Originally Posted by
joer1212
Well, it's several hours later now, and, while I was busy deciding among a couple of reasonably-priced premium awards on AA (and even on UA), they all disappeared right before my eyes (this, mind you, for awards with 2 stopovers, that I would have had to book segment by segment).
It's sickening what a rat race getting a decent award has become, ever since this awful 'dynamic pricing' took effect. The vast majority of awards are now exorbitantly priced, and the very few that are reasonable quickly disappear, before you even have a chance to decide. It became a war of scarcity. You're basically fighting for table scraps.
What's worse is that, I already transferred 21,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Krisflyer (for an inbound award that looked good), but now, I can't book it without my outbound.
On AA you should not have to book segment by segment. The awards I sent you were single awards.
Don't take time to decide. If it's decent, book it. It's completely refundable (including fees) right up to takeoff.
You can also do a 5 day hold but not all partners will honor them for more than a day. I would just book it. If you find something better (or can't find a return) cancel.
I believe that UA also has free cancellations (but not free holds) so the same advice applies. If it looks like it might be decent, book it first and think about it later.