jwongathon

Wow, this is going to be so useful.

Any tips on routings to get to portal cities on non-YQ carriers (aka UA) from YVR??

YOWgary

Limited options here, since going through a US hub means adding a fair bit of mileage on most routings.

You're basically looking at UA to DEN or ORD, possibly NYC depending on your destination. SFO is pretty much a direct back-track.

BenSenise

yes, you're right. a distinction i failed to take into account.

jwongathon

What do you mean by adding on mileage? Sorry, kinda noob..

m.y

Aeroplan award routing is limited by some distance based on city pairs. From YVR, UA hubs tend to be far south of YVR so flying via UA hubs would add quite a bit of distance that would likely invalidate the routing.

Example for YVR-LHR:

Nonstop is 4723 miles

via DEN is 5784 miles (+22%) DEN is 1114 miles from YVR, significant backtrack

via SFO is 6167 miles (+30%), closer than DEN at 800 miles, but totally backtrack

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=yvr-lhr...hr,yvr-sfo-lhr

I don't know what the distance limit between YVR and LHR is, but flying UA hubs will increase the chance of you breaching the limit.

The issue isn't as severe for YYZ since UA hubs of ORD and EWR are much closer, less than 500 miles away. EWR also involves much less backtracking, adding only 7% comparing to nonstop YYZ-LHR distance.

rataplan

I looked up United award availability (super saver award for a business seat) on the United site. Called Aeroplan to book it but they said it didn't show up on the Aeroplan site and that I can only book awards that show up there (on the Aeroplan site). Is this correct? Or, how do I find Aeroplan availability on United.com?
cheers!

jerryhung

AP agent is wrong, HUACA

UA Saver (blue button) = you can feed that segment (date + flight #) to the AP agent and they should see it (and pay the $30 booking fee)

To confirm yourself, do a one-way (or R/T) search on THAT SEGMENT ONLY on Aeroplan.com yourself to see. e.g. Instead of YYZ-ORD-BRU, just search ORD-BRU and see if you see UA availability

rataplan

^

Majumdar

I heartily second this. Being on a budget, but having a fair number (150,000 +) AP miles collected... The YUL - IST connection to Europe on TK was absolutely perfect for both hard and soft product... and dirt cheap as far as (no) scamcharges go.

Inflight catering is neverending and excellent. As is the CIP lounge in IST if you're transiting to Asia or elsewhere in Europe.

Rob

nnanlno

kinda wished this thread came earlier, as i just booked one last week after lurking (and studying) on FT for months. but props to OP nonetheless!

this is what i booked, all on Y:

YYZ-ORD (lay)
ORD-CDG (stop)
CDG-VIE (22 hours layover)
VIE-VEN (open jaw)
FCO-EWR (lay)
EWR-YYZ

all comes to $250 YQ/tax in + $30 call centre fee

one question about the itin above. over the phone, the CSR said the itin would not have been valid, if the VIE layover was made a stop instead. is this true? i never understood why. i thought i was allowed 2 stops + 1 open jaw?

originally, i wanted to book the following:
YYZ-EWR (lay)
EWR-LHR (open jaw)
AMS-VIE (lay)
VIE-FCO (stop)
FCO-EWR (lay)
EWR-YYZ

however, i was told that the open jaw is invalid, since FCO is my furthest leg (destination?), and the open jaw must be just before or after that. is that true?

if wanted to visit london, it would be great to be able to fly in LHR (instead of out, to avoid the hefty airport fee for departing from LHR), work the way inward to mainland via eurostar, then out at another city further east. (originally i was thinking london (eurostar) -> paris (thalys) -> amsterdam). but given the above, it sounds like it's only plausible to do LHR as open jaw starter, then return at MAD, BCN, LIS and the likes. (and unfortunately these options were available on my desired return dates)

nnanlno

one other note. if one is planning a Europe 1. in order to hop inter-europe, be prepared to do a layover at one of the alliance's hub (BRU, VIE, MUC, FRA, WAW, ZRH, GVA). (ie. if u wanted to get from CDG to VEN, be prepared to do a connection/layover in one of the city above)

obviously try to avoid MUC and FRA in order to get away with LH's YQ. some have mentioned seemingly hefty YQ on LO at WAW as well.

fly CDG to VEN via VIE in my case was about $150 i believe.

m.y

Welcome to FT! You can have either 2 stopovers, or 1 stop over with an open jaw (Such you can have up to 3 destinations in total, 2 stopovers and an open jaw would result in 4 destinations). Open jaw must be within the same IATA zone as either the origin or destination city. In your case, YYZ-VIE is 4330 miles, and YYZ-FCO is 4415 miles. The farthest destination would be your destination (or the city with higher award rate). You could try hang up and call another agent and you may get different results.

For your London example, you could do YYZ-LHR (open jaw) FCO (destination) - ZRH (stopover) - YYZ

nnanlno

considering:
YYZ-EWR (lay)
EWR-LHR (open jaw)
AMS-VIE (lay)
VIE-FCO (stop)
FCO-EWR (lay)
EWR-YYZ

the 3 destinations are LHR, AMS, and FCO. why wouldn't that be valid then?

Marlin240

I think the reason is that the open-jaw segment must either include the origin or the destination - in your case, the open-jaw would have to involve FCO (as ultimate destination). As it stands, the open-jaw segment you're proposing occurs before you reach the destination; i.e., instead of the open-jaw occurring between LHR and FCO (as m.y proposed), it's taking place between LHR and AMS. As far as I know, these open-jaw rules are IATA-based rather than something required by AP (then again, I've heard rumours that on occasion an AP agent might allow you to break that rule).

Not that I know what an agent at AP would say, but how about making LHR and AMS stopovers, the doing the open-jaw between AMS and FCO, thereby allowing you to find other means to do AMS-VIE-FCO by alternate means (e.g., train)?

grandgourmand

Thanks for the work Jerry. I'll be the demanding guy, though, and ask if you can also add which carriers release 2 (or more) seats when the schedule opens?

The LX option is great, in theory. However, I can never find it.

TK, LO, SK...like clockwork.

Too bad SN isn't available for long haul. Or at least none that I've found.