Possible to book two tickets at same time to different places?
 

I have a question, I'm trying to decide where to go on vacation... I see some juicy award tickets for each destination (UA). I am wondering what would happen if I booked both of the award tickets so I can think about it, and cancel the one I don't wind up needing. Would this gunk up the works? I recall reading that they may automatically cancel "duplicate" reservations for same person/time on different flights.

If it's not advisable to do this, I suppose I will reserve the one that I expect is more likely to go away soon, and think about it a bit more.

Thanks for any tips.

I do it all the time with out any issues. I've often booked 2 identical departures(considered a double booking) but different return dates and the tickets have never been cancelled. And if it were, I would do it again.

The system will allow you to do it, but it's a disservice to everybody else when over do it. If it gets abused it eventually results in higher award fees , etc.

I've done online award ticketing for two flights on the same dates but different routing and a mix a foreign carriers in addition to UA and not had a problem. An agent would notice this but I don't think the "system" does, especially with foreign carriers included.

Nonsense. It's not a disservice to anyone. UA runs through millions of transactions a day. This is a mere blip.

The disservice is grabbing tons of award seats so that others can't book them. Has nothing to do with the processing of transactions.

See the DL forum for that abuse, and how DL responded.

I believe the OP was talking about one booking not "tons".

And my response was in response to the posting that 5K hours made. It was clearly caveated as "when it's abused". I'll repost it for you below.

The system will allow you to do it, but it's a disservice to everybody else when over do it. If it gets abused it eventually results in higher award fees , etc.

Generally yes. There are limited reports of people reporting that they have been contacted by UA when their booked itineraries conflict and asked to cancel one. There are a small subset who assert that both bookings were cancelled without notice. I tend to credit #1 as a part of an audit process which occasionally catches people. I suspect that #2 are people who don't check voicemail/email or just forgot.

If #1 does happen, you have to make a choice. If #2 happens and it's really true that UA does "no notice canellations" that's a bad situation. I guess you reduce risk by making up your mind at some point.

Book them both and just cancel the one you don't need. First come, first served.

I don't see why UA would care. It would boost the number of award redemptions they report, knowing that if one of the reservations cancels close to the date they're under no obligation to restore the award seats. Plus, if the passenger isn't Gold or higher (or is it Platinum?), UA will get a redeposit fee out of the deal for one of the reservations.

The OP and I are clearly only talking about a couple of reservations--not "tons." Mountain/molehill.

I had a flight automatically canceled by the United Airlines "robot" this year.

I originally bought one ticket, then work caused me to need to change my plans.

The change fee plus fare difference to change the original would've been more than just buying a new ticket.

The "robot" canceled my new ticket without alerting me OR my travel agent. I was :mad: to say the least. Called UA and they would not budge. They told me it was against their rules to have two tickets booked at the same time.

Both tickets were purchased through my corporate travel agent, so not sure if that was the reason.

YMMV.

OUCH! That hurts.

I think I'll go book the extra ticket.

As far as fairness to other travelers is concerned, I am looking at just booking one extra ticket and not "tons", that is correct, lol. I just need a few more days to finalize my plans. I will cancel the unnecessary one as soon as I get my plans finalized, won't be holding anything longer than necessary, and there will still be a few weeks for people to snag the spot that frees up.