exmike

US<-->Europe in the summer is very very hard to get. you're not the only one.

Here is a tip: Try routing through IST, tends to be more open than the other major european cities

limey1K

Thanks for the advice. I saw similar availability for DEN-FRA, DEN-DUB all summer too. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess), I'm at the stage of planning where we've identified 6 or so places we'd like to go and C/F saver availability will factor into which place and when we go. Its tougher to do that over the phone versus plugging on some dates on the website.

crimsona

Trying to get the in-laws to Sydney/Auckland next Sep/Oct.

There were a few rare UA saver flights from SFO/LAX in the past, but it's all gone now? Do these seats even exist or are they basically gone like the NZ AKL-LAX/SFO flights?

Departing Sept 26- Oct 2, the return we're probably going to go with the AC flight to YVR

nwflyboy

Boy, I'll say. Especially on *A partners in C at Saver level.

I've been planning to book an international award in C on a *A partner for travel next fall, when the seats become available in a few weeks. I've been watching seat availability every few days for the past month or two. Up until as recently as 2 or 3 days ago, award seats showed massive availability on UAL.com - I've been searching for 2 award seats, and they were more than plentiful: plenty of seats, every day, on the flight I've picked, going back for many weeks and months. There were probably way more than 2 seats available, it was so consistent.

Now, something has changed - dramatically - in the past day or two.

Now, I see zero availability for 2 seats on this partner airline. From tomorrow and going out through the full 330 day booking window. Nada, zip, bupkiss - the seats are gone. A few days ago, they were everywhere, now they're all gone. The change appears dramatic.

So I changed my search parameters. I had been always searching for 2 seats. Now, searching for just one seat, I notice that there are some (although not a lot) of days where there is one - and only one - award seat still showing on the route that previously had shown large numbers of seats available on every day for months.

Hmmm.

Based on this, it suggests that either there's some IT issue, where award seats on partner airlines that were available are for some reason not showing (I'm hoping this is the case, and it gets corrected quickly), or else - potentially far more ominously - it appears that there was just some change made where partner availability now only loads (at best) a single award seat. I sincerely hope it's not the latter.

Has anyone else noticed this radical and massive disappearance of *A partner award seat availability in the past couple days?

dsauch

not only that, but even last minute awards are not released any more.
Ive been watching ewr-aua and the flights have been leaving with empty seats with no I/X ever released...

limey1K

I'm seeing the exact same thing and its what's prompted my initial post. I can't find 5 seats anywhere next summer in Saver, period.

nwflyboy

Five, schmive - i can't even find two, from tomorrow through 330 days out as inventory is loaded. The seats are not being snatched up, they're just not loading more than a single seat.

If this is not an IT glitch, this is a far, far more damaging devaluation than anything I have seen in this or any other program in the history of FF programs (at least as long as I have been paying attention, going back well over a decade). If this is real, it makes United miles completely worthless (at least to me).

I'm surprised the blogs are not howling and completely freaking out. This is potentially way more significant than the recent devaluation.

tegelad

I had to book four (4) tickets to Europe for the Sep/Oct timeframe, and it required both the use of the defunct EF, United's site, and in the end the 1K line with magic fingers to make it happen. I and the 1K person spent a total of 5 hours (of course Parent's decided to change everything on the outbound which made me scream) just working through the logistics to book this ...

My guess is that as folks are dumping United miles like the stocks during the 1st dot-com crash of 2000 ... be prepared for the mother of all challenges in getting travel organized. My only advice (which I know has been parented heavily here) is that look at where United has more then one route to the US in the location you are wanting to travel, and then search for availability between the US and that hub for valid times, then work out the other aspects .... I know that I personally scoped out $44K worth of Global First for 540K miles ....

cheers (and now Happy Hunting) ...

+-ADT

nwflyboy

No, that's not what is happening here. Something has changed.

The change is so dramatic, and so sudden, it can not possibly be that people are just burning the MP miles and seats are gone. And the change has occurred sometime in the past couple days, not after the devaluation a week or two ago. If it was just people getting wise to the devaluation and burning, then things would have changed somewhat more gradually, and not so consistently over the next 330 days. It seems that a switch was thrown, and now things are different. I'm hoping it's an IT glitch. If it's not…our world has changed big time.

"I feel a great disturbance in the Force…"

limey1K

Yep, same here. Single seats are showing up in sparse numbers but try and find 2+ intl , no way. It has to be a systemic change over the last couple of days.

nwflyboy

...and apparently a complete game-changer. The End Of The World As We Know It (and I do *not* feel fine ).

How long will it take before people realize that for all intents and purposes, with this change, United MP is effectively useless now for international awards (unless you always travel alone, on United metal only)? The recent devaluation that was so widely lamented was peanuts compared to this.

LaserSailor

Disagree. Most biz flyers can't plan vacations and personal travel 330 days out, so if this has been removed, its a non-issue for them. It hardly makes the plan 'worthless'

I just looked and scored 2 saver awards NYC CDG in high season for example.

Kacee

Sorry, I am not seeing this. There is ample availability on the Asia routes that I'm looking at. I also see J and F being released to Europe close-in, including LH F. You could fly the LH 748 in F out of IAD tomorrow.

nwflyboy

My point was not that availability was lacking 330 days out, it was that what had previously been available beginning next week through 330 days out were all gone - meaning that the lack of available was across the board.

Good for you. On non-UA *A partners, in a premium cabin? If so, great, enjoy France.

Hmmm. I've checked some other routes, and I'm seeing mixed results. Some carriers are showing (what I would call) typical availability (the same as I saw last week), on other routes, some carriers are completely wiped out (as I see on my intended routing).

On the routes I was initially checking, something very significant appears to have changed. On others, it's less clear - the impact may vary by route and/or carrier. Looks like I need to do more research to see how widespread this is. Hmmm.

Kacee

It's not unheard of for a partner carrier's availability to disappear entirely for a few days and then reappear. This has happened recently with both TG and OZ. It had to do with upgrades to their reservations systems. There was also a recent glitch which resulted in LH availability disappearing. This was restored fairly quickly.