Originally Posted by
demosthenes1
I've been looking for US to Aus next Jan or Feb for weeks (either J or F), and nothing has showed up. Is it hopeless for those months, or do I just need to keep looking?
Originally Posted by
JVPhoto
Direct on UA?
I see some stuff through Asia available for saver.
It's still around Australian summer time so not peak Christmas/Holiday time but pretty close.
Originally Posted by
demosthenes1
Yeah, I see the Asia stuff, too, but I'm looking for direct.
The award availability is quite dynamic, especially for UA. In May 2014, I decided to go to the US for Christmas and booked AU>US on Cathay J/F via HKG, but I still needed a return trip to SYD. There was no UA availability from around 15 Dec to around 22 Jan (this is from memory, but I was on united.com once or twice a week for seven months checking it out), but I kept looking. Things started opening up in January.
In the end, AC came up with several options... first I booked YVR-PVG-(CA)-SYD. Then YVR-SYD opened up on 31 Dec which I booked, then on 2 Jan which I eventually went with.
Having (a) Platinum or 1K status for free changes, and (b) lots of flexibility makes all the difference.
I will say that, had I been willing to fly US>AU towards the end of January, the options opened up quite a bit, but I needed to be back in early January.
Now that UA no longer displays on ExpertFlyer, I would just suggest you check a couple of times a week. If you're looking for just one, or maybe two, seats, you should find something in UA J, UA F, or AC J.