Originally Posted by
Colin
SIN-SFO arrives at 9AM. Let's say you are booked SFO-LAS 11AM on the same ticket and intend to no show.
Let's say you really need to fly SFO-SBA instead (a route where only UA offers nonstop service).
Let's say you further want to buy a discounted SFO-SBA fare in advance.
If you book SFO-SBA for ~11AM, you are at high risk for a UA's automated duplicate booking process producing unwanted cancellations.
If you book SFO-SBA for ~4PM, you are at medium risk.
If you book SFO-SBA for -10PM, you are at low risk.
If you book SFO-SBA for ~11AM next day, you are at no risk.
If you really want the SFO-SBA for ~11AM same-day, you'll need to mitigate risk. One option is to get SFO-LAS ~11AM flight changed to much later in the day or early the next morning. Another option is to book SFO-SBA with a different name (JOHNQUINCY ADAMS, a birthday typo).
Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
evidence UA uses a variety of factors to detect flyers
Booking SFO-YYY on a separate carrier is the safest solution
Appreciate the thoughts, but my far bigger concern is risk to my account and lifetime 1K status by skip-lagging the original SFO-XXX flight. That's why I posted in that thread (before mods moved it here). Not really concerned about what will happen if I double book UA segments, especially if, as suggested, I were to choose a different carrier for SFO-XXX. That solves the UA double-book issue but not the UA skip-lag issue. Maybe there is no better answer than "risk is low but if you want zero risk, don't do it," but curious if any prior reports of adverse consequences for first-ever skip-lag.