Originally Posted by
flyingseal6
I’m new to the forum and have what I hope are some very basic questions. How do I book a round trip flight that is about a year away? Here’s the story. I’m planning on taking the family of 5 from Chicago to Hawaii next December for a 10 day trip. I understand that the award seats go quickly, so I wanted to try and book on the first available day. After reading the other threads, it appears as if the earliest I can book is between 330-338 days out.
Here’s the part that confuses me. If I wanted to depart on Dec. 21, I have to book 330-338 days for the departure, but I would still have to wait another 10 days before I can book the return flight home. Is that right? If I’m fortunate enough to find seats for the Dec. 21 flights, but can’t find award flights for the return trip on Dec. 31, what happens?
Here’s some additional information that may help answer my questions. We have about 375,000 miles on united and about 500,000 points on American express.
Thank you in advance for your help.
It's tough to book award travel on this route, especially during the Christmas season, but here are two things you may wish to consider.
1) You'll have more options if your group can split up and take different flights to and from Hawaii. No doubt that's not your preference, but it may be necessary to do so to obtain 5 award seats.
2) Both UA and AA offer one-way fares for half the price (in miles) of RT. As you know, this makes it possible to book the outbound flight before the return (about 10 days before, in your case). But it also makes it possible for you to fly UA in one direction and AA in the other, depending on award availability.