Originally Posted by
smiles33
I vastly prefer nonstop flights given a missed connection debacle on our last int'l trip, but I see an option to fly confirmed J class to Beijing on UA metal and then PE on SA to Singapore (but with only 1 hour and 10 minutes for connecting time--isn't that insane to try to de-plane, go through customs, and board again in 70 minutes?). Would you do this to use up our UA miles?
Only if I spoke fluent Mandarin (I don't), had a valid Chinese tourist visa (I do), and were willing to spend however much time it took in Beijing to wait for four additional seats. So, no, in other words.
(BTW: SA is South African Airlines; Singapore Airlines is SQ). Also, PE awards on partner airlines aren't valuable with MileagePlus miles, and SQ awards aren't currently bookable, so I'm not sure what you were actually looking at. Maybe Air China (CA) economy? There is a special line for Terminal 3 transfers where you go through an expedited customs and immigration check, but, no, 70 minutes is absolutely asking to be stranded.
Originally Posted by
smiles33
Let me add that I don't think we'll be doing another int'l trip after Feb. 2020 for many years due to my husband's rigid work schedule (he has to work when our kids are out of school at winter break, spring break, and summer, and our eldest starts high school in 2020 so we won't have the random Feb. and Sept. breaks that the kids' current school offers). We will still take 3 or 4 day trips and could try to use UA miles on domestic flights, but I know those saver awards are difficult to get and we would have rigid dates.
It's extremely easy to extend the expiration of United miles at little or no cost; all you need to do is to earn or redeem miles once every 18 months. There's an entire thread on ways to do this (get a cheap magazine subscription, buy an inexpensive gift card through the MileagePlus X app, etc.). That said, with UA's recent decision to get rid of the award chart and move to purely dynamic pricing for all trips after November 15, I think saver awards are going to be an outdated concept. I would simply book whatever seems most reasonable at the time -- cash or points -- and I would
not be trying to save them for a future high-value redemption. They're simply depreciating too quickly.
Originally Posted by
smiles33
Finally, the last bit of background is that we have a trip to Tokyo planned this Sept. on SA and I created an SA KrisFlyer frequent flier account thinking we would accrue some KF points for our Feb. trip. I had thought I'd supplement with our Chase points and try to upgrade from a PE seat to J. But given how few miles we'll get from this flight and the low likelihood of upgrades on SA as well, should I try to switch the miles credit to our UA accounts?
For all of the problems that MileagePlus has, KrisFlyer might be worse. All KrisFlyer points expire 36 months after they are earned -- so unless you're able to redeem them by September of 2022, they'll simply expire. If UA is going to be your main airline for the foreseeable future, I'd just credit to MileagePlus. (That would also extend the expiration of your MileagePlus miles).
Originally Posted by
smiles33
I thought I might try to use United miles to upgrade on SA, but I see on the Star Alliance page that you cannot use miles to upgrade on any SA A350, A380 and 777-300ER aircraft flights (which rules out our flight).
Even if the flights had been eligible, the upgradeable coach fare may be more expensive than a discount business class fare.
PS: The SQ A350 is the proud provider of the least comfortable lie-flat seat I have ever flown (when in the lie-flat position; it was great when sitting up). I have no interest in flying it again.