CanadianMike

Hey FT,

Trying to book an AE Reward Flight w/ a relative's SE100K points.

Route is MAN - YCD on either Thursday March 24th or Friday the 25th.
(could possibly do Wednesday the 23rd but really not preferable).

At the moment the only availability I see in Y is on the 22nd or 26th.
Anyone know any tricks to find more availability on the dates I want?

I'm also traveling with extra checked bags so trying to only fly Star Alliance airlines so that I only have to pay the fees once.

Thanks in advance for any help!
- Mike

mountaingrl

Looks for routings through the US. Even to gets hints just use google flights - you can see that some *A routings are MAN-EWR-YVR-YCD or MAN-BRU-YUL-YVR-YCD or MAN-IAD-YYZ-YVR-YCD and then just search segment by segment on AE.com.

Once you find availability for all your segments you can call in to book.
You can also search via United under their reward searches, you are looking for economy blue saver rewards which will translate to bookings available for booking with AE points (but ignore the taxes that UA gives you as they will be different when booking on AE.com).

Oh if you are using an SE's points there must be priority availability - are you logging into their account?

pitz

First step I'd take is to see if the YCD-YVR segment is the 'bottleneck' or not. If it is, then you might have to drop YCD-YVR/YVR-YCD on the outbound or the inbound and/or switch to YYJ or YQQ in order to be able to generate a valid reservation.

Likewise, figure out what Star Alliance flights exist out of MAN, and determine whether availability on such exists.

mountaingrl

The YVR-YCD is easy enough I think OP is having trouble getting out of MAN.

FRA-YCD available March 24 priority rewards. I see MAN-FRA available on SQLH as a regular Y reward - maybe this will work but I cannot easily see what the minimum connection time in FRA is on EF from dom-int, not sure if 90min which if it is you will be fine (oh you are fine over 2hrs). You will have to call it in....


Singapore Airlines SQ327

Departs :
Thu. Mar 24
08:45
Manchester (MAN)

Arrives :
Thu. Mar 24
11:50
Munich (MUC)

Flight Duration : 2h 05 min
ECONOMY
Class X
Boeing 777-300
Complimentary meal

Change plane in Munich
Time to connect : 2h 10 min



Lufthansa LH109

Departs :
Thu. Mar 24
14:00
Munich (MUC)

Arrives :
Thu. Mar 24
15:05
Frankfurt (FRA)

Flight Duration : 1h 05 min
ECONOMY
Class X
32A
Meal Not available


Air Canada AC877

Departs :
Thu. Mar 24
17:10
Frankfurt (FRA)

Arrives :
Thu. Mar 24
20:50
Toronto Pearson (YYZ)

Flight Duration : 8h 40 min
ECONOMY
Class X
Airbus A330-300
Complimentary meal

Change plane in Toronto Pearson
Time to connect : 2h 05 min



Air Canada AC151

Departs :
Thu. Mar 24
22:55
Toronto Pearson (YYZ)

Arrives :
Fri. Mar 25
01:09
Vancouver (YVR)

Flight Duration : 5h 14 min
ECONOMY
Class X
Airbus A321-100/200
Meal available for purchase

Change plane in Vancouver
Time to connect : 6h 16 min



Air Canada AC8257 Operated by AIR CANADA EXPRESS - JAZZ

Departs :
Fri. Mar 25
07:25
Vancouver (YVR)

Arrives :
Fri. Mar 25
07:48
Nanaimo (YCD)

Flight Duration : 23 min
ECONOMY
Class X
Dash 8-300
Meal Not available

You have a bit of a layover in YVR but it's a big airport so lots of places to nap (or there are airport hotels).