Originally Posted by
Hergertarian
I'm planning on doing an SFO->NRT, NRT->SFO trip in September to burn a few GPUs. Does anyone have any experience buying tickets with chase ultimate points, and then applying a GP?
It seems like te lowest available fares are GPU eligible, but Im a bit worried about the tickets being issued as bulk or group tickets.
You will need to call, assuming that the lowest available is not GPU eligible. Ask to book your trip "segment by segment" or similar, this will usually clue the agent in to use SABRE (which I believe is their backend) to book. They will be then keying directly into a terminal and it helps to feed in the format "date, orig-dest, flight number, booking code". Then at the end they will price the ticket and you can check it matches what you expect.
This can also be a useful time for other questions, like "is UA the validating carrier of the ticket?".
Then call UA to clear the GPU after it tickets. You can confirm it's not a bulk fare once you get the ticket, but forcing a W code makes it rather unlikely. As noted you have ~24 hours to cancel the ticket (by calling back Chase and having them void it). The will tell you that your ticket "is not upgradeable or changeable" but that's in the mandatory CYA "script" and not indicative of a bulk fare.