I know all about EFlyer but that has nothing to do w this. Actually, EFlyer gets their info direct from UA so if that info is not correct it makes E flyer worthless. ANA tool is much better, shows true avail and will check 7 days
But I digress -
I have my itin already Got great flights on LH/TG thru ANA SITE (EF Is only good for finding UA flights which I don't want. EF is wrong now as well since it gets it's info from UA)

I think you miss my point though. I have an almost perfect itin. IAD-FRA-NRT-BKK-FRA all on LH/TG. The return I want is on the 15th. I have a return the 18th now and ticketed. I am sure I will find a return on LH as I get much closer to the 15th but would feel more comfortable if I at least have a UA flight on hold for that date. Yesterday UA.COM and EFLYER showed the flight from BRU-EWR as avail in first. IT'S NOT. IT'S GHOST AVAILABILITY JUDT LIKE WE SEE ALL THE TIME W LH. I tried looking again today and found 3 more UA flights that would work - ALL 3 are not really avail. SHARES is wrong.

I understand (no I don't) that UA can make mistakes w LH inventory. However, no excuse for making mistakes now w their own inventory

Had a real nice pmCO agent trying every way to force it. No way to get it done

FYI - this was a CO SLC based "home" agent. I had no idea CO uses agents at home instead of all of them at call centers. She was really good but I get a little scared w that

I didn't realize EF is doing this too. Wow.

I have had agents force (give me a standard for the price of saver) before.


This is absolutely insane.

Tried to book a LH F saver reward last night. Both agent and web support could not see it bookable, even though I was staring right at it on .bomb....and I'm staring at it again this morning.

I already have a ticket in process (hold) which I don't want to mess with because I don't want to lose my return itinerary.

If I were able to put this LH on "hold", anyone know if I'd be able to call up UA, and have them combine the outbound I want (on hold) with the inbound I want (on hold) into one itinerary/PNR? Seems simple, but of course this is SHARES we're talking about here.

I also don't want to just cancel the itinerary I have, as I know darn well the return flights won't show back in inventory....

Impossible to combine PNRs

Oh screw it I guess I could just do 2 one-way awards, duh.

That's the most common problem with LH. You can't trust .bomb and need to use ANA to find true availability w LH. Dint even bother asking if they can push it thru, WAITLIST, long sell etc as half the LH flights that show avail are not, will never be, etc etc. Interesting thing I noticed this morning REVERSE problem. ANA shows a LH flight avail and .com does NOT. But a call to UA confirmed it is available

After 3 months of trying for a response from UA Insider, as per her request I directed Shannon to this thread and the similar one.

As I said elsewhere, I doubt that they are really prioritising this issue as it is non-revenue impacting, but it does heavily impact my decisions about future travel and where to credit my miles.

Which does impact revenue....

You and I realise that, but I believe that UA is taking a very simplistic viewpoint and not placing much priority on this at all.

Then again, I admit that I am still somewhat bitter (and confused) as to why UA Insider only chose to answer extremely selectively to the various threads and PMs on this topic, and it was in regards to partner availability on an intra-Egypt flight.

I have not had any follow up in a few days, after waiting 3 months for a response. I know that at least one other long-term FTer was in a similar position on this topic.

I ran into ghost availability on UA metal a couple months ago, trying to change dates on an award flight CMH-ITO.

Once I got excited for a moment when the agent said that she saw a routing (which hadn't showed up online) with saver availability CMH-EWR-SFO-ITO (or something like that). But then she quoted me the mileage cost as some crazy amount - and it wasn't a standard award price or two one-ways. I repeated it twice to make sure I heard her correctly. She insisted it was priced that way because I was "backtracking to EWR" and you're penalized for backtracking

I just finally gave up and left my itinerary as is. I'm really avoiding COdbaUA for awhile.

Better than the lady who told me TLV>ZRH>SFO is invalid (all same day) since stopovers aren't allowed on domestic awards. (True story)


Chinatraderjmr, false negative for LH flights is very common, even more so for LX flights.

I called from Rio to get an earlier flight back to NY and agent asked "what state Rio was in - she does not know that airport, is it near a hub?"

Yes, that's what I was saying. No point in even checking LH avail on UA.COM. I ignore .com and go right to the ANA site. The LH avail there has been actual avail, not ghost

Just saw LH F for flights I'd like to take next week on UA.com - not showing per KVS so I knew it was ghost. Tried to book it, got the error message after the payment page.

This was one supposed big improvement using the CO site - booking partner awards online. And overall, it still is - but this is taking a big chunk out of the benefit.

So if I make it past the booking stage and get it confirmed, I should be good?

"Confirmed" is all relative - get both the UA / LH PNRs, make sure you have a ticket #, call LH to see if it looks good from their side.

With SHARES dropping segments left and right (or not even ticketing at all), new COdbaUA best practices are to always follow up with the partner carrier, early and often