Something Doesn't Add Up
 

I am brand new to this site so please forgive my naivete about how the system works. I wanted to see if anyone can clue me in to how award travel works. I am trying to book 4 RT award tickets on UA between DEN and FCO for next October. The website is telling me there are seats available for the minimum number of miles. However, when I try to book it, it tells me that the seats are not there. Something is amiss and calling UA doesn't seem to net me anything either. They told me that more seats should open up later. I fear that if I wait the award seats will be gone for good. It is very frustrating. Any advice or help is most appreciated. :)

4 tickets are a lot. You should just book how many are currently available,and hope more seats open up in the future.

True, take what you can get. Many airlines limit 2-4 FF seats per flight, but if the flight is not selling they open up more.

On the web page are you looking at how many award seats are available or just that there are award seats available?

Please tell us what the web shows as far as availability and maybe someone can be of more help.

SPLIT UP
 

Can you split up and use 2 different gateways?
I see availability on multiple flights that leave DEN but for different gateways close to the same time.
On the FCO end they arrive between 45 minutes to an hour and a half apart this will be your most secure option.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help! I spent most of my afternoon on the UA site and with a phone rep. The site merely told me that there were award seats available but not how many. I think FCN is just such a popular destination that any seats that come up are snatched quickly. We are flexible with our trip so we booked 4 tickets to BCN in May instead. Again, thanks to all - you guys are awesome!:)

Rule number one:

Do not use United.com for anything. Transfer your miles over to Continental, use Continental's award search tool and enjoy the better experience ;)

Seriously, United only searches for UA/CO flights, as well as US Airways and Lufthansa online. Continental's website searches all Star Alliance carriers (except for Swiss), and also works a lot better at computing routings too. Chances are you will probably find something for four seats (it's sometimes even possible to find 8 seats in business class on the same flight, transatlantic), so just keep looking and you will probably find something. Searching segment by segment may be more effective, but can be also time consuming.

+1

The UA website is useless, especially for partner award bookings. CO.com is a much nicer experience.

I use AA primarily, so I'm not hugely knowledgeable about United/Continental, but I have been quietly stockpiling United/Continental miles and will use them someday. So I've saved a few blog posts that I thought would be useful when the time comes for me to try to redeem on Star Alliance.

Here is some homework if you are interested to do some reading. I thought these posts were useful:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemil...ead-of-united/

http://travelsort.com/blog/how-to-fi...ce-award-space

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/06/how-...-availability/

I will definitely do some more reading with the suggestions you all gave me. I am still learning to navigate my way around the award travel system. The UA system is awful but I didn't think I could use the Continental site since I figured it was all being transferred to the UA way of doing things. Good to know for the future. Thanks again!

Welcome to FT! Glad you were able to get your seats.

One thing which might help: There is a whole forum dedicated to United, so you'll also get a ton of answers and suggestions there for UA-specific questions. You'll get the hang of it as you learn your way around. :)

Mike