Originally Posted by
Jasper2009
Have you checked YYJ-SFO-LHR on UA? While UA Y isnŽt as good as AC Y, youŽd not only save the 40k miles, but also hundreds of dollars in fuel surcharges. YYJ-SFO tends to have decent availability IME.
You should also check YYJ-YYC-LHR.
Check individual segments vs. the entire journey. Some folks also use services like awardnexus.com where the website will do an automated search every day.
Excellent advice - just pay the cancellation fee - you will get the hundreds of dollars you paid back, as well as your point.
Try to find YYJ-SFO-LHR on UA, or even better YYJ-SFO-LAX-LHR, last leg on NZ. Any transatlantic on Air Canada/Lufthansa will cost you $800 in fees, and those may have gone up siginficantly since you bought your ticket, so not only will you get dinged with change fee, but hundreds of dollars more in scamcharges.