Originally Posted by
ualboston1k
Hi Friends
I’m looking to book my family a trip to the UK for next summer. I’ve not booked an award trip since late 2018, and that was a trip entirely on LH. So I’m not as familiar with some of the award changes.
First off, searching the BOS-LHR leg it’s infuriating UA is pricing the new nonstop at higher prices than via a connection. Dynamic award pricing at work. It is what it is.
My main concern is the lack of *A award options listed in search results. It used to be, a year or so ago, all I saw were LH and LX results any time I searched an itinerary from BOS to Europe. But now it’s different. I only see UA and most flights are much more than 30K miles each way in XN. Most flights are 45-52K miles each way. There are no LH, LX, or any other partner flights.
Is UA restricting visibility to partner awards? I know *A coach awards to Europe are typically 30K miles. It seems like UA is intentionally not showing cheaper, partner awards and instead pushing folks to more expensive UA flights.
What tips do you have for me so I can see more *A options?
Thanks!!
Partner availability is completely controlled by the partner airline, and as much as people think UA might be restricting partner award space that has never been an issue. If you want to confirm you can always check on the Air Canada website to confirm what the UA site is showing is accurate.
I am guessing LH and LX are not releasing partner availability for the same reason UA is increasing the pricing for their flights, most airlines believe that Summer 2022 will be the busiest North America to Europe travel season ever. Lots of factors here but mainly people haven't been able to travel for 2 years and many other destination options (Australia, NZ, Asia) aren't open for tourists yet.
It looks like all but 4 days in Summer 2022 I was able to find connecting flights at 30k Miles . If you book now there is a decent chance there will be a schedule change of 30+ minutes, which would qualify you to rebook on other flights, and you can then change onto the nonstop if that is what you are looking for.
As an aside, I was very surprised about the amount of business saver availability to LHR on AC via YUL and YYZ in May, July, and August (unfortunately June was not available), it seems to be 3+ seats on most days if anyone is looking for a good deal to Europe this summer.