davco61383

Hi!

For the past month and a half, it seems as though saver rewards travel has not been updated through the end of May for traveling from Newark (ewr) to Honolulu (hnl). Saver rewards travel goes through the middle of May and it seems the United site has been stuck like that for quite some time! I truly need to use my miles and book soon for the end of May because I need to propose during that timeframe. I've never had a problem in the past booking free flights for this route and in previous years been able to do it as early as January. Now it's the beginning of March and still extremely limited. Does anybody have the slightest idea of possibly when United will update their rewards flights? I can book, but can't afford to be away for about three and a half weeks to meet the United free flights schedule! Thanks...


David

mahasamatman

Welcome to FT, davco61383!

United will release more inventory only when they feel they can't sell the seats for cash. Travel to Hawaii is at an all-time high, so I'm sure it's much harder to get award seats on those routes than it has been in the past. All you can really do is keep monitoring the inventory.

As the saying goes, past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

PV_Premier

all award availability is quite stingy for this coming summer. i'd start thinking about what your plan B is in case the inventory never comes available. it's not that UA hasn't updated the calendar, it's that they think they can sell the seats for cash and thus do not want to give them away for awards.

Kacee

It's not just Hawaii, it's the entire domestic network. UA is hardly releasing any seats anywhere within the US these days (particularly in the front cabin).

ozflier

I agree - I.ve been trying to get 2 J award seats EWR to LAX sometime in mid october - very slim pickings indeeed.

RNE

And international network too! I recently had to spend 130,000 miles on a standard award coach ticket for a needy in-law.

RNE, I almost cried.

azzurro

Ouch. May I offer you a tissue? I'd shell out cash instead of miles in that case... save those miles for trans-oceanic upgrades when you fly!

Separately - it definitely depends on your city pairs for finding good saver awards - I have found plenty in May - July for my needs. DEN-LAX, SDF-BUF, DEN-BNA, BUF-DEN, etc. I am seeing plenty of those 3-city, long layover connections mentioned above, but still a few normal flights too - but only on my 1K account. When family with no status logs in, the same good flights are NOT available for mileage tickets. That is one over-entitled benefit that is still available to us, lol. I have also read that Firefox browser turns up more flights than IE, although I have not seen that result. YMMV.

And if the domestic price is near $250, Chase M+ cardholders can redeem points (miles) for a statement credit instead of buying a mileage saver award on .bomb. You spend about the same miles (actually less on ticket under $250) and preserve upgrade status based on purchased fare class without falling to bottom of your respective status when relying on Explorer card upgrades.

JPG3392

I noticed it while looking for an award flight IAD-MUC this September. Online, flights via FRA had 3-4 hour layovers despite the fact that LH offers hourly flights FRA-MUC. I therefore booked IAD-CPH-MUC, using SK/LH. This booking was confirmed immediately, but never ticketed. When I phoned UA about a week later to inquire, I was informed that the flight via Copenhagen could not be ticketed and was offered IAD-FRA-MUC on LH with a layover of 1 hour 5 minutes as an alternative--a connection (which I accepted) that was not available online for award booking.

Xsavior

I'm planning a trip in June, departing the 13th from BTV to DEN, then returning on the 22nd from HLN to BTV, and right now there don't appear to be any Saver Awards available right now. Is that more likely to come up if I wait till closer to the trip? I always tend to get nervous that waiting will result in lack of options, but I'd rather not spend double the miles by being impatient

Any tips for this?

KennyBSAT

Search in segments to other UA hubs and put together an itinerary. You can do UA3869 to EWR, UA3565 to ORD arriving around midnight and then UA 707 on the 14th leaving at 5:45 AM. There are also possibilities on 6/13 with 3 stops such as BTV-DCA-ORD-DSM-DEN. Book as much as you can and then call in to complete the booking. Looking at Fridays between now and then, it seems unlikely that a good routing will be available at the saver level.

If you are not flexible on the date of your return (and even likely if you are), you are almost certainly paying double or cash. There just aren't enough flights out of HLN

dukerau

If you're flexible, there is a saver BTV-DEN 2-stop on the 14th. Of course, the probability of more space opening up in the next few months is > 0%. Do you have the United card? That opens up more availability. For example, there is a saver HLN-BTV 3-stop (ew) on 6/21 that is XN (only available to elites and cardholders).

Xsavior

Thanks Kenny, I'm super new at this, so I apologize, I've always just done basic searches. Is there a particular place to go to book segments on their own, or what search did you use to track down that multi stop option? Looking at it through the normal search, it seems like each segment would be it's own reward travel, so finding that BTV to EWR and then EWR to ORD would equal the full rate any way?

thanks for the help!

Xsavior

Thanks dukerau. I might be looking into the United card, particularly if it opens up more opportunities in the awards searches.

KennyBSAT

We were all new at one point, and this is the correct place for your questions, welcome to Flyertalk! travelisfree.com has some great articles on UA searches and quirks, but basically their search is lazy and returns only the first 25 or 50 routings. You can try a multi-city search which may return a workable itinerary at the correct price, or else you book half of it and immediately call in and tell them it wouldn't let you book the entire thing, and feed them the segments you want. There is no charge but it does take some time.

You can always cancel within 24 hours of booking if needed.

I just went to united.com and searched to UA hubs (ORD, IAH) and then on from there in separate searches. As dukerau pointed out, a UA credit card will give you access to XN inventory online, but not over the phone, so be sure any XN segments are part of what you book online before calling to add the additional segments. Status will give access to XN both online and over the phone.

If you get the card, you should have the XN benefit within 3 days or so, before you actually receive the card. Note that you must use the UA card to pay the fees in order to get the free checked bag.

xerenthar

330 days saver F/J availability on UA metal seems to be abysmal. ideally, i'll be booking a trip from NYC to some european destinations and back for the late spring 2k15 for our honeymoon.... but i'm starting to get a bit nervous given what i've seen for feb 2k15...