nwflyboy

Looking at an award travel trip on *A metal using United miles in the fall of 2013, on popular, high-demand routes (US west coast - Australia), 2 seats in Biz. Prefer to travel on non-UA metal for this long trip. Our travel dates will not have much flexibility, so I know getting 2 biz class seats will require nabbing them early and perhaps some other tricks.

I'm pretty confident I can get the outbound flight I want if I scoop it up as soon as it becomes available. The return will be 3 weeks later. So I'm leaning towards booking the outbound as a one-way flight, waiting 3 weeks for return flight availability, then booking that as another one-way. I'm OK with the small extra fees for booking two trips rather than one.

Assuming I go with that plan, is there any way to then get the two one-way flights converted/merged to a round-trip (after I have secured both outbound and return seats)? Is there any way to add a stopover on the return leg?

The reason I ask is because (if I understand the rules correctly), I believe I can add a stopover in Asia (BKK or NRT on the way home) but stopovers are only allowed on a round-trip - so if I book it as 2 one-ways, no stopovers allowed - correct?

I think it boils down to a choice between:

A) Book two one-ways, and be reasonably assured I get the flights/seats I want, but no stopover.

or

B) Wait until the return flights become available, and hope that the outbound flights that I wanted are still available (highly unlikely - I've been watching them), but if they are still available, then we can get the stopover by booking it as a round trip.

I've thought of booking the outbound, waiting 3 weeks until the return flights become available, then cancel the outbound one-way (re-deposit the miles), then immediately try to book the round-trip. But that seems risky as I'm not confident that the cancelled seats would immediately become bookable, someone else might grab them while I'm on hold trying to get through to the call center, and the redeposit fee (IIRC, around US $150 per ticket) while not huge is also not trivial (the risk of loosing the choice flights is more of a deterrent than the redeposit fee). I have no status.

Getting the flights/seats I want is probably more important to me than getting the stopover. But adding the stopover would be nice - if I can have my cake and eat it too.

Have I got those details and my options about right? Anything I'm missing here?

Thanks for your input, wisdom, and occasionally crazy advice.

aacharya

There is no way to combine 2 one-ways into one RT without redepositing and rebooking, along with the commensurate fees.

There is also a fallacy that you must book flights 330 days out to get availability. Most carriers do not release "all" availability then.

Wait to book until the RT, and even if you don't find direct flights, book the 1-stops, and call to waitlist (will work on UA metal only) for the direct flights.

No stopovers are allowed on one-way bookings.

nwflyboy

That's what I thought, thanks for confirming.

My remaining questions on that would be: if I were willing to eat the redeposit fee (I might be), how quick/reliable is the timing of canceling the original outbound booking (one way), then immediately re-book the same seats as part of the round-trip? I'll be doing this over the phone with the Steerage Class call center. I'll be prepared to spoon-feed them all the details, but they would need to push the button to cancel the first booking and then grab the same seats for the second booking...assuming the seats would become available right away. How likely is it that the seats I just canceled would immediately be available to the same agent on the same call? I assume there's no delay in using miles that are re-deposited when canceling a booking (correct?).

That's what I thought, thanks for confirming.

I do know that. However, in this case, I've concluded that we need to book the flights as soon as the first batch of seats become available, roughly 330 days out. Why? Because...
1) Our travel dates are not really flexible (only could move maybe 1-2 days each way, and then that would eat into an already-tight trip plan). Moving the dates more than that is not an option for us in this case.
2) I've been watching availability for the flights want. 2 seats in biz are available for a short window (usually no more than a week, never for more than 2 weeks) then disappear from availability (I'm looking on United's site and ANA's). I check for availability searching back 3-4 months and I check every day, and have been doing so for several months. Availability for the seats I want has never re-appeared after the initial availability window in any search I've done. So while I know it's true that additional seats may be released at some later point (I know this is true as a general statement), it seems crystal clear to me that given our other constraints, on this trip my best (and perhaps only) chance to get the seats I want is when they first become available.
3) We're picky. I have my eye on a particular flight on a particular *A carrier. While we would have some additional options if we took a different carrier/routing, it's a high priority of us to get the flight and carrier that we're chosen. In this case, more important than adding the stopover.

As I indicated, we do not want to fly on UA metal, and given our constraints/priorities, it doesn't appear that waitlisting is an option for us.

Sounds like my options are as I suspected: if I really want to be sure to get the flights I want, book two one-ways and skip the stopover (unless I can be reasonably confident of doing he one-way booking, then cancel that, then immediately rebook the same seats as part of a round-trip...still not sure about that).

Maybe I can't have my cake and eat it, too. I can live with that...just wanted to be sure I wasn't overlooking any other worthwhile options.

Thanks again to all.

aacharya

1. Seats on partner airlines will not go back into inventory immediately if you cancel the OW, and may never come back at all. Seats on UA airlines - you have a better chance of doing this.

2. If you have enough miles, you can see if you can "rebook" the RT and then only afterwards, cancel the one-way.

3. Your way of searching (daily) is why you don't see them. Most folks here have ExpertFlyer alerts, and they call immediately when they get that message. Sol it makes sense that you don't see availability on a once-daily look-up.


What you said below is your best advice (with one edit).

Sounds like my options are as I suspected: if I really want to be sure to get the flights I want, book two one-ways and skip the stopover.

j2tx

Thank you nwflyboy for the questions and aacharya for the answers. I, too, am strategizing how to use award miles for a trip to Australia and had many of the same questions. I hope nwflyboy will post a follow-up on this site outlining his successful strategy.

rankourabu

as mentioned - there is absolutely no need booking 330 days out if you are going to go via Asia anyway.

Just wait until the return is available for booking.

If you were going UA non-stop, then yes, maybe booking far out is wise, but for Asia, there are options via CA/TG that have plentiful availability.

If you are really worried - then book the outbound one-ways as insurance, and when return opens up - see if you can still book a round trip with stopover - 99% you will be able to do so. That 1% chance you wont be able to, you dont have to worry.

If you can book the round trip, cancel the oneways for a fee - or hope for a schedule change to cancel for free.

Boghopper

I would book the R/T as best you can, then then when your ideal return crops up you have UA change it and you eat the change fee. If it's not worth the change fee then I would go with the two O/Ws.

farbster

My inlaws traveled from USA to Singapore and just boarded their cruise. The day before they got on the ship, Air China changed the time of their return flight and made it impossible for them to keep their schedule.

Their UA award ticket was booked as an open jaw. Specifically, they were IAD-BRU-SIN (layover in BRU, not stop). They paid to go from SIN to REP and then paid another ticket to go from REP-SIN.

The return of their award ticket was from HKG-PEK-IAD (layover in PEK, not a stop).

I was able to find 2 seats in biz on CX returning from HKG-ORD-BWI for 55k AA points each.

Their original flights were at the saver level (1st all the way).

No seats were available online Saturday at the saver level for flights that were possible for them to make. I didn't want to use more points or have them fly in coach.

When I first (on Saturday) asked UA about cancelling the return flight (so I could fly them home on CX) they said I couldn't get the points back for the unused portion because the ticket had already begun. I was able to get a supervisor on Monday who opened up the seats at the saver level.

So my question (finally got there!) is this: Why book a RT if you could book 2 OW's? I'm asking for simple itineraries, not crazy ones...I believe you can book OW's on UA and AA but not many others. Obviously I'm only talking about the airlines that allow the OW's. If they had booked 2 OW's I could have cancelled and booked on CX (probably way better in biz than UA first).

This would also be good if you were looking for a better return flight and one popped up when you were on your trip.

I hope my question is clear. Thanks for all your thoughtful responses. Please feel free to ask for clarification.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Depending on the program, if you book two one-ways and then have to cancel the entire trip, you might be hit with higher cancellation/mileage reinstatement fees. In addition, UA permits an en-route stopover on a roundtrip award, but not on one-ways.

PainCorp

This isn't a simple change though. The airline made a change that makes their travel impossible. OP, how much time was the change? 60 minutes? 90 minutes?

SFO777

OP, since this is a UA related mileage question, I would ask the mods to move it to the UA forum. You will get much better response and from those have had similar experiences. Generally speaking though, airlines are usually pretty good about allowing changes after major schedule changes.

8rulos

For simple point to point OW is better. As previous poster mentioned, UA allows a stop over on RT award tickets, but lets assume that such an ticket would not count as simple. Only issue could be fees if you are not 1P or 1K.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

This is not a UA-related question. The particular problem that the OP had has been resolved:

"I was able to get a supervisor on Monday who opened up the seats at the saver level."

The OP is now asking a more general question: Is it better to book a roundtrip award or two one-ways when a particular FFP offers both types of awards.

Corridor!

When flying UA, you are also able to add a free one way. This can only be done when flying RT and not OW's. That is pretty valuable as you can get a free flight to the Caribbean, Hawaii, etc.

amolkold

The only program I can think of where this matters is UA, since you get the free stopover with an RT rather than a OW.

US/DL charge RT prices for one-ways. BA charges per segment. AC is best used R/T. Other programs like NH are distance-based. AA is a one-way program (since you still get the free stopover on a one-way).