linglingfool

Committed the cardinal sin of not grabbing space when it became available a few days ago. Been hemming and hawing the last few days, went to book ORD-AMS tonight only to find that my saver inventory disappeared, along with all other inventory between April and November. Am I wrong in thinking it's uncommon for no saver seats to be available for 6 months, even in the shoulder seasons?

Kacee

You should never be surprised by the absence of saver J availability, especially on UA metal.

berkeleysquirrel

Trying to find one saver J from SFO - HKG in mid March (weekday), 2ish months out. Anyone notice any space open close to departure for this particular flight recently? I know unfortunately this is probably a hard route to get saver availability.

Kacee

It's possible something will open, but it's a tough one as you noted. It's pretty common to find a one stop via TPE with SFO-TPE on either UA or BR. The downside of that is that it will price as the more expensive *A partner award even if you fly SFO-TPE on UA, as TPE and HKG are different regions.

Davidl81

I am looking for a little help with the rhyme or reason for X or XN (saver) award availability on United flights. We have an extended family trip coming up with 10 total travelers. Flying in Aug and when I first checked UA's site there was XN availability on Aug 3rd and X on Aug 9th. That worked perfect since I have 180k American Express miles that I can move to Singapore Air (Star Alliance that charges 17,500 miles each way for IAH to HNL) then I could use UA miles (I have a little over 200k) for the XN miles (Saver for Elite/CC holders) for the Aug 3rd flight. I booked the hotels and then I had to transfer miles from AE to Singapore Air. The next day I went to book the United flight for Aug 3rd and the XN tickets were all gone (XN showed 9 the day before so I doubt they were all redeemed, but it could have happened) and now all they have are standard award tickets that are 45k miles each (opposed to 22.5k on XN). What makes matters worse is that I can't really pay cash for the one way direct flight from IAH to HNL. If I pay cash for the RT flight and not use any miles each leg is about $550 (total ticket $1100) but if I buy a one way on the IAH to HNL direct flight the cheapest option I have is $1200 each.

So really what I have to figure out is if UA randomly places X or XN availability for flights. Should I just check every day and see if these pop up? I have a decent amount of time till the trip so I am not in a huge rush. I have not booked the return flights yet even though they are cheap since I am not sure on the inbound flight. I have tried to make different days work but no luck yet with that option either.

Kacee

Sorry, no one can help you there.

Award inventory is dynamic and unpredictable. Check daily. If you see availability, book it.

jsloan

More or less, yes. They will open or close X/XN inventory based upon overall sales velocity. If the flight is selling better than expected, it can go from X9 to X0 without anyone booking an award seat. If it's selling more poorly than expected, you may see X0 go back to X9 at any time.

Davidl81

Yeah that's kind of what I was afraid of. Its not a big deal I will just keep checking. I'm pretty sure they will show back up since they were there already at one time. If not worst case I just pay cash for the inbound flights and have to make a connection instead of direct.

Kacee

Note also that you cannot book XN inventory through SQ. Only X.

You didn't mention whether you have one of the Chase credit cards that gives access to XN inventory. The difference between X and XN can be substantial. XN can only be booked using United miles, so your AMEX points won't get you there.

Davidl81

Sorry, I have a Chase MP Club card and I am Silver status. The plan is to book the Aug 9 flight (X ava) with SQ (using Amex miles) and book the Aug 3rd flight via UA using United miles.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I see X, XN 9 on your return (which may disappear at any time, just like the outbound did). On the 3rd, the non-stop one-way is $1247 because you are restricted to a flex fare, but 1-stops can be had for $587. Your desired flight is on Friday and a lot of people will take Friday off to start a week-long vacation in Hawaii. Absolutely no way to tell if you'll see X, X9 again. All you can do is watch (and try different dates).

ranles

Wanted to fly SAN to MSY, economy with points on July 12, too many points...so I tried July 11, there is offerings for 12,500 pts..okay. When I go to the flights they are all over nights at those points. It is 30,000 for same day! Am I doing some thing wrong? Price to buy something in the AM, arriving about 4 pm, seems to be mid/upper $200's. I will be doing this purchase twice (my account, then my wifes to use our points). I am going to try AA too.

WineCountryUA

Likely you are not doing something wrong Saver Award space (12,500 miles) is limited and travel to a leisure spot in peak summer season (and leaving from a similarly popular summer destination) is likely to be difficult to Saver space. Note -- UA will be stingy with space as UA will likely be able to sell most of that space. Availability can vary will time.

Note another option if you have a Chase MP card is to convert your miles to credit card statement credit (Chase Choice Points) at the rate of 100 miles for $1.

mahasamatman

Do you have a link? I don't see that as an option any more.

WineCountryUA

www.united.com/choices
or
https://secure.unitedmileageplus.com...er/Choices.jsp

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...5-forward.html