Can I book a UA connecting flight with Avios?
 

On the Avios website, I can easily book DUB-SFO, but I want to continue on to Sacramento (SMF) with United. If I search DUB-SMF, nothing is ever available on any day. Can I not book a connecting UA flight on the Avios website? If I go to Mileage Plus, it does offer me the same Aer Lingus flight to SFO with a UA connection to SMF, so it clearly is available on multiple days. What’s going on? Thanks.

Unfortunately it's not a 2 way street. UA tickets cannot be booked via avios.com, but UA have access to EI stock on their system (for now anyway, likely a change will happen here in the not so distant future).

The simple reason is that UA-coded flights cannot be bought using avois.com. You'll have to buy a separate SFO-SMF ticket, understanding that you won't have a connection and therefor bear the risks that, if you miss this flight for whatever reason, the whole UA ticket will auto-cancel.

Why wouldn't you just book DUB-LAX-SMF or something with Avios?
And you don't actually want to take the SFO SMF flight. You have a decent change of the flight getting cancelled (don't know if they've improved it in the last few years). Though you can always drive

Oh, didn’t realize it wasn’t a 2-way Street. Thanks for letting me know. Yes, I understand that with the new UA service to Dublin service, a complete break is likely.

Thanks for the info. Yes, I understand that buying a separate ticket is a risk. I often buy a SW ticket LAX-SMF to connect with the DUB-LAX flight, but it’s always a worry (although others have told me that SW is very forgiving in those circumstances and have actually re-booked people at no extra charge in those circumstances).

Does Avios.com have access to AA stock? I run into the same problem when I try to book DUB-LAX-SMF on the Avios website: Plenty of nonstop availability when I search DUB-LAX (for example Feb. 14-17), but absolutely nothing when I search DUB-SMF.

Also, I see you also know the terrible reliability of those SFO-SMF flights! I think it has improved in the last couple of years, particular if no weather issues — but it’s still risky. I don’t drive because the DUB-SFO flight arrives right at the beginning of rush hour and I don’t want to subject myself to that SFO-City-Bay Bridge-I-80 traffic horror show to Sacramento! If you include the rental and return times, the whole horrible process could take as long as the flight itself! 😩 (maybe slightl exaggeration..)

avios.com does not have access to AA but BA.com via their avios booking system does. But only for milesaaver or whatever AA call that low mileage award class. You can transfer avios from avios.com (you're aerclub account for example) to BAEC for free instantly and then redeem AA flights (or any oneworld) via them. But to book an EI flight on BA's system you need to call BA....and yes we are all aware of how convoluted this all is!!

As an aside, my fiancée did just this in the week leading up to Christmas. It took us 2 hours to get from SFO to the East Bay after EI147 (DUB-SFO), at which point we'd had enough and night-stopped.

Next time: connecting flight to SMF is definitely the way to go.

Why do you take the Bay Bridge? There are bridges further south and you get to avoid the city.
Regarding the rental though, SFO has the airtrain to take you to the rental car center, and it really isn't that bad (just sign up for the rental program so you can skip the counter).
But in terms of avoiding the hassle, the flight is much better than the traffic. Even if the flight is delayed by an hour it still only takes 20 minutes in the air to get there. Thus faster than driving.

I disagree that UA starting DUB-SFO will "kill" the partnership.

Afterall, they already compete on DUB-EWR and seasonally on DUB-IAD and DUB-ORD.

Yes, actually, that's a really good point. Let's hope competition on that route works at SFO.