rankourabu

It will take some convincing a phone agent, but yes, its legal, in theory.

I currently hold 8 segment one way First (67.5k) from PUJ to CTS with 3 22-24 hour layovers en route in PTY, YYZ and WAW. One layover (WAW) is even 24 hours on the dot.

jphripjah

PUJ to CTS? They probably don't see that routing every day.

rankourabu

Probably not - I needed to get 24 hours at YYZ and WAW on the way - so it worked out great. UA awards are the best around if you know how to use them.

jphripjah

Update - I was able to reserve 3 of the segments on United.com. I got a nice agent who found the other 6 segments an added them to the hold, but she needed to call the rate desk to ticket, and the rate desk supervisor told her that it's not a valid one way routing "because it crosses two oceans."

I was hoping to do it for 60,000 miles in business class, the rate desk told her I would have to do two one way tickets (PNH-CAI for 50,000 plus CAI-LAS for 60,000 = 110,000 total).

I asked her to keep the segments on hold, politely ended the call, and will try again later. I guess I could have asked to speak to the rate desk supervisor, but I figured that would probably do more harm than good.

rankourabu

I'd like to know where the second ocean is.

United.com routinely pulls up JFK-CAI-BKK as well as YYZ-ADD-BKK, so it cant be that.

Can you reserve BKK (or SIN)- CAI-IST-LAS online, and then just call in to change the segments, or call in to just change connections?

jphripjah

Well, I pulled up the on hold reservation and clicked on the link that says "purchase now." It said that my purchase was being processed, though it never gave me a price in miles or for the taxes. I got an email saying the purchase was in process, and that it usually takes less than an hour.

9 hours later with no news, I called in, and the not very smart sounding agent said the purchase was pending but that it probably won't complete because "there's a new rule that you can't have more than 4 connections."

I'll try again tomorrow.

jphripjah

Aah, I called in again and failed and have abandoned the reservation. The agent said SIN-LAS is not a valid routing unless I bought an around the world ticket. I asked if SIN-JFK direct would be a valid one way award and she said no. Also, she said the rate desk supervisor already made notes in my reservation saying that my 9 segment routing would have to be 2 tickets - 50,000 from CIN-CAI and 60,000 from CAI to LAS.

Since the reservation is poisoned by the supervisor notes, I decided to cancel it and start over.


Thanks. I tried reserving SIN-CAI, CAI-YUL as a multi-destination one way online and it didn't work.

Then I tried SFO-SIN, SIN-CAI, CAI-YUL as a multi-destination round trip and it worked - it priced out as a valid 120,000 mile round trip in J. I reserved it using the "insufficent miles" trick - I have only 60k miles in my account so it gave me the option to reserve online.

Then I just called in and asked the agent to change the CAI-YUL routing to go through Beirut, and the agent did it and said it's still a valid 120,000 mile round trip award.

So I guess the last steps will be (a) add YUL-LAS, (b) add PNH-SIN, (c) ask for confirmation that it's still 120,000 miles, and (d) cancel the outbound leg from SFO-SIN. That should make it 60,000 miles. Somehow I don't think it will be that easy though.

rankourabu

(a) and (b) will be easy hopefully. (d) - I dunno. Keep this thread updated - your experience is a valid resource for future bookers.

jphripjah

I was able to add PNH-BKK-SIN at the beginning of the return leg, which now goes PNH-SIN-BKK-CAI-BEY-IST-GVA-YUL. In order to do that, I had to change the (meaningless) outbound leg to go from SFO to PNH instead of SIN, because the agent said I couldn't have two open jaws.

I couldn't add YUL-EWR- LAS at the end of the trip on this call. She said the system would not allow me to add YUL-EWR-LAS: (a) because the YUL-EWR leg is in single class Y, and I can't mix Y and J segments on a J itinerary (though I've done this before), and (b) because the YUL-EWR-LAS flight leaves more than four hours after landing in Montreal and this is an impermissible stopover (even though it's under 24 hours and even though one stopover is allowed on an international booking).

Anyway, for whatever reason, the system is allowing PNH-BKK-SIN-CAI-BEY-IST-GVA-YUL as the return leg of a 120,000 round trip from SFO to PNH, but the system is balking at adding on YUL-EWR-LAS or even YUL-LAS direct (in Y). I'm not sure why.

rankourabu

lol, you are almost there

I wonder after all this hard work you will be able to make this a one way

jphripjah

Ok. Here's an update.

1. I'm exhausted. I've read on here about people having 8-12 segment tickets, and I don't know how you do it. I've spent hours on the phone and keep coming up empty.

2. I've determined that the United "system" will allow this routing from Southeast Asia to North America as the return on a round trip ticket:

PNH-BKK-SIN-CAI-BEY-IST-GVA-YUL - ALLOWED

But it won't allow

SIN-CAI-BEY-IST-GVA-OPO-EWR-LAS - DISALLOWED

or

SIN-CAI-BEY-IST-GVA-YUL-EWR-LAS - DISALLOWED

I asked "why." Agents really don't like that question. The most recent agent told me that the latter itinerary was disallowed because it had too many segments. I pointed out that the allowed itinerary had the same number of segments. Then he said it was disallowed because "you can't have five airlines on one ticket." I pointed out that the allowed itinerary had the same number of airlines.

Then he tried "you can only have three stopovers on one ticket." All stops are under 24 hours; there are zero stopovers. The allowed itinerary has the same number of stops.

We then tried six sgements just going direct from YUL-LAS, deleting the Newark stop:

SIN-CAI-BEY-IST-GVA-YUL-LAS - DISALLOWED

Note that this routing has fewer segments than the allowed routing.

I'm giving up. For today.

jphripjah

OK, I think I'm finally getting to the bottom of all this.

I heard today from two different phone reps (one a support desk supervisor and one a phone agent, spearate calls) that effective April 25, United has new routing restrictions on award tickets going from the US to Asia over the Atlantic.

One agent read the memo to me and it said something like "Effective immediately, we are restricting connections permitted on award travel from the US to Asia/Japan over the Atlantic. Maximum connections on a one way ticket is three. Maximum connections on a round trip is four each way."

Note that the word connection is used, not segments.

After the first rep (a rate desk supervisor) had told me about this memo, I called in with a dummy booking SIN-FRA-IST-EWR-LAS and an agent priced it out at 60,000 miles in J. 3 connections (4 segments) on a one way, so it's valid routing.

I called back to add BKK to the beginning of the itinerary, which would make it BKK-SIN-FRA-IST-EWR-LAS. It would not price. That's 4 connections (5 segments) on a one way, invalid routing. That's when the next agent said "Oh, we have a new rule on this" and she read the April 25 memo to me.

Anyway, I know that agents often say a lot of nonsensical things, but two different reps on two different calls cited the "April 25" memo to me, one of them read it to me, and it seems verified by the computer's rejection of BKK-SIN-IST-FRA-EWR-LAS. The "system" now only allows 3 connections (4 segments) on a one way from US to Asia, or 4 connections (5 segments) on each leg of a round trip between U.S. and Asia.

You may then ask why the "system" has approved PNH-BKK-SIN-CAI-BEY-IST-GVA-YUL as the second leg of the round trip discussed above. The rate desk supervisor told me it's becasue the "system" is viewing my 23 hour stop in Beirut as a stopover, and it's allowing 4 segments before the stopover and 4 segments after. That could be true, but it doesn't make a lot of sense.

The more logical explanation is that PNH-BKK-SIN-CAI-BEY-IST-GVA-YUL goes from Asia to Canada . When the agent read the memo to me about the new restrictions, it said "from U.S. to Asia/Japan." So "unlimited" stops between Asia and Canada might still be allowed.

AZjohns

All very interesting jphripjah. I appreciate your posts and information as I think it is some information many of us might need to know ^

markj99

Reservations just held very firm on this for me, no more than three connections on a one-way... it is hard enough to find available award seats this summer without this added annoyance!

Three connections can be really tough to manage between small cities in Asia and the U.S. given limited award availability over the ocean (which I find often adds a stop)... Has anyone had any better luck with agents in getting a "one-time" exception or similar?

Is the limit different if I fly over the Atlantic or Pacific?

Thanks!

EDIT: jphripjah's details on this say the rule only applies over the Atlantic, but the agents just now made no mention of this (my routing is over the Pacific). Worth trying again? I did spend over an hour already, and most of that was on hold while the agent talked to "supervisors."

jvquarterback

I was on the phone with an agent last night for my first award booking and wanted (on a one way):

MRY-LAX
LAX-ICN
ICN-PEK
PEK-SIN
SIN-BKK
BKK-DEL

She said there was a problem with the SIN-BKK-DEL segments which are available in J but for some reason she couldn't book them. I told her to book SIN-DEL in Y but I really want SIN-BKK-DEL. Is there some reason this doesn't work? Or should I just try calling a different agent tonight?

Edit: After reading above I guess I should feel lucky I got 5 segments. The agent couldn't tell me why I couldn't get MRY-LAX-ICN-PEK-SIN-DEL so she overrode the system and gave it to me. I'm planning to call tonight to bive the sin-bkk-del another go as there is J space available. It's either that or hope SIN-DEL has J or F open up. For some reason I have to travel the only saturday this year w/o availability on that route.

This is going to be a killer getting home from CCU or BOM on four segments.