Mickey

I was hoping that someone might be able to provide me with some advice/recommendations about finding the most expensive coach class ticket. Here's my situation. Through a credit card, I have earned a free domestic or international ticket to Europe. The free ticket has no maximum value. I am hoping to determine the most expensive ticket that I can obtain under the rules of the program, such that I can exchange it for an around-the-world ticket on the Star Alliance partners. The credit card program rules require that the ticket be issued 21 days in advance, include a Saturday night stay, and have all travel completed within 30 days. Could someone advise me as to the most expensive coach class ticket I can get on United within the continental U.S. under those requirements, as well as the most expensive ticket issued by United from the continental U.S. to anywhere in Europe under these same rules. Your help and advise is most appreciated.

MileageAddict

I would recommend using www.easysabre.com and play around with fares between UA Express communities on one side of the country connecting to a hub to a UA flight which requires connecting in ORD or DEN to another UA flight which them requires one more UA Express to your final destination.

An example: Wenatchee, WA to Seattle to Chicago to Boston to Portland, ME.

Regardless, I doubt you will find a 14 or 21 day advance purchase fare more than $600.

kokonutz

This is one of those rare times when I will actually give this piece of advice: Consult a travel professional. After all, they are GREAT at finding fares that are consistantly higher than the ones I find myself...

Beckles

I don't know an automated way to find a high fare, but I know that one of the most expensive fares I have ever seen, even with advance purches is MSY-CHS. I just checked and the cheapest advance purchase fare on UA for that route is just under $830.

Finding one much higher than that may be a great challenge as MilageAddict said.

mrjohnnyt

Suggest you find a city with little or no
competition, where most carriers don't even
bother to publish fares even if they have a
commuter service into the city. Suggest you
try Atlantic City NJ to someplace where US
Air or Continental can get you with little or
no competition (they are among the few
airlines publishing fares out of AC). Maybe
ACY to a small city in Texas that only CO
serves. Or else Seattle. Another good
choice would be an expensive small city resort
like Key West or Palm Springs. Maybe one of
the colorado ski resorts would work, too.
I'll bet you could get a fare close to $1k
this way.

pgupta011

I cannot advise you on how to find the most expensive coach ticket, but you should double check whether or not you will be able to apply that ticket towards another ticket. Normally if you had purchased the ticket yourself you could do so, make sure you can do the same with the "freebie" ticket.

BlondeBomber

You could fly from Great Falls, Montana to Macon, Georgia for $994 US Oct 1 to Oct 8. The best thing to do is go through United's timetable and look for the smallest out of the way places with the lowest frequency and try to connect to another airline with a similarly low frequency to another out of the way place. Use Travelocity or EasySabre to do a fare search -- it will show you all of them for each city pair on any given set of dates.

Before putting too much work into it, check that the free ticket is redeemable for something--a lot of prizes are non-refundable non-exchangeable etc. etc.

Aaron

You might also want to purchase your ticket on heavy travel days (the days that airlines restrict frequent flyer awards). Such as Jan.2 or Jan.5. I flew to LAX-ORD on those dates this year, and the fare was $913. Flights out of SFO tend to be very high too
(on United, that is)