Originally Posted by
CeeCeeSays
Trip would be SDF to ORD to LHR in April, leaving 4/2, 3 or 4 (flexible!), return 4/14 (not flexible). Booking inclusive of the SDF portion appears to be cheaper right now, which seems weird to me. I've read about Plan B booking and that seems unlikely to work for us?
Welcome to FlyerTalk!
Connecting flights are often cheaper than nonstop flights; there's nothing particularly logical about the way airfare is priced.
I always think of it as "UA is paying me to fly from XYZ," which works out to be a good deal in my book.
Originally Posted by
CeeCeeSays
I could book the trip using points to upgrade- booking us in Premium Plus on the way there, with the waitlist to business option, and then Premium Plus on the way home. I'd normally be perfectly happy in just regular economy on the return flight, but this doesn't appear to be an option- I *have* to upgrade on the way home too to do this. This would use 80k points and would be an extra $1400 in addition to our credit.
You do not have to upgrade the return in order to upgrade the outbound. Don't do a search for upgrades; just buy the ticket the way you would normally; after it tickets, you'll find an "Upgrade Flight" button in your reservation.
Originally Posted by
CeeCeeSays
Or, I could book one business class ticket for $2300 (economy return, so $600 extra in addition to our credit), book the other outgoing to London as a one way (115k), wait until I have more points and hopefully get enough points for a saver economy return?
$2300 for business outbound, economy return doesn't sound like a bargain. If this is the option you select, I'd be tempted to wait a little while to see what else might pop up. The same is true for the award flight, incidentally, although sales on cash fares tend to be somewhat more common than sales on awards. (If/when they offer sales on award tickets, it's generally a discounted number of miles off of economy travel).
Hope this helps. April is still a long time away, so there's still a chance.