SFHokie

Thanks, that's what I was worried about. I'll keep looking for positive upgrade space and then book/cancel accordingly.

9elf S

I would like to book a RT award flight to Tokyo this summer, but it's currently unclear whether (although a good chance that) Japan will open to tourists by summer. In case that doesn't happen, I would like to also book a RT trip to Sydney. The outbound and return flights for each trip would happen during the same weeks, but not necessarily on the same days.

To maximize my options, I am considering booking the following :

Outbound - Week 1

• To Tokyo: departs Monday, arrives Tuesday
• To Sydney: departs Tuesday, arrives Thursday

Return - Week 2

• From Tokyo: departs and arrives Monday
• From Sydney: departs and arrives Thursday

When looking at just actual flying time, the only overlap is the outbound legs where I would be travelling to two different locations on the same day (Tuesday of week 1), but their departure times would be on different days (Monday v. Tuesday of week 1). Obviously, the trips themselves overlap.

Thoughts on whether United would allow these two reservations?

BTW, I have had in the past United cancel a reservation where two reservations to different locations departed on the same day.

WineCountryUA

Not knowingly, but if you called about one, an agent might noticed the other.

These are a clear violation of UA's CoC and MP's T&Cs

Will, UA detect this automatically, doubtful their system are that sophisticated (and might lead to too many false positive).

fumje

As long as the actual flight times don't overlap (convert everything to GMT, then compare), it's unlikely to be flagged by a computer. Calendar days and relative time zones aren't directly relevant.

However, as noted, it is not permitted to make a reservation without the intention of flying.

9elf S

To close the loop on this, I did book award flights to Tokyo and Sydney after converting all flight times to GMT. Although there were no overlaps of actual flight times between the two PNRs, one flight segment of the Tokyo PNR overlapped by having the same day of travel as one segment of the Sydney PNR - basically, starting the journey in the US to travel to Sydney two hours after arriving in Tokyo. This same day of travel Tokyo segment was cancelled the next day by United, while the rest of the Tokyo PNR was left intact. Seeing this, I cancelled the Tokyo PNR.

avi8tir

This is the 2nd time this has happened. Had a trip to AMS in December and now a future one from NRT. I do not know which day I will actually need to return so I booked the same flight 2 days in a row. UA cancelled one of them on its own. Is there a rule somewhere that I cannot do this? I remember as a kid when my dad would travel, he'd have 2 or 3 return options booked so he'd be on the first flight out when his meetings wrapped up. He was on a paid ticket, so a little different. Maybe he taught me a bad habit lol.

jhayes_1780

Yes, duplicate or "impossible" reservations are not allowed:

Kmxu

Domestic short flights are less likely impossible to complete on consecutive days, but not international ones such as NRT-EWR.

avi8tir

I guess UA IT has gotten a bit more advanced over the years. What if I had the flights 2 days apart? That is allowed, correct?

physioprof

Altho they may not be "impossible", if you are booking them with the prior intent to only fly one of them, then you are violating other UA ticketing rules (such as the prohibition on "speculative" booking). Whether UA would detect such a pair of flights as potentially implicating this rule is a different question, as is what they would do if they did.

nomad420

I did the same thing a couple years back on paid tickets and just wanted to hold both reservations for less than 24 hrs to confirm trav/business plans and I blown away at how fast UA system detected it and dumped one of the bookings. It was literally in hours of booking the second "impossible" ticket. They don't want you tying up inventory.

HNLbasedFlyer

They detect it immediately when you book an impossible/double booking. The couple/few hours UA gave you was simply a grace period for you to fix it - but eventually they take action on their own. Opentable works the same way - it won't let you do a double booking at all, it forces you to cancel the other booking before proceeding so no grace period.

nomad420

Yeah learned that one very quickly. Computers are smart animals. I posted about it a couple years back and WineCountry set me straight...LOL...

Repooc17

The worst is when the the cancellation of double/impossible bookings due to involuntary UA schedule changes.

TATL is very much possible on back to back days, btw.

toolatetogohome

New to forum, please be patient
My oneway flight was delayed (bought with chase sapphire reserve points) and gate agent kept saying it may be canceled and also that she was working on plan B to move priority passengers to next out bound. I am not priority. The next outbound was full, so I bought a ticket for one after that. Didn’t check in, was gonna wait 30 min and either keep or cancel. UA canceled my seat on the delayed flight. I understand they have the right to do that. I approached gate agent and explained what happened. Turns out the delayed flight would leave just a little sooner than my back up, so she could put me back on original flight. Only later do I realize she moved my back up ticket to original, ie I paid $280 for an almost empty delayed flight. Why was the plane almost empty? I have no idea. Anyhoo, is there any way i can convince UA to refund or credit $280? Seems crazy to pay max fare for flight that was not sold out plus was delayed 2 hrs. I called UA but they told me it was my fault for not calling customer service while at the gate and instead handling it myself on the app. I also tried chatting another rep but same answer. Lesson learned for future!