What Are The Differences Between MileagePlus Saver and Standard Awards?
 

I looked around and couldn't find anything that really answered my question, so please feel free to redirect.

I am looking to book a round trip in First or Business to New Zealand for me an my wife next year using miles, but I am not clear on the major difference between Super Saver vs. Standard awards. Is there any difference I need to be aware of other than just the fact that super saver is typically limited inventory and has crappy routing?

Would just hate to book, without knowing if Super Saver could experience a downgrade or something else funky that they don't make clear in the description.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Just trying to err on the side of caution when booking this trip and am a firm believer that things that seem too good to be true, typically are.

Also, if I do take a crappy routing (like through NRT) is it possible to have a couple of days stayover en route to Auckland, NZ?

Ahh, thanks!

I like booking saver awards because the 'cost' half the mileage. I have not had a problem with seat changes or being downgraded from my first class booking. I would want to try for super saver! If you have the miles for a standard award, then I'd want to do saver award in first class instead.

Saver awards just require less miles, however there is a limited (sometimes very limited number of saver award seats open on a particular flight/route. If you are 1K/GS there are more saver award seats available but it can still be pretty limited, especially on popular nonstop/long haul routes. Otherwise there is no difference, except the number of miles you use to book the trip. If you have certain levels of status you can always book a saver award if there is even one seat left on the plane so it's good if you need something last minute and the cost is astronomical. More info here: http://united.com/web/en-US/content/...vel/types.aspx

The only difference is the cost (half the miles) and they are much more capacity controlled. You can often get saver awards with good routings as well. Once confirmed, there is no difference..it's highly unlikely you'd ever be downgraded.

Round trip awards (saver or standard) do allow a stopover so yes you could.

A note for the future.. when posting a question like this please just use the city name where you're going. When you only post the airport code most people have to take the time to look it up. And it's doubly bad when you use the wrong airport code ;). I assume you mean Auckland..the airport code is AKL, not AUK.

If you're starting out the the US.. I'm pretty sure it will be 2 awards to get you to AKL if you travel via NRT. I believe that routing is beyond the max permitted mileage for a single US-New Zealand award ticket (but I'm not 100% sure of that).

NOT TRUE!!!

Whoops, thanks!!! Appreciate everyone's responses.....

As for the "vai NRT" piece, that is one of the routings available on "saver awards" which I thought was extremely odd, but figured it was because of the "saver" price. Total travel time was an additional 13 hours or so, so figured it would be cool to see Japan for a couple of days if they would allow the stopover. Sounds like it has to be continuous though for it to count as 1 award.

All United roundtrip awards allow a single stopover enroute. As long as there's availability on the day that you want to travel, you'll have no problems booking an award from the US to Tokyo to NZ and then back to the US, for the same number of miles that you would need for a simple US/New Zealand roundtrip.

In general, it is often easier to get the lower mileage awards on Star Alliance partner airlines, as there is only one type of Star Alliance award. However, to book a Saver award that includes United flights, there must be (the highly limited) Saver inventory on each United leg. If you have the option to begin your trip in a gateway city (e.g., Los Angeles), you may be able to avoid United flights entirely and therefore not have to worry about the different mileage levels.

Enjoy your trip!

Except those wholly within the USA. :-:

As for the increased capacity on Standard awards, that is only on UA metal. If there are Saver awards available then there is no reason to not book them.

United Award Rules

Ah, I see what you mean -- thanks for pointing that out. I've never tried a stopover on a US award ticket.

:) I was trying to avoid the confusion about why the website lists "Saver" and "Standard" awards for partner itineraries, and I couldn't come up with a good way to phrase it. In fact, both award types link to the same inventory bucket on partner airlines. There is definitely no reason not to book a Saver award if they're available.

One other thought. This is actually a strength of the new United system, compared to the older one; it tries very hard to find inventory for the city pairs you request. In the pre-merger United system, it would likely have told you that there were no reward seats available, rather than present you with this option that you likely wouldn't have considered otherwise...

I really appreciate you all responding with good info to the OP. I know this thread is over 4 months old, but like the OP I didn't really understand what a Saver Award really was and how they work. It seemed almost too good to be true that if you can see it you can book it and your good to go, but after reading your replies, that definitely seems to be the case. Thanks again for the clarification! ^

On United.com this morning looking at Saver Awards from IAH to HNL and found one that is United to PHX, then US Airways to HNL. I can select the seats on the United flight, but not on the US Airways as it says, "Advanced seats assignments are not available through united.com, please see an airport agent during check-in to receive your seat assignment." This flight would be for my wife and I, should we worry that we will not be seated together? Lastly, is there any way to secure a seat assignment before the day of check in?

Call UA ask for the US record locator number and then call US (or go to US website) to get seat assignment . Or just call US with the date and US flight number.