Award availability: Alaska vs. United
Mar 31, 2012, 4:33 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: MFR
Programs: Alaska MVP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 714
Award availability: Alaska vs. United
I'm looking at MFR-ATL award availability. Out of 330 bookable days, Alaska has Super Saver (25,000 miles) seats available a total 3 days. United has 25,000 availability nearly every day next January and February, and most weekends through the fall. Are Alaska miles generally so hard to use?
Mar 31, 2012, 5:55 pm
#2
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 2,206
It really depends on the routing. There is only one AS flight to Atlanta, and usually demand is pretty high for it. Using Delta and American I'm going to guess that there are a lot more options, but you have to search by schedule to find those.
Also, out of curiosity, I looked it up. Looks like there is only one connecting flight from MFR to SEA and back that doesn't cause you to spend the night. That will also factor into it. But I would look up availability out of SEA on both DL and AA and try to match it up with AS availability, same with out of DFW, ORD, LAX, etc. I don't know if DL or AA actually flying into MFR or not.
Also, out of curiosity, I looked it up. Looks like there is only one connecting flight from MFR to SEA and back that doesn't cause you to spend the night. That will also factor into it. But I would look up availability out of SEA on both DL and AA and try to match it up with AS availability, same with out of DFW, ORD, LAX, etc. I don't know if DL or AA actually flying into MFR or not.
Apr 2, 2012, 9:51 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: MFR
Programs: Alaska MVP, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 714
I didn't realize that the Alaska.com search tool doesn't always (ever?) find available DL or AA award seats. Are they working to improve it? Will the AS call center waive the booking fee if it's not bookable through the website?
FWIW, AA does not serve MFR. DL flies to SLC twice a day. Other than that the best AS/partner ATL connection is to fly QX to PDX (4x daily), SEA (3x daily), or LAX (1x daily) and then DL to ATL. It just seems difficult to cobble those together as award tickets.
Seems like UA is much less work. MFR-DEN-ATL is often available.
FWIW, AA does not serve MFR. DL flies to SLC twice a day. Other than that the best AS/partner ATL connection is to fly QX to PDX (4x daily), SEA (3x daily), or LAX (1x daily) and then DL to ATL. It just seems difficult to cobble those together as award tickets.
Seems like UA is much less work. MFR-DEN-ATL is often available.
Apr 2, 2012, 3:07 pm
#4
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: AS MVPG
Posts: 2,206
It does show partner availability, and from what I can tell it does a pretty good job of that. But it only works by schedule and not using the calendar view. There also has to be saver availability on both dates of the round trip. I find it faster to go to the partners website and piece together a routing if my first choice of dates isn't available. I'm not sure if they will waive the call fee if you find availability but can't book it online.
I do agree about the easiness of the UA search engine, it's not perfect but does a pretty good job even with partners.
I do agree about the easiness of the UA search engine, it's not perfect but does a pretty good job even with partners.
Apr 4, 2012, 8:03 am
#5
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 334
I'm looking at MFR-ATL award availability. Out of 330 bookable days, Alaska has Super Saver (25,000 miles) seats available a total 3 days. United has 25,000 availability nearly every day next January and February, and most weekends through the fall. Are Alaska miles generally so hard to use?
Alaska would have had me paying $2k to sit in coach.
The program is largely useless if you want to actually use your miles.
Apr 4, 2012, 8:21 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,387
So, it may be useless to you, but clearly not to everyone.
Apr 4, 2012, 8:26 am
#7
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 334
I book the same kinds of itineraries as other people do. To boot, the inventory that partners show, doesn't even match what AS offers. I see 20 F class tickets on AA for a flight I want, but AS can't book any of them. ^ I guess you magically avoid that situation.
Apr 4, 2012, 8:37 am
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,387
It looks like JFK-LHR has decent availability in August in F on both AA and AS's website. That took me about 5 minutes to pull up. Usually the partner desk is pretty good at working with people- are you having problems with connecting segments?
Also...
I spent 100k miles for a return trip in a lie flat while eating caviar and dining in a restaurant in Frankfurt in the first class lounge.
Last edited by eponymous_coward; Apr 4, 2012 at 8:51 am
Apr 4, 2012, 12:02 pm
#9
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Upper Left Corner of the Map
Programs: AS MVPG & Board Room, Marriott Silver, Global Entry
Posts: 2,203
Part of the difference also has to be how the two different airlines make seats available, and whether it is on their own metal or not.
Same industry, different business practices.
Same industry, different business practices.
Apr 10, 2012, 12:19 pm
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Danville, CA, USA;
Programs: UA 1MM, WN CP, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Gold, IC Plat
Posts: 15,720
I can't find anything to Mexico which is the only flight I really want. But this is true for UA as well. Will probably just keep saving them for a nice international business class partner redemption (just as I do with UA).
Apr 10, 2012, 1:45 pm
#11
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Portland, Or USA
Posts: 1,800
From where to where? I usually find plenty of availablity from PDX going through San Francisco.