Pardon my ignorance, but I haven't flown Southwest in almost 10 years since the nearest airport that has WN is over 150 miles away. Do they have First Class now?

We look at a different seat chart than the agent,

Seats are booked out because of projected sales, based on data.

There is also. $395.00 United Credit Card that opens up empty seats, I hear.

Try to book AA and see what kind of routing and layover you get...

When everyone has a million miles a year, it is kind of fun to try to find a seat, everyday.

Be a million miles flyer is no fun when we all have a million miles....

:)

It's not "first class" so much as they give you a five-second head start to sprint down the jetway and cram yourself into a seat before the hordes descend.

No, they merged with AirTran which did have First Class, but as they integrated AirTran they got rid of the First Class on it. That integration is now complete (as of a couple months ago), and there are no longer any AirTran flights.

That was thus a joke about the impossibility of finding First Class awards on Southwest, because there is no First Class, and thus there are no First Class awards.

Southwest still has open seating. So the one "perk" at Southwest is earlier boarding, so you get a slightly better choice of the seats in the all-coach cabin.

Can't condemn an airline just cause one instance didn't have any saver award availability. That said, in my experience, United has been nuking saver award availability over the past year or so. Obviously it is impossible to quantify the effect, but it has been happening.

True. There are, however, a wealth of other reasons to condemn United too :)

That was the joke :)

I stopped flying southwest when I realized that a VX F ticket was cheaper than a Southwest Business Select ticket for the same route. Also I flew about 10 round trips in a row with them and not a single flight was on time. After I stopped flying with them they sent me a letter apologizing for being late all the time.

I redeemed all my southwest pts for amazon gift cards, and now I fly F on VX. Never been happier. It's cheaper AND real first class (width = 21; pitch = 55; decent food and booze). Back when Southwest was dirt cheap, at least you were getting a good deal (my first ever flight to Vegas was $25). Now it's overpriced and just as crappy as ever.

Ok, I'm finished ranting. I feel better now.

I always fly F on WN

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So you're a pilot? Or sitting in 1X ;)

I agree, United is garbage.

Best way to get it is to book Y and then have one of the lounge agents upgrade you. @:-)


To the OP: a lot of us have a variety of bones to pick with United, but I've actually had pretty good luck using their miles. You can book much of the alliance online with no junk fees (YQ, etc.), and availability for true awards is (IME) better than their competitors.

What you were looking for on your one domestic flight was upgrade availability, which is a bit of a different animal than award availability. That's finicky and unpredictable on almost all airlines. Did you look on other days? Other flights? Did you look for straight award seats?

Take comfort in this: if it's a domestic U.S. route, which it sounds like it probably was if WN also flies it, chances are good the the first class cabin sucks anyway, so you aren't missing much. ;)

My UA miles have mostly been turned into TATL and TPAC awards. Sometimes J (if I'm solo or with only my wife), sometimes Y if it's the whole family. Lots of trips, lots of good value, no garbage fees. This summer we're going 5 TATL seats together in Y on UA miles in the middle of peak season...that's not easy to do on most other carriers.

I'll save my complaints for the crappiness of UA/UX's service. I'm (mostly) happy with their Mileage Plus program, given that I hold no native status whatsoever in it.

YMMV. I also book 330 out on UA, and there is 0 availability on all days the entire (holiday) week. This is the first year in about 20 years this has happened.

There is a significant availability issue.

I seem to have better luck booking TATL/TPAC at the 7-8 month mark, not at 330 days. Maybe it's just me... I often look for alliance partners...not UA metal...wonder if that has anything to do with it.

I was going to book a flight on United with United miles the other day and needed 2k more for my ticket. I booked the flight for both my girlfriend and myself and after I bought the extra miles for me, I realized that I couldn't pay for her ticket with a credit card and mine with points in the same transaction, so I ended up just paying for everything with the credit card. Does anyone know if I can get a refund for the 2k points I purchased from United?