transistorized

Hi, I hope someone can help me with this complicated Awards booking:

I am trying to book an open-jaw return ticket to Asia with a stopover. So basically NYC -> Lahore -> Hong Kong & returning Singapore -> NYC.

Now, Lahore is only served by Thai Airlines among all the Star Alliance members, and there is no availability for that airline for the dates I want to fly. But United has codeshare with Qatar and Qatar also serves Lahore with tons of availability. But both customer service agents I talked to told me that I cannot travel on both Star Alliance & non-Star Alliance members in the same trip, so basically if I want to take that Qatar flight to Lahore, I will have to book these segments as separate tickets => I lose the free stopover => it costs me 50% more award miles to do this trip.

Are they right about that? Is there any way I can get around it? Thanks in advance for your help!

channa

What you're being told is not correct.

Old UA had a rule where you could not combine Star and non-Star carriers on one award. You're likely speaking to PMUA agents citing the PMUA rule which is no longer in effect.

The new rules allow combinability of all carriers, regardless of alliance status.

Keep calling until you find an agent who is 1) familiar with the new policies; and 2) knows how to book Qatar. It may take a few tries.

ual744777sta

No, they are wrong. You can combine *A and QR. The best way to get around it is to call them again. If it is bookable on continental.com (dba united.com) you can book it through an agent.

You can also book something similar to the flights you want, purchase it, and call again to make the change. If they don't let you, just refund it within 24 hours.

transistorized

Thanks, time to call them again then. Really appreciate all the help

double_black77

In my experience usually PMCO agents would be more willing to go through the process of building one segment at a time.

transistorized

It worked. This time I got a lady who just asked me which segments and which exact flights I wanted (instead of just asking me about the dates and then searching by herself) and we finished setting up the booking in maybe 5 mins. A very painless process!

Thanks for your help, everyone!


PS: Btw, what is a PMCO agent?

WineCountryUA

PM is shorthand for pre-merger. So PMCO in this case refers to a pre-merger CO employee.

sorrowfull

I've just been through this as well. I built a very complex itinerary that had like 9 segments. The PMUA agents were not interested in helping at all, but I got a PMCO agent that booked it all for me. It was a mix of *A and QR rewards and took about 2 hours to finish up, and then she put a 5 day hold on it so I can change it in the coming days if I want to