The 714 Award is a scam. First, the airline (United) will not tell you seat availability until miles are deposited. Then once then are deposited I called 5 months in advance for seats only to be told they don't have any seats available outbound and I must wait another two months for a return flight. What a scam!!! Now I want my miles refunded. I will try to ***** to Marriot Rewards tomorrow, more to follow...Stay tuned.

Unfortunately, the agent that told you that you can't check on award availability was wrong. For domestic flights, you can check on united.com. For international flights, you can use the PDA application at http://www.ua2go.com/htm/mpavail.htm

This is the way FF programs work. You can book capacity controlled saver award seats on United 330 days in advance of the flight, and even then, the flights you want may not be available. Or you can book standard award seats on United for more miles and get a seat anytime one is available for sale. Flying on award tickets requires a lot of advance planning.

Once you transfer the points to United, you can't transfer them back to Marriott Rewards.

-David



[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited 08-20-2001).]

Not sure why you call the 714 award a scam -- this seems to be more of an issue with United and how they manage their FF program.

I believe the value of the 714 award (may it rest in peace) is well documented -- you get 240,000 FF miles for 212,500 Marriott points (assuming you trade the 2 hotel portions back in for 212,500 points). When you consider the value of a FF mile is $0.02/mile and the Marriott point is worth maybe $0.015/ mile (at most) that's a great trade.