red star

With a 2 years old you won't get away with an infant ticket (10%).

szehui

If you're going to HKG anyways, you may want to consider doing the Hello Kitty flights between HKG and TPE. Like the TPE-LAX service, the Hello Kitty is only one flight a day, but may prove to be easier to book.

aBroadAbroad

Since your question is primarily about booking an award flight with UA miles, I've moved it to the United Airlines forum in hopes of gaining more attention from those FlyerTalkers who are most likely to be of assistance. For future reference, you can find this forum listed under "Airlines and Mileage Programs" in the Miles&Points category of the Forum Index.

For more information on the Hello Kitty aircraft, see these threads in the Other Asian Airlines forum:

• http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...ighlight=Kitty
• http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...ighlight=Kitty

Forum members will please note that this thread originated at the flame-free Information Desk, and reply accordingly.

Thanks everyone, and safe travels to the OP.

~Moderator, Information Desk

kluau88

It is possible that there is no award space. The middle of December is generally high season. I would keep checking though.

I just checked on December 9 and there is 1 seat available in biz for BR 15 and BR1 from LAXTPE. There are multiple seats for BR11 in economy.

The aircraft rotation for Eva Air's Hello Kitty flights also isn't posted past November 2, 2014. Should also be noted they don't have daily flights on the Hello Kitty Jets from LAXTPE. You might consider going via NRT on UA and then connecting to TPE on BR. This will save you some miles and there are daily flights on the Hello Kitty jets from TPE. You might try routing LAXNRTTPEHKG as you should be able to get the Hello Kitty flights on NRTTPEHKG.

If you want the full experience I suggest you take a flight ex-TPE as I believe TPE has all the bells and whistles from check-in to the gate area.

PVDProf

Do double check that your daughter will be less than 24 months (from birth) to be eligible for the infant fare. (Also, if you aren't used to long flights with a large lap child, it might be worth thinking about whether you want to buy her a seat anyhow; we decided 9 months was the cutoff for our kids, after a very unpleasant flight, which was mercifully only two hours.)

I had some BR award space a while ago on 12/20, but it looks like there just isn't any in the couple weeks before Christmas available now…it's been snapped up. In that period, you can take UA standard awards to other points in Asia, and then connect to BR flights, so it doesn't look like there's a blanket blackout in effect.

You are looking for a particular flight at a peak time of year, for several people, and that can be too high an expectation for saver awards. Explore some alternative routings: award tickets do not need to be all on the same carrier. One way to do this is to search for one ticket at a time, and then explore where there is availability before looking for 3 on the same flights.

garykung

This is typical award blackout, especially for Christmas.

Beside - BR has not published if BR 15/11 will use the Sanrio Family Jet yet. All Hello Kitty Jet schedule is published until 11/02/14.

username

Mid-December to late December is the top season as Taiwanese in the US/Canada return to Taiwan during their school breaks. I also find that EVA, for good reasons, does not release Kitty Jet inventory as generously as other flights.

The suggestion to do intra-Asia is a good one. One can even do something like: LAX-TPE-HKG-TPE/TSA-HND-LAX so you get 4 flights on Kitty. HND-LAX on NH. The problem is that I think UA would not allow an award ticket with both a stopover in TPE and the TPE/TSA airport switch. So, you might want to see if you can pay for TPE-HKG-TPE.

As TPE-LAX go 3x daily and TPE-SFO go 2x daily and 3 new 777s getting delivered in the next few weeks, inventory might open up. Still, Kitty jet will be the last one to open.

Of course, the Kitty does not end on EVA. Also take the Hello Kitty Gondola: http://english.gondola.trtc.com.tw/c...0772&mp=122034

In the metro, you will see the United Friendly ads but also ads for Hello Kitty Vitamin C and, get this, Hello Kittty Chicken Soup! Cat sells bird soup

sfonorth

Here is the listing of all the EVA Hello Kitty flights:

http://evakitty.evaair.com/en/FlightRoutes.aspx

We took our 7 year old daughter on the TPE-ICN flight and she really liked it. Hello Kitty pillows, TV screens, meals, games, etc.

whitesol

Sounds like my family! We will be 4 with a lap child of 3 months when december rolls around, I too would do anything for my 6 year old and so a quest for a hello kitty flight. The difference is that I'll fly out of SFO and we are going the beginning of December. SFO > TPE > HKG > SFO. BR857 is the hello kitty flight we will be on. I think you will have to move your timeline in order to get it done, forward or backwards and consider the TPE > HKG shorter flight.

ponickka

Thanks for all the input. As of right now, my only way to getting the Hello Kitty experience is thru the connecting flight from TPE to HKG. Although it is a short two hours flight for my little one, i think it is better than no hello kitty experience.

My son will be 18 months during the time of travel. I am still debating if we should get a seat for him or just consider him a lap baby and pay for the 10% charge.

On a separate note, is it recommended to purchases Intra-Asia ticket (IE: TPE to NRT) through United, or other american airline or best to purchase the ticket at TPE airport with specific airline? This is totally new to me so i am not sure if my question even makes any sense.

Through award travel, united only allows me to go from LAX-TPE-HKG-LAX
i can't include a third country per phone conversation with the United Rep.

What i was hoping to achieve with the trip was LAX-TPE-NRT-HKG-LAX
if i can purchase ticket from TPE to NRT at a discount or good rate, i can fly back to TPE from NRT and take the HKG as part of the layover. Does this make sense?

username

LAX-TPE(stopover)-HKG(destination)-NRT-LAX would be perfectly valid on UA. LAX-TPE(stopover)-HKG(destination)-TPE-NRT-LAX is most likely valid too. Maybe the agent thought you wanted to stop in Japan?

If you were going to purchase a ticket, consider TPE-HKG-TPE as that would be much cheaper than TPE-NRT-TPE. It seems all the low fares are for roundtrip travel so you might have to just by the RT and throw out the return. You definitely don't want to buy ticket at the airport - in the worst case, use EVA's website. Or, find a local agent in TPE.

vrbaba

Trying to change my flight existing BR award in J fro two to another date

First, tried online, got through to the last page to confirm, and website bombs out.

Then, called the first agent. He said he does not see any I class availability. I told him I can and the website shows it to me. His response, "So, why are you calling me?"

HUACA

This time asked for mileage plus option, and a helpful agent spent about 40 mins with me. I checked AwardNexus and Aeroplan to confirm availability. She could not see it. She went to a customer service supervisor, who tried to do a manual sell, unsuccessfully. Turns out, she says there is no BR availability in I class beyond July of this year.

Facts:
1. Award was booked pre-devaluation
2. Ticketed in Jan, trying to change the date to May next year. Possible issue?

Will try calling again later, but two agents cannot see any I class seems odd.

FlytheTail

Award and upgrade inventory for United on EVA is sometimes/often less than what other airlines show for availability.

vrbaba

Possibly, but when the website is showing availability, are you saying it's phantom inventory showing up?

Side note: why would BR have different availability for different partners, or is it United blocking them?

TennisNoob

I feel like the inventory is now phantom.

Last year when I booked to HKG, TONS of EVA flights came up, even IAH-SEA-TPE-HKG not to even mention SFO and LAX were there.

This year I didn't even see one EVA flight when I booked 6 months prior to departure.

But this is my guess