I seem to get varying responses from different agents, primarily because not many of them are aware that something like this can be done. The closest I got to an answer was with one agent who said that United miles can be used on 9W flights BUT, the caveat was that the flight had to be within 24 hours from the time of ticketing...that didnt really sound correct to me but it was the best I could do.

I really don't want to wait until 24 hours before travel and risk getting stuck and paying $300+ for a domestic leg....I'd rather pay the luggage fee and call it a day but it would still be nice to try to get it all on one ticket.

I just get the feeling that there is some specific fare code or process that the agents have to do to see/request award availability on 9w? Does it have to be done independently of the other travel and then they merge the two PNR? I am very new to this so any help from others in my situation is greatly appreciated!