Have you ever flown first class?

Old Jul 31, 2013, 8:06 am
  #46  
 
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I usually do not use points or miles for domestic flights. I will use Avios for short flights but I use my miles and points for INTL F or J.
planeluvr is offline  
Old Jul 31, 2013, 2:06 pm
  #47  
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Hi, quick question here

Transferred all my points to United and am looking for award flights. If I see an award flight available on the ANA award flight search, but it says 'unavailable' on the United site (for the same flight number/departure time), what does that mean?

Is there any way around this at all?
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Old Jul 31, 2013, 2:30 pm
  #48  
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Originally Posted by dunderball
If I see an award flight available on the ANA award flight search, but it says 'unavailable' on the United site (for the same flight number/departure time), what does that mean?
What exactly do you mean by "it says 'unavailable'" ? Is it not showing up in your search? Or are different classes available...?

Maybe a specific example would be useful.
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Old Jul 31, 2013, 2:35 pm
  #49  
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Say I search New York to Tokyo on United award flight search. The business class, direct flight on ANA says 'Not Available' (there is no 'select' button).

But when I go to the ANA website, and search for the flight there, the same exactly flight and class is available for award ticketing.
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Old Jul 31, 2013, 2:49 pm
  #50  
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Originally Posted by dunderball
Say I search New York to Tokyo on United award flight search. The business class, direct flight on ANA says 'Not Available' (there is no 'select' button).

But when I go to the ANA website, and search for the flight there, the same exactly flight and class is available for award ticketing.
Are you sure it is actually showing available on ANA? "WL" status means waitlisted, not actually available. "OK" means available.

It's possible either UA or ANA is "blocking" that availability. It's also possible you could get a different answer if you called UA.
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Old Jul 31, 2013, 2:56 pm
  #51  
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Originally Posted by MDtR-Chicago
Are you sure it is actually showing available on ANA? "WL" status means waitlisted, not actually available. "OK" means available.

It's possible either UA or ANA is "blocking" that availability. It's also possible you could get a different answer if you called UA.
On the ANA site, I got all the way up to the end of the booking process except I had no points available for booking. The seats definitely seemed available.

Is it a usual step to call United to see if they can manually book this as a Saver Award?
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Old Jul 31, 2013, 2:59 pm
  #52  
 
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Originally Posted by dunderball
Is it a usual step to call United to see if they can manually book this as a Saver Award?
It is not unusual to have to call UA with partner airlines. It could also be about what inventory individual airlines release to their partners vs keep for their own members.
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Old Jul 31, 2013, 3:03 pm
  #53  
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Originally Posted by dunderball
Is it a usual step to call United to see if they can manually book this as a Saver Award?
Usually you only need to call when you can't see the flight on the search at all. But if you're confident you're actually seeing an available flight, it doesn't hurt to call.

(It's more likely you're having trouble with the ANA site, since it's hard to read. For example, it'll let you get to the final step of the search process and offer to let you book even if there's no availability, which is why it's important to make sure none of the segments is waitlisted and also that the results it gave you are actually in the class of service you wanted.)
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