anc-ord772

And it turns out LAX-ARN (SK) is phantom. Found out after moving 50k points into MP. Sigh. That's alright, I'm sure something nice will open up within the two week window.

Thanks for the help folks.

Taoyuan

OZ, TG, and NZ J award ticketed almost instantly, everything looks good so far.

anc-ord772

Found a resolution. As you may remember I first tried (unsuccessfully) to change LAX-DUB -> LAX-ARN-DUS-DUB online. Calling yielded poor results as the agent could not find LAX-ARN availability in business or economy. After being told it was phantom I continued to wonder if that was really the case.

A timely post today by Points with a Crew questioned agent provided information. I tried again on the website this morning and went simple, changing LAX-DUB -> LAX-ARN, which ticketed instantly. There were loads of options ARN-xxx-DUB.

Silly hoops, and it would have been nice to have one PNR, but it worked out.

jsloan

FWIW, much of the advice in that post is worthless. The vast majority of the advanced search options are post-search filters. Here's what I mean:

Let's suppose that there are 350 possible search results for LAX-DUB. United.com is limited to 200 each results. In an ideal world:

1. User selects advanced search criteria (e.g., avoid connections in FRA)
2. Search request is made, specifying those limitations. Suppose there are 270 results that avoid FRA.
3. The search engine returns 200 of the matching results
4. User sees 200 results, none of which transit FRA

The way the system actually works, in my experience:

1. User selects advanced search criteria (e.g., avoid connections in FRA)
2. Search request is made, with none of those limitations.
3. The search engine returns the same 200 results you'd get without the filters
4. The filters are applied
5. User sees fewer than 200 results, none of which transit FRA

In fact, I just tried it out -- LAX to DUB, departing 10/11. I get 200 results, and if I exclude ORD using the Airports tab at the bottom of the search results, 107 remain. If I go into Advanced Search and tell it to avoid ORD, it brings me back to the same place I already was: "107 of 200 flights from 30,000 miles." It returned the exact same set of flights, but it pre-applied the no-ORD filter.

I tried to do an exhaustive search of this one time, but I gave up as it was mostly pointless. IIRC, the only ones that really made much of a difference were some of the sorting ones (e.g., select Duration (longest to shortest) in the Advanced Search. While you're welcome to play around with preferred connections, it doesn't really do very much.

anc-ord772

It was a reminder for me to be critical of information supplied by agents. That being said, I would use other methods then those written in the thread.

Scuba2P

Just want to get the experts' opinion on this issue: I am looking to book SFO-JRO via IST. The SFO-IST flight is 6:15pm-6:10pm (+1d) and the IST-JRO flight, unfortunately, is 7:00pm-2:00am. This makes the connection either 50 mins (<MCT of 1:00 for I:I at IST) or 24:50.

Am I out of luck for that routing (70k + 55k for two I awards), or could the rate desk stitch this together w/24:50 for just 80k?

Plan B: There is a SFO-FRA-IST-JRO, but requires waitlisting I on the UA segment. Is it possible to book UA X (waitlist I) / TK I / TK I for the one-way saver of 80k? Meaning, can one be confirmed in I on a *A connection and waitlisted I on UA, or would they require booking into X on TK until UA clears?

Would be nice if UA offered a MaxCT of 25 hours instead of 24, to allow for such situations where the once-daily flights are too close together.

jsloan

Agents generally can't "stitch together" awards any longer. If they could, the answer would be the 24h 50m transfer. It's not considered a stopover if it's the next available flight. The 50m connection isn't valid and therefore doesn't count for this calculus.

However, it's moot -- unless it comes up in a simple award search from origin to destination, UA will now price it point-to-point.

You can definitely do your plan B, though (assuming that your desired award appears on a SFO-JRO search on your desired date). If there is X-I-I availability, you will be charged the partner I rate and (upon request -- you'll need to call) waitlisted for I on the UA segment.

diburning

The current UA policy is to only allow bookings that can be made if offered by the site/page. If you piece together your own itinerary, each leg will be charged separately in miles, so you are most likely out of luck. Front end agents do not have the ability to override.

As for your plan B, waitlisting is only possible on UA operated flights on UA tickets. If they sell you a mixed cabin award with the UA leg(s) in X and with the TK legs in I, you should be able to waitlist on the UA segment(s).

Kacee

Yes, though it may take a few calls to find an agent who knows how to do it.

SFO-FRA would be a very difficult waitlist to clear.

747FC

When are you flying? If before Polaris First leaves the scene, you might have more luck waitlisting on UA F than I.

jmanirish

Call in now - now that you've secured the LAX-ARN there's still hope an agent can stitch the ARN-DUB flight on (especially since DUB was your original destination you'll likely get sympathy from an agent). It is still possible to get agents to stitch together post system apocalypse, just painful and requires a determined agent.

anc-ord772

I'm going to let the warm water wash over me and accept my fate.

hardman1

Hi all,

First time caller, long time listener here.

Two days ago I purchased United Miles using the current promotion with specific awards flights in mind for my partner and I. As you know there is generally a 24-48hr delay for the miles being credited to your account.

As of 6 hours ago, on my specific date, there were more than 4 available award seats direct from AKL-BKK with Thai Airways showing online. I have since been credited my points & all availability vanished in addition to showing no direct flights on the dates I'm after.

What's the go here? It this a coincidence or have they had a look at my searches before crediting. Interested to know really...because I'm now stuck with these points to use

Any advice is appreciated.

Cheers,

jsloan

Welcome to FT!

I can assure you that UA isn't futzing around with availability in order to try to cheat you. There are a number of reasons I'm sure of this, but the primary one is that it would be Thai Airways (TG) that controls inventory for that flight, not UA.

The most likely explanation is that somebody else saw award availability on those flights and decided to book them, either through UA, TG, or some other Star Alliance airline. A second explanation is that TG may have pulled back their inventory due to someone booking revenue seats or just a changing sales forecast. It happens all the time.

The best advice I have is to keep watching the route now that the points are in your account, and if you see something suitable, book it immediately. You will have 24 hours to change your mind if necessary (all UA tickets can be refunded within 24 hours at no charge).

Good luck!

hardman1

Really appreciate the reply and useful actions! Without sounding totally negative it's going to be pretty difficult to prevent this becoming a total disaster.

There is absolutely no direct availability near my intended dates, despite having plenty yesterday. I'm also understandably annoyed that they 48 hour delay on points being credited (despite being charged instantly) has resulted in this. It's a totally arbitrary delay. Great way to encourage a customer to spend more....meanwhile I hear AA credits instantly.