FlyerGoldII

I have booked my wife to go to OGG from YOW in a few days, through IKK (priority) Aeroplan J class award return ticket. Most flights will be on AC; one flight will be on UA.

She is a E75K (ie Star Alliance Gold) Altitude member.

She will arrive from YOW via YYZ at SFO on J class AC flights at night. The next morning, she is booked to go on a UA flight in the Y cabin.

Questions:

a) as this is a J class Aeroplan ticket, can she ask to be put on the upgrade waiting list for the UA SFO-OGG flight?

b) will she has any issues with access to the UA lounge? Of course, the average UA Star Alliance Gold member by virtue of the appropriate Mileage Plus status would not be allowed into this domestic UA flight status.

c) How does she make sure that she is not listed as a zone/group 5 passenger? - which she might ordinarily be by virtue of her status not showing up on the Aeroplan ticket, and by virtue that this flight is booked in economy class (notwithstanding an overall J class ticket).

d) To get TSA precheck on this flight, does she need to enter her known traveler number (ie nexus number) on this flight?; presumably, if she just enters the nexus number onto the main Aeroplan ticket would not have that nexus number subsequently having that number entered into the UA pnr?

canadiancow

a) No. You can generally only do that on the airline whose program you booked the ticket. Keep watching for I space.
b) No, she's AC*G, and can get in on any itinerary. If she has an Amex Platinum, I'd recommend the Centurion Lounge though.
c) Make sure the AC number is on the United booking (you can do this at united.com), and she'll get group 2 boarding and other Premier Access benefits.
d) She needs to add it on the United booking.

Jasper2009

Agree with all points above. One more note: If you check in on the UA website, you may be able to pay for an upgrade. Paid upgrades on UA are often priced quite reasonably.

Btw, R space is wide-open on all YVR-OGG flights this week, so IKK should be available; may be worth taking a closer look. IMO it's definitely worth paying the change fee to reroute via SFO vs. spending 5h in UA Y.

expert7700

Jasper's point won't work if OP is SE but spouse has lower status.

For international (and Hawaii) destinations, IKK is not available unless both the SE100k member and their spouse are on the exact same PNR.

canadiancow

This only applies to J, and it requires being in the same cabin on the same flight. You definitely don't need to be on the same PNR.

Jasper2009

I don't think this is correct.

IKK in J to Hawaii and int'l destinations should be available to immediate family members (incl. spouse) even if the OP is not travelling at all.

FlyerGoldII

You are correct. Hawaii is considered to be like a non-US international destination - except for immediate family (ie spouse, children under 25 yrs of age), others can not be booked for IKK through a SE account, unless the SE is travelling in business class (either paid seat or award seat; upgrade does not count) on one of the trans-oceanic segments.

One must have the immediate family members listed as such; for such awards to be offered to them. One thing that irritates me; one can not book such awards for the family members on the Aeroplan web site, unless the SE is travelling with them (then the booking reference number has to be provided). So I had to call the Aeroplan agent, and pay the telephone booking fee!

CrownRoyalForever

a. She can tell the gate agent in SFO that she is on a business class mixed cabin award ticket and ask for J space if available, or if not ask for a courtesy seat in E+.


​​​​d. If she has the UA pnr she can edit certain traveler info on their website. I don't recall if there is a KTN field (where she could enter her Nexus number) but if not, she can create a UA MP profile and add her Nexus/KTN info then she can change the FF# on the PNR to the UA MP, which should grant her Precheck. However, this can create some wonkiness with the AC IT...


Cheers

FlyerGoldII

Booked a week at a timeshare in Maui, starting on the day of arrival in Maui. The day of arrival is one day after the day of departure, by design.

My wife and I wanted her to enjoy the benefits of being at the timeshare from the official check-in time of around 4 pm; right now she arrives at OGG on the day of check-in shortly after 11 am. If she gets early check-on, maybe she can enjoy the benefits of the resort from the moment she arrives there.

If I had booked her to go from YOW to OGG via YVR on the day of arrival, she would have arrived at 9:20 pm at OGG - the enjoyment of the resort that day at the resort would have been lost.

Then you could have asked that why not via YVR to OGG one day before check-in at the resort? Well on that day, she had commitments for the morning - and a routing via YVR requires an early-morning departure from YOW. She is leaving on a YOW to YYZ flight at 2 pm - then connecting to an evening YYZ-SFO flight, on the day of departure.

Stopping overnight in San Francisco; I got her a hotel at the Fairfield Inn - on points - so no direct cost to us (in terms of money) for an extra night.


By the way, my 21 year old daughter joins her 2 days after my wife arrives there - I ticketed her with my Aeroplan miles via YVR - so she does arrive late at night - she therefore really has only 4 full days plus check-out day; unlike my wife's check-in day plus 2 additional full days over what would be enjoyed by my daughter. My daughter had some additional final U of Ottawa exams to complete; so she was not able to leave at the same time as my wife! She does however come back with my wife.


PS-doing a last minute trip to Hawaii on business class using an award ticket is impossible on UA (at least for non-Mileage Plus members) or on AC except for SE. The Canada - OGG flights were wide open in business class - but booking a last minute trans-continental flight was difficult - no R space on many of the flights, and therefore no IKK!
For one reason or another, it took the Aeroplan agent a couple of hours to make the bookings. If she asks for business class award from A to B via C and D - her computer shows no award space in business class! She has to manually enter each of the segments! The coming back, when she booked the second passenger, some of the flights lost the second seat for Aeroplan award booking - so she had to start all over again for the return itinerary.

FlyerGoldII

We do have a UA pnr for her ticket. I had the information added both by calling a UA agent, and editing the entered information by going to the UA web site under her booking.

Of note, the passenger information, even for this award ticket, accepted her Aeroplan number - I know, because now the luggage/baggage page says that 2 of her checked bags are free - not usually seen with a non-status passenger in the economy cabin.

SKYEG

All fair points and it makes sense but I'd still fly AC J and change your itin to avoid flying UA Y and also having to go to SFO for the night. But you guys seem content with your decision(it's still a good one) and I'm sure it will be an amazing time!!!

TOR27

Would be interested to see how this goes in terms of waitlisting for F space. I am doing the exact same thing in a couple weeks for my honeymoon (YYZ-SFO in J, SFO-OGG in Y) and the United rep I talked to on the phone said that I could be waitlisted for F at the airport by an agent due to the mixed cabin reward, just not in advance over the phone. I was planning on landing in SFO, going to the counter to wait-list, before crashing for the night.

Obviously best case would be some extra inventory opening up between now and then but not holding out for that!

After Burner

That's been my experience too. It's not hard to get a J award seat on YYC/OGG but a seat on a YYZ connection is nearly impossible. But Hawaii/Canada fares are so low that it doesn't usually makes sense to me to use miles.

rankourabu

a) all cabin changes must be done through Aeroplan, there will be no upgrades period. Would be lucky to score free E+
b) no issues using AC75 card, this is an international itinerary, so even UA members would have access
c) status number must be on boarding pass to get zone 2, easy to add at checkin for the UA flight. Never heard of status not showing up on award tickets with UA so dont know what that is about??
d) it should already be in the United itinerary, if its not, it takes 30 seconds to add online on united.com

After Burner

I do this trip often and I wouldn't necessarily consider stopping for the night at SFO to be something to avoid. OGG-YYZ is a long trip and breaking it up at the mid-point makes it easier to endure.