Originally Posted by
LondonElite
Welcome to FT!
The direct option EWR-DBV would of course be most convenient, but I take it that there was no award availability when you originally booked? Also, you say this would require you to transit from A to C at EWR; are you starting your journey somewhere else, and is that on a separate ticket? That could throw up some issues as well.
To your original point, UA Gold / *G isn't going to make much difference in this case. It is tight, but doable in just over an hour. I don't know what later flights there are out of YYZ to FRA/MUC that evening on AC or LH, but AC would rebook you on one of those if you did miss the original flight and all of this is on one ticket. There is, of course, the distinct possibility that another flight on this itinerary is retimed, so keep an eye on it, but no reason to worry now.
Thank you! Long time lurker in these forums, happy to have joined.
Very astute observations! Yes this all started when we tried to redeem a boatload of Amex Membership Reward Points, and AC Aeroplan had an excellent bonus transfer offer last Fall. And keep in mind, UA is not an Amex transfer partner. To your point, the Aeroplan award options on the UA nonstop out of EWR were poor (for Polaris, they did have Y open), but we found a decent deal for F on AC metal, albeit with the slightly whacky routing.
We are originating from CVG - so yes we'll need to buy a separate ticket. We may actually come in a day or two early to visit friends in the NYC area, which would minimize the risk. If we did fly in the same day, I would be sure to book with plenty of extra time, as I'm well aware of the risks of connections on separate tickets. The entire EWR-DBV itinerary on AC is on a single ticket.
My comment on transferring from A to C is more in reference to the fact that AC departs from A, and UA's DBV flight almost certainly will be departing from C, where virtually all of UA int'l flights leave from at EWR. And UA's DBV flight leaves at 19:20, so it would require us to know about an AC delay well in advance to have any chance of making it if we're sitting in A. But to your point, it sounds like AC would not put us on UA anyway.
The options in YYZ are not great if we miss the 21:35 to FRA. Assuming schedules operate as currently planned, all of LH's flights are gone already. AC has a 23:50 to LHR, and TAP has an 23:00 to LIS. Both are unenviable options - I guess LHR would be preferred as there would be some options to get us to DBV late on LH or OU (Croatian), space permitting.
I suppose we will wait a bit to see if there are any other schedule changes. "Tight but doable" is probably okay since there are some fallback options.