BOS-SFO-ICN mistake fare in UA Global First (bonus ICN-HKG-PEK in CX/KA F/J)
 

Intro
After reading so many TRs, useful posts, and insane minutiae of airline policy, I decided to finally give back to this community. This won't be the best or most innovative TR, but I think this TR involves much of what makes flyertalk and our frequent flyer culture great, things such as:
1.) A great mistake fare that lasted for a couple of hours
2.) Hating on USA legacy carriers
3.) Exploiting the wonderful US award ticketing for CX J ICN-HKG (stop), then KA F HKG-PEK (destination), then KA J PEK-HKG connecting to CX HKG-ICN.
4.) Eating way too much J/F/lounge food
5.) The Wing
6.) A new TR on KA F
7.) All of these factors combining to give an average couple an affordable trip in international F & J.

Ultimately, I hope this will be as helpful as the awesome TRs that I have found on FT.

Routing:
BOS-SFO UA 739 F
SFO-ICN UA 744 F
ICN-HKG CX 332 J
Hong Kong/Macau
HKG-PEK KA 333 F
Beijing
PEK-HKG KA 333 J
The Wing
HKG-ICN CX 332 J
Seoul
ICN-SFO UA 744 F
SFO-BOS UA 738 F


Planning:
June 7th, 2014
6:18 AM EST: FTer dieuwer2 posts http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...l-first-f.html

9AM: woke up, checked MRD on the phone in bed, saw UA $1700 F. Kind of disregarded it but clicked on it. First couple of posts,UA GF, books into A class, good til EOS, refundable, 35k-50k RDM, should be $13,000 but the base fare is recorded as $1334...I immediately jumped out of bed.

11AM: Booked 2 tickets in 2 hours (slow by FT standards, I know). My GF and I were originally planning an Asia trip, but on AA for $1000-1300 each + using SWUs on BOS-DFW-HKG. No availability for SWU, and since my GF is only PLT, any EXP would trump her on waitlist. So confirmed F on UA it is, and I booked us to ICN for 2 weeks in October.

12PM: deal dies as I was exploring other admittedly ridiculous routing options like BOS-SFO-ICN-NRT-HNL-SFO-JFK-EWR-BOS. Immediate regret that I should have booked more towards EOS, especially since they're technically refundable.

1PM: start browsing UA TRs on FT, big ups to sfoactuary and Short hair Francis for some excellent baseline knowledge on the UA 747-400 F. Not my first rodeo on a 744, or even my first time in the nose cone, but my first in true F (even if it is on a domestic carrier).

EQM/RDM credit:
After reading the thread, we realized that not only does it have ~50K RDM for a UA elite, but would easily be 25K EQM. or we could credit to A3 and go for gold. or get halfway to senator on LH. In terms of elite status, we hedged our bets. I signed my GF up for A3 and a UA status match to 1P. Half to A3 will give her *A gold + UA domestic lounge access; the other half to UA will lock up 1P and build a base of UA miles for a future award.


Award planning:
We knew we definitely wanted to go to Hong Kong and Macau. Some IRL travelers we know said to not spend too much time in Seoul (which now I know was terrible advice). So we decided to add on Beijing and see the Great Wall.

In terms of award availability, I spent a week looking at various permunations of awards, like whether to do ICN-HKG-PEK as one ways on CX and then fly PEK-ICN on a paid OZ/AC flight, or circling back thru HKG, or flying ICN-HND-PEK on JL, etc. also debating OW versus *A and which points to use.

Since I was oneworld emerald, I decided to try and go on OW thru HKG since that would give us access to The Wing. AA would probably NOT let me route something asinine like ICN-HKG-PEK, and BA would price it all as one way segments...but US might price it as an RT award.

I found availability on CX J from ICN-HKG, stopover in HKG, then KA F HKG-PEK (the technical "destination" for 4 days, then KA F PEK-HKG, connecting into HKG-ICN. I really wanted to route HKG-TPE-ICN as CX operates a 5th freedom route AND HKG-TPE was running a 744 or 77W intl config, but the timing didn't work out.

I got on the phone with US, and surprisingly got it cleared by the rate desk with only 1 phone call. Even though I saw KA F for HKG-PEK-HKG, the US agent could not see the PEK-HKG segment. I debated just booking it as a J class award, but I knew from scouring FT/the interwebs that there were few to none KA F trip reports...so I booked the award. Probably stupid to waste 80k on a 2 pax F award with only 1 segment in F, but I like to give back to FT from time to time, and it's probably best to burn US miles before they merge with AA. Plus, I am not sure what other award program would ticket ICN-HKG-PEK-HKG-ICN, totaling 5036 miles, for a city pair that would typically be 1124 miles roundtrip nonstop...

With the revenue flight booked, award intra asia flight booked, and Chinese visa on the way, we just counted down the days til October.

Part 2 (and actual photos) to come:
BOS Terminal B, United Terminal and Club
BOS-SFO, UA 737-900, Domestic First
SFO-ICN, UA893, 747-400 Global First

Subscribed! Particularly excited for the KA. I'm flying the same HKG - PEK on KA F with the GF this spring as well as PVG - HKG on KA J.

eagerly awaiting this one

Under what section did you read about the dare?

MRD? What is this?

Thanks.

Mileage Run Deals

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/

Very interested in reading this as well. Will be doing a similar trip with the UA "mistake" fare in Feb.

Part 2: BOS Terminal B, United Club, and BOS-SFO on a UA 739.

Note: I will be making a lot of annoying comparisons to AA.

I couldn't sleep at all due to excitement and indecisiveness packing. Took an UberX to Boston Logan's renovated Terminal B, the new home of post merger UA. It's a little ironic that it took 2 years for post merger UA to consolidate PMCO terminal A and PMUA terminal C into one...only to get sandwiched between AA and US, which are now merging. At least they're connecting everything airside, I guess. Anyways, got out of my UberX, and actually tipped since Uber can't pick up at BOS and there's a return toll leaving the airport. Still, much cheaper than a cab or car service.

I didn't take photos of the check in area, as there were a lot of people bustling and I try to avoid taking photos of random people (and a small fear of getting Matthew Klint'd). We walked up to GlobalFirst/GS check in where we got "the look" and a point to the economy bag tag. So much for flyer friendly; how hard is it to ask the typical "first /business/GS?".

Sidenote, as a traveler under 30, it's always annoying when GAs assume that you're in the wrong line. Maybe I should wear the "consultant day off" attire of a rumpled sack blazer and dad jeans? And if it doesn't have to do with my appearance...so you're assuming I can't read, don't understand status, or look like I don't know how to check a bag? Perhaps it has more to do with kettles that can't read? But even then, they can be moved to the appropriate line in a diplomatic fashion. And obviously I am on a mistake fare, I shouldn't be super entitled, but on AA I get treated appropriately in the correct class-of-service/status line and historically on post-merger UA I have actually had excellent gate/ticket agents. Whatever, over it, SMI/J's problem, I just need our rollers checked.

Anyways, I told the GA we were traveling in Global First and the service turned around once BPs printed. We had our bags checked to ICN, which in retrospect was dumb because I totally forgot about interlining to CX.

We went thru security, turn left for AA, turn right for UA. Even though BOS has multiple terminals and thus multiple small security checkpoints vs one big checkpoint like MCO, it can still clog up a bit. Definitely need to get the girlfriend Global Entry, for domestic iten I usually use precheck, and she's starting to get super annoyed. N.B. I stick with her for customs/immigration, but usually split with domestic itin.

United Club, 5:30 AM:
We decided to check out the new UA club even though our flight was already boarding for a 6:13 AM departure. Have to take an elevator up, which I find annoying as airport lifts are usually on the slower side. Definitely flashier than the AA Admiral's Club due to the modern construction, reminds me a bit of the Centurion Lounges, but as with most domestic lounges, nothing to write home about. Had some juice, took some photos, and left.

http://i.imgur.com/rEbVKH3l.jpg
looking towards the back of the club and quiet room
http://i.imgur.com/IOtnY2ml.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/suuiIsyl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7xq2GkRl.jpg
Looking down towards the bar/entreance
http://i.imgur.com/D3vaeMMl.jpg
Vintage UA aircraft...Convair 340?

http://i.imgur.com/q7jwfbDl.jpg?1
Walking toward our gate. Brand new seats and counters, lots of plugs everywhere.

We headed to the gate at 5:45; with confirmed F and small carryons, we weren't too worried about not having bag space. Without club access, the renovated UA part of terminal B is pretty nice, feels spacious, lots of plugs and modern furniture. There's a small Legal Sea Foods close to gate 25, as well as a Stephanie's branch, or a food court over by AA side if you want something cheap.

http://i.imgur.com/QR5oLtUl.jpg?1

UA has the newfangled self boarding gates installed. Boarding seems slower, but IMO the difference is you have more pax lining up at the gate rather than the jetway. Really just "hurry up and wait" in a different format. 2nd Premier line (to the right) helps cut past kettles. And since there's an actual gate, no confusion over line jumpers pleading ignorance, etc. Not sure how this would effect status + companion, eg 1K with no status companion.

We passed group 2 and noted the 50+ upgrade waitlist. Would be nice if they ran PS config 752s on this route, as it's one of the longest lower 48 nonstop flights. Anyways, we locked up 2A/2B on this almost brand new 2013 UA 737-924ER, N36472. Boeing Sky Interior, no IFE, wifi and power only. No seat photos because honestly, it's not very notable.
http://i.imgur.com/WH5qluVl.jpg
Our original departure was 6:13, but we didn't end up taking off until 6:51. Overheard the FAs discussing that they were missing meals and that's what caused the delay. I started worrying/praying, because 1.) i want eggs and 2.) we could potentially misconnect and be stuck in SFO.

Normally, on revenue F, if we misconnected and missed UA 893, we could try for SQ 15 or OZ for nonstop SFO-ICN. But according to the FT thread, apparently SQ refused to haul one of these mistake fares in F or C, probably due to the extremely poor reimbursement; i think my PQD was $500 ish, chump change for SQ. I started worrying even more when the UA app automatically protected us on the next day's flight. Since we booked ICN-HKG-PEK as a US award, it would probably be a huge pain to change it, but if we did misconnect, at least we'd have plenty of time in SFO to figure out an alternative award.

Anyways...onto the service.
http://i.imgur.com/ycaZdwil.jpg
Hot towel index, SFO777 style. Much better than the threadbAAre hot towels on that other airline.

http://i.imgur.com/lOWcjcsl.jpg
Breakfast: Corn flakes or the UA egg/sausage/potato thing. Obviously, I chose the cheap sausage and egg route; kind of like a deconstructed abstract Jeff McMuffin, and much more satisfying. Also, fruit, greek yogurt (does anyone actually eat reg yogurt anymore?), plus the requisite butter. Not going to lie, sometimes I think about Bob Crandall and wonder how much airlines could save by making butter a request item. for breakfast, i would never use it on croissants or cinnamon rolls unless they were horrible.
http://i.imgur.com/BdW5MQOl.jpg
Can someone explain to SMI/J that gooey sweet things need plates? Not that USdbaAA is any better with bread plates.

After breakfast, we passed out from lack of sleep, no need for IFE. Drink service was frequent and snacks were passed around about an hour or two before landing, wasn't quite sure. By this time it looked like we would be landing in SFO at 10AM for a 10:55 departure...should be able to make it, but not much time to check out the duty free or UA GF lounge.

On final approach from the north, en route towards SFO.
http://i.imgur.com/Hh2FziPl.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/nQwAs8Bl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fymbPvSl.jpg

We deplaned and headed towards the international terminal in a hurry. Where's the F ground service when you need it?
http://i.imgur.com/RnsJuxcl.jpg

Next: SFO-ICN in UA Global First 747-400

Nice report! Looking forward to the next part. I'll be using the same mistake fare in not so many weeks.

Looking forward to this too!

Enjoying this so far.

Oh and for the record, I do eat regular yogurt and I in fact despite Greek Yogurt. It has the consistency of paste :p

Not to pick on you, but why do you get upset when agents assume that because you're under 30 that you're flying coach and then turn around and call people kettles?

Maybe they're flying in comfortable clothes and they choose to stand by the gate because they lack club access or feel that they're going to be sitting for a while and care to stretch their legs?

How do you know that they're not brain surgeons or corporate lawyers that choose to spend their money on things other than expensive flights (maybe they're paying for a family and don't elect to spend for 4x biz or first class seats)?

Sorry, getting down off my horse now. This attitude of calling people gate lice and kettles turns me off a bit...

That being said, it looks like the start of a great trip report. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

psychoandy, I'm loving this report so far, especially your sense of humor. ^
I've got a couple of these crazy same days turn in March so I'm looking forward to your critique of Air Smisek Global First.

What a steal!

Have to say, the new UA club looks like a huge improvement from the previous one in the C concourse. At least now, it's easy on the eye.

Very much looking forward to the Global First review. It's been years since I've sat that far up on UA metal.

Thanks for posting!

Damn I should have booked this

It's better than protein shakes/powders/bars if you want to eat some before a workout IME. (and in Canada cheaper as yoghurt is zero rated for GST purposes while workout supplements are in general GST taxable. Plus yoghurt is much easier to get on special due to it's shorter shelf life. I cannot speak for America as sales tax there varies from state to state despite being there many times.)