BH62

Betraying my ignorance of the ins & outs of fare buckets, if a flight shows the availability of award tix, is it a logical "impossibility" that there are no "R" upgrades? Seems that a paid (say, V or W) fare supported with a GPU would trump the relative value of an award? And where would miles+copay upgrades fit into the hierarchy?

alex_b

Check the Alphabet Soup thread for fare codes to understand what awards and upgrades book into what fare class.

Plenty of evidence of both saver and standard award availability with no R or RN availability. Don't forget miles are a liability on UAs balance sheet that they want rid of, GPUs expire and people have already bought the W fare to support the upgrade. The hierarchy of clearance is at Upgrade Overview:

• Y, B (and M for GS/1k) instant upgrades
• GPU/RPU/Mileage+copay - by premier status and then fare bucket
• CPUs - by premier status and fare bucket

WineCountryUA

While there is probably some background linkage, it possible to have saver award inventory and there not be upgrade space and the reverse has also been seen. Mileage upgrades are the same inventory as RPU/GPU inventory.

X,XN is economy saver inventory and would be very different from R. Se the above referenced thread for more.

BH62

Thanks for pointing me to the Alphabet Soup & Upgrade Overview references. And I see what you mean about the liability of miles (BTW, there are various ways to use miles, I used a surfeit of miles to get a Mac Air, but I digress). IIRC, I've played the W-fare lottery various times for international flights & almost always scored ... maybe stuck with an expensive E+ seat only once or twice.

privatetravel

Here's the scenario. I'm global services with 850k miles. I have 6 GPUs that expire Jan 2014. I'll probably take three international trips this year on United the first of which is to London UK next week in business (C).

United.com is offering me three upgrade options to first: (1) buy up for $6600 each way (2) redeem 20k miles each direction (3) redeem a GPU each direction. #1 doesn't make sense but what are the pros & cons of #2 vs #3? The outbound leg to LHR is waitlist only (however there are two unsold seats as of 5 minutes ago). The return has 4 available seats so no worries there.

alex_b

Unless you think you'll have a better use for them (ie personal travel in Y) use the GPU. The cash has real value as do miles but GPUs expire and can't be used for anything else.

ecruz010

Hello,

I'm new to this whole stopover game and don't know where to start.

I live in Miami(MIA) and I'm interested in going to Munich(MUC) and London(LHR) next month and then I'd like to have a one way flight go to Atlanta(ATL) in 3 months.

Would it be possible for me to do one the following as just one roundtrip?

1)MIA-> LHR(free 4 day stopover) -> MUC
2)MUC -> MIA(Free 2 month stopover) -> ATL

or

1)MIA-> MUC(free 4 day stopover) -> LHR
2)LHR -> MIA(Free 2 month stopover) -> ATL

I'm considering using united for this trip, but I also have miles with British airways, US airways and American. What would you guys recommend me doing?

WineCountryUA

for UA MP awards, only one stopover and one destination is allowed -- the above routings have two stopovers, not permitted. The OJ is OK.

ecruz010

Thanks for your response WineCountry,

Then let's say I want to eliminate the stopover in MIA and make it just:

1)MIA-> LHR(free 4 day stopover) -> MUC
2)MUC -> MIA

1)MIA-> MUC(free 4 day stopover) -> LHR
2)LHR -> MIA

What would be the best way to look for flight availability for these?

WineCountryUA

You have now ventured out of the realm of "simple question."

The simplest is just to start with united.com (multiple destination) or calling. If full trip searches are not returning desired results, do search for each segment and manually build the itin.

You can then move on to using other tools like the ANA or AC site instead to find flights and then return to step one to book.

There are other potential methods but the above works most of the time if space is available. Reading FTer over time will build up your skills.

ecruz010

Thanks a lot!

alex_b

No the rules are one stopover and two open jaws per roundtrip itinerary (so you could either have the stop in MUC/LHR or the MIA-ATL segment). Without looking at the relative costs of one way domestic US or European awards, you could either book the MIA-LHR-MUC-MIA and then a separate MIA-ATL award or you could book MIA-LHR//MUC-MIA-ATL and a separate MUC-LHR award. In both cases I would seriously look at purchasing the short 1-way leg as award redemptions tend to be very poor value for these types of things.

You'll need to ask in the US, BA and AA fora for the relevant rules on for those carriers. I would point out that BA (and possibly AA) charge a "fuel surcharge" on their award flights, this makes UA awards (especially in premium cabins much better value).

Someone else will correct me if I'm wrong, but in either case I think you're better off flying to London first so that you only pay UK air passenger duty on the short intra-europe leg, rather than on the transatlantic segment. This is again more of a big deal in premium cabins.

JamesQ

How far in advance can I book a flight? (330 days?) is there a way to book 340+ days in advance? if so, how?

alex_b

330 days. Why would you want to book further out? Flights tend to come in price until about 3 months out and then rise again (busy periods excepted).

WineCountryUA

many do award books (especially to popular destinations as soon as possible -- but inventory is not always made available as soon as the flight is on the system)
Additional isn't the new system opening up a few days earlier than 330 days? More like 335, 336, ...???