Originally Posted by
anc-ord772
You should have no problems Mike. If irrops occur, just take the quickest path back home and apply for original routing credit. Your chances of receiving ORC is much higher than a coin toss IMO.
Not worried about the routing back home... that's a very easy IAD-LAS-LAX-SFO. Rarely would we see fog in the evening at SFO, especially with a long-range forecast that shows light rain.
It's the outbound segments that have me concerned. SJC-SBA-SFO-BUR-DEN-IAD. Two possible choke points there-
#1: SFO. Bad weather in the morning at SFO can wreck things through the middle of the day. I'm depending upon the SBA-SFO flight not having a long delay getting in, and the SFO-BUR plane, if weather is an issue, might be significantly delayed getting into SFO from wherever it comes from.
#2: DEN. Long range forecast was previously clear & cold, now shows "few snow showers" and a range of 26-34F. At least it's a 777, so probably less prone to issues than smaller planes.
The tough part will be figuring out whether to try a pre-emptive strategy if things look potentially bad, or ride it out as far as I can. The danger is losing the extra miles from those short segments. It's 100% clear that I cannot know how UA is going to view the miles on the original itin. Reading the threads referenced in prior messages, UA generally gave in, but not willingly.
If this were a true MR with no other redeeming value, no problem, accept that it might take an extra day to get into IAD. But if I could spend about 7 hours at IAD, it would be invaluable from a business standpoint. There's a retail bicycle shop that I can visit there from which I could learn a lot.