camaro02dk

Hello everyone

Hoping some of you could tell me more about the topic, of me being gold at the moment by end of year going to be platinum.

How big of a difference is there in what united call's "Better availability for United Saver Awards in select premium cabins"

I am hoping to use my miles for a trip from IAD to DPS for our honeymoon. Right now the availability for business saver awards is very limited at much of it with mixed in economy but you still have to pay the full amount of points.

We are planing on going in March-April in 2014.... so the question is... should I bite the bullet and order the trip as gold member or wait till end of year to get my platinum and the looks for trips?


Hope you can help with some advise.

sammyindc

There won't be any difference in award seat availability between Gold and Platinum.
The big difference is the fee waiver for booking award travel, re-depositing award after cancelling a trip, and making changes to an award reservation.

meehgz

Yeah, the benefit stated of greater seat availability is pretty much a sham in my experience. R inventory has always matched RN inventory in my experience. As mentioned above, the flexibility in modifying award reservations is a huge perk, though.

drewguy

Technically there is-Platinum, 1K, and GS qualify for better saver award availability; practically it's not common.

If you want to look, the extra available seats are in ON vs. O for global first and IN vs. I for BusinessFirst, which will show up in expert mode on united.com. I have seen some instances where ON>O and/or IN>I.

Part of your problem for IAD-DPS is that the routings all involve partners, where award availability is not enhanced by status.

aacharya

Umm. R versus RN does not show award seat availability. XN > X exists. IN > I does not exist, even though it's published.

No wonder you think it's a sham - you don't know what you're looking for.

PV_Premier

there is no difference in availability despite the advertised benefit. R always = RN (revenue upgrades) and I always = IN (award premium seats).

you will see better availability of saver awards (that is X does not = XN most of the time). usually though this is one or maybe two seats of inventory on most flights. I can't remember ever seeing a delta greater than 2 between X and XN. still, it helps, especially at the last minute when X=0 and XN=1.

aacharya

I've seen XN9 and X2 to X6 a few times.

sammyindc

If there are any difference they are very very rare and as OP stated on his specific routing, there won't be any difference.
But again still worth it so you can change your reservation many times without being charged a fee which takes care of your initial concern of seat availability since you can change flights when it becomes available and get better seat/aircraft on *A partners which tend to open up award space closer to departure date.

Kacee

ON is for GS only. O is the saver award class for all other pax. In other words, there is no enhanced GF availability for non-GS elites.

XN is frequently greater than X. Otherwise, sub-GS get no greater award availability than any other pax.

eagle007

Just want to pile on here, I have the same experience as others are suggesting. Better availability in Y for award travel (X vs. XN) but rarely see anything in R being different.

Also, real benefit is having better fee structure for cancellations, changes etc for award travel