Youpaiyou

Good advice! Thanks!

Chancensam

Wow, you decided to go big for your first award booking. I think you did very well. Would be great to hear back about your experience - from the perspective of a new award booker (as I am, as well). I'm not sure I could pull this complicated itinerary off for my first award.

World-Wide

WOW looks like a great 1st booking. I need to learn more about the booking process since I haven't booked any trips yet my self.

romsdeals3

Congrats! Sounds like a great trip! Did you book the United ticket over the phone? Sometimes the agents will say it is a round the world trip. Did you run into any problems?

Youpaiyou

Thanks Romsdeals! You actually assisted me a bit on one of your "free for all Fridays."

I booked both over the phone. Yes, I ran into problems, but they were minor. I was told that my trip was "illegal" because I crossed both oceans. I replied by saying I was confident my award travel itinerary was not "illegal." I was then placed on hold while the agent checked with the "help desk." The agent returned a short time later and said she would try my itinerary and see what her computer did in response. The agent's computer accepted my itinerary and my flight is fully booked. I have confirmation numbers and seat assignments.

lkar

Some think it's overkill, but most who book international itineraries will also make sure to get their ticket numbers and then make sure for each partner that the partner can "see" the ticket number. A ticket number is different from a confirmation. And the fact that a flight is "confirmed" is one of the bigger misnomers in travel. The partner only gets compensated if there's an e-ticket, and if they can't see it, you may not be able to fly. Sometimes this can be done on line, and sometimes you have to call. I call every partner and ensure the segment is travel ready.

As I said, there are many who fly on partner awards all the time and have never had a problem and don't do this. You are going to pretty civilized places with helpful agents, so you should be fine, but just a general tip.

Youpaiyou

Thanks for the tip. I'll take your advice. I do believe I have an e-ticket, but I'll double and triple check everything.

romsdeals3

Awesome, your name did seem familiar! It's good to sound confident of United's rules. I always say that I've booked something similar before (usually for a friend) and have the agent just try to see if it works on the computer. Congrats!

fandu

I started this itinerary with the Hilton Devaluation and booked the Conrad Koh Samui. While looking for flights (for 2), I thought I would visit family in India. Now since I was going to India, I thought I would spend a few days in Dubai. After finalizing the tickets to Dubai, I realized the stay in Dubai was long, so booked a 3 day trip to Seychelles (I am going all the way there so why not). I did not book everything all together so in the end my totals were

Delta business (120k/person) SFO-DXB(open jaw) DEL-SFO TOTAL: 240k
US Airways Business (30k/person) DEL-USM-DEL TOTAL: 60K
Etihad business (52k/person) AUH-SEZ-AUH TOTAL: 104k

I still haven't booked AUH-DEL segment. I was told I could not enter Dubai again within a month. Will probably pay for that flight.

Question is could I have done better with the routing? This is to help me learn and make better bookings next time.
Thanks in advance.

sooge_sj

If you are in Indian citizen, then it is true. If you are a US citizen, it is not an issue.

I did SFO-DXB-SFO. While in DXB. I did DXB-AMM-DXB to visit Petra and reentered DXB within 10 days of my first arrival. It was not an issue as a US passport holder.

pinniped

You actually found 120k J availability to India using Skymiles?!? That right there is a home run!! @:-)

Also looks like an excellent use of US and I'm sure that Conrad will be quite nice.

If the routing came together haphazardly because of how you planned the trip, so be it. Looks like an awesome trip.

Happy

To be more precise, he found a one-way low level to DXB, then found a one-way low level from DEL to return to SFO. Still awesome when it is a DL low level award at 120K - a feat by itself for sure!

fandu

Yes this came together haphazardly. My question was more in line of "could I have saved some miles by planning it better? If yes, how". I don't need a step by step tutorial but a high level overview