Originally Posted by
Kacee
AFAIK, married segments on awards are only an issue on UA and LH flights.
UA does not control its partners' releases of award availability.
Didn't know this ^
Originally Posted by
cyborg
I've had similar issues and worked the problem by booking alternative flights that I could live with and then changing to the preferred flights when they open up close to the day of departure window. I've always been able to change to the flights I wanted. In some cases I changed to a more complex routing with additional cities/stopovers that didn't increase the cost or miles needed.
So in your case it would be possible to book the JFK OZ award and then switch to an IAD-NRT-XXX using NH/XX or IAD-FRA/MUC-XXX using LH/XX for example when those flights open up which they tend to do. You might have to adjust your departure by a day or two in the worst case, but this shouldn't impact your notice to the boss...
V/r,
-Cyborg
Good point, I could do this, but I won't have UA status next year (by then UA miles may not be worth much anyway)... I just like to have everything planned as early on as possible and not change it. Guess I'll have to learn to cope with this for better flights ^