jamienbaker

I routinely fly my family around the world on CX, you just have to make up your mind in advance. Most US-HKG flights in the 280-330 day advance category have 8 J awards and 2 F awards at the moment. I'm just waiting for August 2013 to open up. I do agree with other posts that destinations and lack of OW currency may deter some from booking CX. But availability should never prove an issue, even for those with tight work schedules and travel with family.

Thunderroad

Yes, MMMVMV when it comes to AA miles versus UA miles these days, but that's a much longer discussion. I'll agree to disagree on this point.

As for SQ award F as a widget, I'll agree to simply disagree on that one as well. I wouldn't book it simply for the sake of experience, though I can see some folks doing so if they have miles and time on their hands, with the journey itself being fun and a brief trip to a given destination also being part of the appeal.

I do suspect, though, that many folks jumped on the deal for trips they were going to take anyway. For instance, I grabbed it for my wife and myself for a vacation we'd otherwise take anyway; but for reasons I mentioned, I'd rather burn the miles on SQ rather than CX. I also booked flights for a couple of business trips that I may have to take and for which my total compensation would include my covering my air fare.

Madone59

I am sure it is more route/ time dependent and less that "we" will flood SQ and take their premium seats.

I am on SQ 15 SFO-ICN in F thanks to this, and 6 of 8 seat are taken. That is late DEC, which is travel season. I got in on this hours after it hit FT, and had my seats ASAP so I know those seats were sold or held before the levy broke.

pcharles

+1
Agreed and emphasized/elaborated on.

kekurutz

I've got a dilemma that I'm hoping someone with more experience can help me with.

When the flood gates opened I was able to book SFO-SIN-DPS for March 2013. While I'm beyond excited for the suite experience from SFO-SIN, there's not much to look forward to SIN-DPS on SQ's 777-200 in biz as these are not the new medium-haul business seats. While I realize this is only an approx. 2 hour flight, I notice that Qatar has biz availability on their 777-300ER for this route.

So, my question: If I were to call UA, would/should they be able to cancel my SIN-DPS/DPS-SIN legs, replace with the Qatar flights, all without affecting my SFO-SIN/SIN-SFO legs? I fear that during this change the agent could lose my long-haul legs and I lose out on the A380 R experience as there would likely be no way to get these flights back.

Do I just suck it up and stick with the SQ flights to DPS, or do I take my chances and risk losing all of my SQ flights?

Anyone with experience for this type of scenario?

DWFI

A competent agent should be able to do that, yes.

kekurutz

That's also what I'm worried about, ha.

Happy

Actually CX J/F availability can be found several months before departure. In fact I have seen them ranging from 11 months out. If you are truly limited by your work schedule, you can certainly book CX J/F months ahead - except your have to make up your mind early on and grab them as they become available.

For us we just love the ample availability when it is close to departure.

jasonvr

I'd say if you find someone who is willing to book a QR award (which is still totally legal), you will have found a competent agent

Thunderroad

Yeah, that's what I'd be worried about too.

If you don't get a response with specific instructions on how to make as sure as possible that the agent doesn't screw up your reservations, you might start a new thread asking for specific advice about this.

Although...come to think of it...can you combine a non-Star Alliance flight such as Qatar with a reservation such as this? I'm not sure about that.

jasonvr

Yes, they can be combined

Thunderroad

Good to know (for the little remaining time that Qatar can be booked with miles). Thanks.

travelkid

Just arrived SQ F FRA-SIN 77W with F cabin 7/8.

A yuppie in his 20s, succesful, model style haircut. Middleaged woman/mid 40s with a few LV handbags, a father (presumeably) and his 2 (obesive) kids.

This all made for double servings of caviar for me and GF+ most of the Krug. Did a lobster sampling as well with the loaded asian version vs the BTCed in its shell. The latter was far better. Mixed well with the 1er cru Chablis.

I would say an average F experience. My recent F flights with JL,EY, NH, OZ and CX were all better (even TK F), and I would say the SQ was not better than LH, LX and TG F.

Still worth it as the segment costed me about 10K miles calculated on a pro rata basis for my creative routing@:-)

Care to elaborate? No

Then onto HKG to see if UA honors our 4 mile deal Great connection though, as we walked like 50 meters from our arrival gate to board for the quick connection. If the Krug didnt fool my mind I believe it was the same 77W.

mherdeg

What's the best practice for schedule changes when partner award availability isn't there any more? We now see two problems.

(1) We booked something like
10/9 LHR-XXX (not SQ)
10/9 XXX-SIN (SQ)
10/10 SIN-NRT (SQ)

After a schedule change, the XXX-SIN is no longer offered and we've been automatically rebooked in First (O) on the 10/8 XXX-SIN -- which is an impossible connection because the first coupon on our itinerary leaves a day later.

Can we call SQ and ask them to reaccommodate us on connections that work better? Or do we have to just suck it up and call UA to get them to change the first segment (which is not on SQ)?

(2) Separately, we booked something like
10/16 LHR-XXX
10/17 XXX-SIN

After a schedule change, the XXX-SIN now leaves at 0900 instead of 1700 … and according to united.com we are now in class X (Economy)?! … and the flight's availability is zeroed out in GDSes (unavailable for sale on matrix.itasoftware.com unless you un-tick "search for available flights", but for sale on singaporeair.com)?!

If we call UA, will they fix this? Or should we start with SQ?

gba

On a similar note, has anyone made changes (such as adding a connection) to a reservation that had an "R" segment. Will United get confused during re-ticketing and try to treat it as a business class ticket?