCA-CLE. (The problem is the airport change from IAD to DCA)

but if I search for it in economy class (30k miles) the routing is
CGN-MUC-IAD-CLE... no airport change required, XN is available IAD-CLE for an all-Y booking.

Why am I not offered the routing in J or F with the last leg (IAD-CLE) in XN?
I tried calling UA reservations and web support, but that was a waste of time!

I tried booking the flight in Y and then changing the first 2 legs to J, but that didn't work. Perhaps booking it in Y and then calling UA might work...