KVS

Being a KVS Tool Member, you should use its 30-Day [Power Search] function if you need to locate *A Award Availability across a multiple day range.

There is no need (or point) in comparing the inaccurate results shown by the UA award calendar with the actual Award Availability displayed in the KVS Tool.

pushmyredbutton

Correct me if I'm wrong, but how does the KVS tool handle UA's new married segment logic? If the KVS tool shows space on multiple legs, but UA doesn't show the results, doesn't the KVS tool become mostly moot when it comes to UA award bookings across multiple legs?

KVS

Could you please provide specific examples?

pushmyredbutton

There are two current issues:

1. Requiring two awards for available space, not violating routing rules. This is common and easy to find:
8/22 SFO-LAX-TPE-SIN requires SFO-LAX and LAX-TPE-SIN to be booked separately.

2. True Married segment logic. This is less common but I've run across it a few times. I've seen ORD-BOS-IST, yet ORD-BOS was unable to be booked on it's own; only as a feeder flight to some additional flights out of BOS. I'll report back with a specific example should I stumble across one.

KVS

This would be an MP pricing/itinerary construction issue, not an Availability issue.

Segment Marriage Logic only applies to same-carrier routings.

pushmyredbutton

I agree, but suggesting that someone use the KVS tool instead of UA.com is likely to end in more frustration than searching day-by-day on UA.com since the routings shown by KVS sometimes cannot be booked on the carrier; that was the entire point of the poster's complaint.

Paulchili

I am not familiar with that function but I will try it.
Thanks.

Kremmen

It used to be that mixed F/C awards would show up online with an in-between award cost. Now I don't see mixed F/C awards showing up at all, even when both legs are available individually. (e.g. Search for HKG-BKK-MEL and nothing involving F shows up either in saver C or saver F.) Even a few months ago, F/C mixed itineraries would show up. Does anyone know whether this is a glitch or a permanent loss?

Kacee

The UA award booking engine has gone from pretty good to pretty bad after the changes last October. It will still return mixed cabin J/F awards, but it's much less reliable than it used to be.

Also, are you sure TG offers an F cabin to MEL during the period you're searching? MEL has often been a two-cabin aircraft. I think SYD is reliably three-cabin.

If available, the mixed cabin J/F awards have always (at least last 5 years) priced at the full F rate.

Kremmen

I don't know that last Oct is the issue. I was seeing mixed cabin F/C awards when searching in Mar/Apr, but am not seeing them now. There have always been tons of C/Y mixed cabin awards on many routes and it's strangely inconsistent for F/C ones not to appear.

TG definitely does not have F to MEL. That's why I used it as an example. On dates when F is available HKG-BKK and C is available BKK-MEL, mixed-cabin awards HKG-MEL do not appear at all. (At least, not on any dates I've tried searching.) I thought keeping to a simple example would be good. However, searches on HKG-SYD show mixed cabin F/C results when the C is on HKG-BKK and the F is BKK-SYD but not any with F on HKG-BKK and C on BKK-SYD. So it appears to not be general but specific to certain flights.

Kacee

The October changes definitely affected this b/c they've limited the number of connecting itineraries that you will see, and F/J mixed itineraries seem to be a particular casualty.

The specific issue with HKG-BKK-MEL you've noted may also be a problem on TG's end.

RNE

Yesterday evening (July 19, 2017, 11:56 p.m.) I made an award booking that included a segment on EI:

Nov 1: CLE-EWR-LHR on UA metal (30k miles)
Nov 5: LHR-DUB on EI metal (0k miles)
Nov 7: DUB-EWR UA metal (30k miles)
Nov 9: LGA-CLE UA metal (10k miles)

$199.77 fee.

The booking was assigned a UA confirmation number (and one from EI, too). But United.com error'ed out when I tried to pay for the booking. I went into the booking today and saw the message quoted below. I called online support to process my payment and was told that they could not do so until 24 hours after the time of booking (July 19, 2017, 11:56 p.m.) because of the EI segment (which, as I mentioned, was assigned a confirmation number). But it looks like my booking will expire at about that 24-hour mark (red highlight in quote below). I don't want to wait and risk losing the award booking. What gives?

Aussienarelle

First off, yes I know booking award travel with Air China is a bit of a roulette but I booked this award SFO-PEK-SYD for my "American" sister to surprise my dad for his 80th birthday and the business saver award worked well for the dates. She called Air China and got seats reserved in business so all was looking good. Today UA sent an e-mail informing me the former 7.5 hour layover is now a 31.5 hour layover. The goal is to get her to Sydney, not have a layover in Beijing for a day.

Is there any possible recourse with UA? The goal is to get her to Sydney, not have a layover in Beijing for a day.

findark

I would figure out what changed, and probably call UA a few times to get an agent who will rebook on SFO-SYD nonstop.

RandomBaritone

Exactly right. It's not as outlandish as it sounds; UA opened up saver J space for me on their EWR>DEL nonstop when there was a significant schedule change -- though not nearly as bad as the one described above! -- on my CA award flight. It seems too good to be true, but it appears to be UA policy.