Originally Posted by
mattlwilliams
I’m looking to book with United for a return trip between LHR and SFO next Nov (around the 11th for 10 days). I want to book their non-stop service with business saver awards (so it would be 70K miles each way, plus around £400 co-pay). However, when I search, their non-stop service is not available at this time for business saver awards, and only parters (SAS and Air Canada) with 1-stop come up with this award category. My question is, if I wait will United’s non-stop business saver awards category come up for sale on this flight? If not, I’ll book with one of their partners now, but I don’t want to jump the gun just incase United release this category of award closer to departure.
Welcome to FlyerTalk!
Non-stop business saver awards can be very difficult to find. UA will sometimes open availability and other times will not. There's no way to tell, and there's no set schedule.
You have a couple of options: 1 - book a partner award and waitlist for your preferred nonstop flight; you can do this by calling UA after you've made your initial booking. 2- wait and hope. If you have some flexibility on dates, it's possible that something will open up for you. If you're tied to a particular date, the waitlist option is probably your best bet.
BTW, there's no co-pay on UA awards. The £400 is taxes -- specifically, most of it is the Air Passenger Duty for premium cabin travel. If you were to start your trip from anywhere outside of England, Scotland, and Wales, you could avoid that tax; of course, then you'd have to get there first.
