bdh

Hello All,

I was looking to book 2 business award tickets from SFO-EWR in mid-October on UA. I've got a bunch of Chase points to use, and since SQ's awards chart only needs 40k miles to book a round trip UA business ticket (as opposed to 50k for UA), I was hoping to book through SQ (plus I've got about 20k KF miles that I need to use up).

Anyway, I called SQ today to ask about award availability, and the agent said the only business availability he could find from now through October was for August 7-8 (i.e., in just a few days).

Is this pretty typical and to be expected (i.e., UA only releases business seats to SQ very close to the flight date if they haven't sold)? Do they ever release business seats with more advance?

Anyone have an general tips for finding UA availability through SQ?

Thanks

Kacee

UA doesn't really release business class awards on that route, except within a couple days of departure, and even then the releases are extremely limited. This is true for UA Mileage Plus members as well. They've basically shut down saver level premium cabin awards on those flights.

You can search UA award availability on the NH or AC websites . . . if you see availability there, it should be bookable through SQ.

bdh

Yeah, I was starting to realize this after poking around on UA's website a bit more. Almost all of the "business" saver award availability shown on the calendar is really mixed cabin, where you make a connection somewhere and only one of the two legs is in business.

Any idea how far in advance UA will tend to release business awards for these flights? I have high enough status with DL that I can redeposit award tickets for free up to 72hrs prior, so I may book some economy flights there as a backup and try to refund them if I can manage to snag a last minute business seat on UA.

garykung

It is a p.s. route that UA can get massive revenue from the business customers.

Even upgrade is rare.

Kacee

As previously stated, they really don't.

You might see a few award seats within a couple days of departure. That's it. Period.

The one-way P fare is $650. That's the way to fly front cabin on this route.

PsiFighter37

The only ones that have availability further out (on UA's own website) would be the red-eyes. I was able to book my mom on a red-eye a couple weeks out on one of the HD 772s.

As for when they release it to partners - I think it would be too much of a crapshoot.

Kacee

Yeah there's the occasional unicorn, but those are so unusual they might as well not exist for purposes of making plans.

fly747first

And UA won't release saver awards even to its own members on p.s. flights.

PsiFighter37

That's false based on my recent personal experience, but as others have noted it is very rare and almost always when you get close to actual flight date. I know that UA and SQ aren't on the best terms, though, so would imagine this is even harder if trying to get an award ticket via SQ.