Originally Posted by
aschuett
Thanks to this thread, I'm planning a six week trip with my wife, and meeting several others within our family on the way. But of course I have a question that seems to not be covered - or if it is my searching didn't turn it up.
Because the routes I am taking seem to be busy, I'm wondering if it may be wise to use the 5 day hold on this award type to my advantage. I just want to verify that I can construct and hold a trip with a purposely wrong date on the last flight, then change the date of that last flight on the 4th or 5th day of the hold to a date that is then 330 days out? That would help by locking in my award space on those other 10 or so segments a few days earlier, right?
Yes, assuming all your segments together form a valid explorer award, you can certainly hold them for 5 days with the intention to later change the date of the last segment when award space opens up at 330 days out. You can even repeatedly hold and renew the hold to get multiple 5-day holds, but there is a risk that each time you renew the hold, the award space may not be there to renew.