Great. (And I think, the reason it showed available when "married" with the ANA flights is probably because it didn't have an R0 on those flights to match up to. Married segments always take the lowest of all the flights for inventory display. But it really shouldn't be coded to display award/upgrade inventory that way).

Frankly, I'm impressed you could find R space over the Pacific.

I have had similar experience. When I search PVG-PHL, often times, PVG-LAX has R availability, but LAX-PHL seldom has, but both segments show R0. But if I just do a quick one-way PVG-LAX, it will show R# for for that flight.

Furthermore, I think this display probably applies to all classes, not just R. When both or multiple segments are displayed in the same fare class, say S, it will display the lowest number on all segments.

R availability on direct flights, but not if I start/end in different airports.
 

I apologize if this has been covered in the past, but couldn't find the specific issue when searching.

I'm looking for a flight to AMS with R availability, and if I run the search from the hub cities (IAD or IAH), I can find the flights with R/RN=5.

The issue is that if I search for the same dates departing from AUS, the same flights show with R/RN =0.

If I try booking these on the phone, will I be able to book it?

Thanks!

MT

You can book online and apply an upgrade (assuming you have a GPU or sufficient miles) online. It will clear the segment available and waitlist you for the other segment.

With the "revamped" expert mode, to check R availability you need to check segment by segment. If there's more than one segment the number of R seats will equal the segment with the lowest availability. So if one segment is R0 all segments will show R0. I guess it assumes you want to confirm all segments now instead of waitlist a segment. Only the segment that has R now will confirm at booking.

I noticed it when checking BOS-HKG for me and someone else. The ORD-HKG kept showing a different number of R bucket based on the domestic segment and i couldn't put my finger on it. We finally found flight that showed R2 and after booking, it said there were at least 9 available on the longest segment and 2 on the short segment.

For connecting flights, it'll show the lowest number of R seats out of the 2 flights. Therefore, you'll need to search by segment.

So hypothetically if I'm willing to apply the GPU to the longer segment and waitlist on the shorter ones the Premier line could help me do it at time of booking?

Thanks,

Mike

It "should" be done automatically. Book the ticket, apply the GPU, and see what happens.

It has been like this since 3.3; it has nothing to do with the recent changes.

You really don't even need to call in, especially since you can't upgrade it until the reservation tickets. Purchase, wait until you get an email that it's ticketed (probably just a few minutes) and then go in to the "upgrade" section to apply your GPU/miles. It will tell you that the TATL segment is available but that you'll be waitlisted for the domestic segment. Select seats and you're done.

Cool, thanks for the confirmation, sucks that "Expert Mode" (or maybe even since the system conversion) it doesn't quite show up right and shows all segments at R/RN = 0

Agreed. That's why I use ExpertFlyer for extensive searches before I buy; it's a lot easier to "refine search" than to do it on united.com over and over again. Although if united.com shows R0/RN0 because AUS-IAH is zeroed out even though IAH-AMS is R5/RN5, so will EF. Segment by segment search is the new normal.

EF is pulling the exact same data and has the same segment-by-segment search requirement as using the UA site directly.

Right, but the EF site has much better usability -- it's much lighter, is faster to use for multiple queries, and displays the information for several flights without additional clicks.

What channa said! EF makes it much easier to search, especially in multiple windows. I only head over to .bomb when it's time to part with money.