nlde

I understand that United will not allow a one-way award. What would happen if I booked a round trip and ignored the return leg?

DavidRS4

You would end up in a different city when you were done traveling Otherwise not to much...

flyinbob

As posted above, nothing happens. No penalty, no problems.

nlde

DavidRS4--

Not to question you but are you sure?! It appears my parents might be prepared to book a one way ticket on my behalf and I wouldn't want to embroil them in any unfortunate spat with United (or SAA, the *A carrier).

flyinbob

Absolutely certain. I've done it before for relatives. Think about it. Why would UA care? You're not trying to get a discount, or avoid paying them money. You're burning all those miles (carried by UA as a liability) for what will be only half the service they have to provide. The no-show return costs them nothing (you've already paid with miles) and they may be able to resell that seat to make double. Win-win.

BenjaminNYC

Just book a one way.

lucky9876coins

Absolutely correct. When you just skip a segment UA cancels your ticket. You just can't skip a leg when you have another flight coming up on the same ticket, since it will be void.

PremEx

As others have said...as long as you book it where the first "half" is the half you do intend on flying...it should be no problem. The back half will just go unused and you will have already flown what you needed to...so basically...it's a done deal.

Interesting though that under the Mileage Plus terms, it has the following under Saver Award travel:

But under Standard Awards it states:

So "officially" United doesn't want you using Saver awards for One-Way travel, but on Standard awards they don't mind?

Regardless...I would recommend as a courtesy to your fellow travelers...that once you've completed your outbound flights, that you call United and cancel your return flights. As this might free up some seats that others might be needing.

DavidRS4

I am 100% sure. It is the same thing as if you fly out and then miss your flight back. The airline does not mind you paying for or using miles for a full round trip ticket and then not using the 2nd half. Now if you wanted to skip the first half you would have problems

UAL747fan

what if you were flyling RTW? and you wanted to upgrade one leg?

harryhv

You mean book a "surface" sector and use an award to fill the gap? There seem to be 2 choices: get a genuine 1-way award from another program (QF, BA, BD etc); or book 2 RTWs in opposite directions and use a return UA award.

Suppose the objective is an RTW where possible using upgradeable UA (or LH) metal. In that case to achieve 2 RTWs, one could buy a return ticket between Europe and Asia (or Australia) the longer way around, via the USA on UA (LH), and join up with an award return between the same places in the shorter direction.

Lh has a great fare from Australia to Europe allowing travel on UA via the USA. Great value for 2xRTW if combined with an SQ award Europe-Australia via SIN.

clublounger

This may not apply to you, but 1K's CAN book a one-way award, for half of the required miles.

TobyWalsh

Really? I thought this was an unofficial perk that no longer
applies, or if it does, it only works on UA metal. On the off
chance it does f it applies to *Alliance awards, what are
the magic words to say to the 1k desk to secure a one way
from Europe to Oz? Thanks!

bbaillod

I've done the 1 way free ticket before and I called them to let them know that I wouldn't be on the return flight which they appreciated because then they can sell the seat.

rwill11

Surprised no-one mentioned this, since awards are good for a year and you only want 1 way, call the day before the return and cancell for business reasons. Tell them you are not sure when you will return. Then the return will still be avail should you want to use it later. beats just throwing it away. Also if, they change the MP rules to allow for 1 way in the future, you will have one in the bank.