Question on 1st Class Seat Availability on RTW Tix.
 

I'm toying with doing the *A 39,000 mile 1st class ex-Johannesburg RTW ticket.

In looking at availability, I'm not seeing *any* A class (rtw 1st class fare) availability on some routes (e.g., ZERO AKL - LAX, SYD - LAX on UA (there seem to be some NZ A's available, but no UA availability LAX - IAD). Am I misreading something? Are different codes used? Or is UA really restricting SYD and AKL seats, and LAX - IAD seates that much? I'd prefer UA for the double miles; I'll still take NZ in a pinch, but I was wondering what experience others may have had with this.

Also, how has availability been in the past for others who've done this? I'm seeing weird things, like GRU - FRA has 4 A's but only 2 F's available, etc. Any ideas on what I'm seeing here?

I'm tentatively looking at doing IAD - FRA - JNB (award ticket), then JNB - SIN - BKK - AKL - LAX - IAD in June or July, then IAD - MIA - EZE - FRA - JNB to finish the paid part (38,857 miles) and then return to IAD on the free ticket in November(ish); both trips would be less than 10 days, but spacing the trips would give me the flexibility I need. Any suggestions/ observations are appreciated. I'll probably be contacting Linda (mentioned in other threads) in Cape Town soon. Thank you for any advice.

Will

What dates were you looking at - I managed to get it OK SYD-SFO in September.

UA does not show "A" class availability on their international flight on any CRS' site ie ITN or Travelocity. Each flight must be "requested on a NN basis" by the airline or travel agency booking that segment. If there are "A" seats, your flight will be booked immediately.

I book all my *A RTWs through my associate agency in Toronto, Canada.

[This message has been edited by Guy Betsy (edited 05-26-2002).]

Not true. At ual.com, when logged in and preferences set to expert mode, availability by fare basis is shown.

For the heck of it, I picked two days at random in January and checked LAX-AKL-LAX and LAX-SYD-LAX. As expected, all four flights showed 9 available in "A". (The most the system will show is 9.)

In my experience one can check for A inventory (along with all other inventory) on UAL by 'creating an itinarary' on UAL.COM. You must be a registered user and logged-in, and have your profile set up for "Expert" mode. Remember that the A inventory shows up as the last entry, which is a bit confusing sometimes.

Example:

SYD (SYD) to SFO (SFO)
Friday, Jul 26
Select Flight Info Depart Arrive Availability Stops Dist (mi) On-time
United Airlines 862
Boeing 747-400 13:35
SYD (SYD) 9:55
SFO (SFO) F9 C9 D9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 K9 L9 G0 A9 Non-stop 7412

Note that F and A both show as "9". There are 14 FC seats on the aircraft and at least one is occupied per the seatmap.

I do not think that you will have a problem with A inventory on UA ex-AKL or SYD. NF or XF might be a different story. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif