Changes to *A Awards Without Incurring Additional Miles after 3-Feb-2014

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Feb 13, 2014, 12:11 pm

#91

faceboy

Join Date: Sep 2004

Location: WAS (DCA, BWI, IAD)

Programs: AAdvantage EXP, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold, Hilton Gold

Posts: 114

Website was able to find a new multi-city itinerary and make the change without me calling in

Did the following change for just 1 person:

Original:
IAD - LHR UA(F)
LHR - FRA LH(C)
FRA - BKK TG(F)
BKK - DPS TG(C)

New Routing:
IAD - FRA LH(F)
FRA - KIX LH(F)
KIX - BKK TG(F)
BKK - DPS TG (C)

It was immediately ticketed and confirmed. Was also able to change seats on LH website. Also changed to a day earlier as F is showing full on my original day of travel out of IAD to FRA. Did have to pay the $50 change fee and got a refund of taxes from old routing. Did not ask for additional miles.

Feb 13, 2014, 1:02 pm

#92

italdesign

Join Date: Nov 2006

Programs: Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum

Posts: 3,679

Quote:

Originally Posted by faceboy

Interesting. I've never been able to do such a US-EU-Asia multi-segment award online. UA.com always errors out. I just tried again and it still errors out on a similar itin. Did you do anything special to make it work? Did you just do change flight -> multiple segments -> type in each segment?

Feb 13, 2014, 2:57 pm

#93

faceboy

Join Date: Sep 2004

Location: WAS (DCA, BWI, IAD)

Programs: AAdvantage EXP, Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold, Hilton Gold

Posts: 114

Quote:

Originally Posted by italdesign

I was surprised it worked also and went all the way through as I have never been able to get it to work on prior trips. Yes I just did change flight -> multiple segments -> each segment

I decided to do 3 instead of 4 segments as I figured the last leg, KIX-DPS would easily locate the stop in BKK. That worked perfectly.

My multi segment search was:
IAD - FRA
FRA - KIX
KIX - DPS

I expecting an error even after entering credit card info but the website kept churning and delivered. Happy I did not have to call in and argue to keep miles the same.

Just play around with it and see if you have any luck. Routings that are straightforward probably does not need to be broken up.

Feb 13, 2014, 8:19 pm

#94

italdesign

Join Date: Nov 2006

Programs: Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum

Posts: 3,679

Very interesting Faceboy. I can change mine online to ORD-YUL-MUC-BKK, but swap BKK with HKG or SIN or Tokyo then error. Seems like it works for a limited # of cases.

Feb 13, 2014, 8:57 pm

#95

PRHusky

Join Date: Jul 2012

Programs: AA Platinum, Marriott Platinum

Posts: 99

I am flying a JFK-FRA RT on LH J in July. The reservation was made pre Feb. 3. If F becomes available within 14 days, will they allow me to upgrade to F at pre Feb. 3 levels? I asked when I completed the reservation originally and the agent had no idea.

Feb 13, 2014, 9:02 pm

#96

jasonvr

Join Date: Feb 2005

Location: So Cal

Programs: UA Gold/0.744MM, WN AL, Hyatt Diamond, MR Scum, Hertz PC, National Exec, Avis PC

Posts: 5,559

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRHusky

Are there other F segments in the rez? If not, then it is a J award and would reprice to the new F price if changed to F.

Feb 14, 2014, 8:16 am

#97

vielflieger

Join Date: May 2003

Location: SFO

Programs: DL 3MM/FC/DM LT; LH FT LT; HH DIA

Posts: 347

Success!

rebooked an UA F award FRA to West Coast from UA 1st to LH 1st on same routing but different date! Did it online, stayed at 67500 mls plus change fee ($50)!

FCT here I come

Feb 14, 2014, 6:38 pm

#98

gpeso8

Join Date: Jan 2010

Location: CGK/LAX

Programs: KF,JMB, OZ, SPG,AA,UA,AS

Posts: 1,163

Downgrading incurring additional miles?

I have the following reservation (pre-devaluation):

LAX- SFO: UA J
SFO-PEK: CA F
PEK-SIN: CA J
SIN-CGK: SQ J
CGK-SIN: SQ J
SIN-PEK: SQ J
PEK-LAX: CA F

I'd like to change it to:

LAX-TPE BR J
TPE-SIN BR J
SIN-CGK SQ J
CGK-SIN SQ J
SIN-PEK CA J
PEK-LAX CA F

Will this downgrade cause me to get dinged an additional 10,000 miles? I'd hate to downgrade and get charged an additional 10,000 miles, but the new outbound date works better for me.

Feb 14, 2014, 10:35 pm

#99

FlyingDoctorwu

Join Date: Mar 2004

Location: Baltimore MD

Posts: 3,457

Called to inquire about LH F availability- turned out to be phantom availability. The agent insisted if I were to make any changes to my flights that I would be charged the additional miles under the new rate structure. I said um thanks for the information and hung up. Time to get the memos out to the agents United...

FDW

Feb 14, 2014, 10:36 pm

#100

PV_Premier

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Jan 2012

Location: Northern Calif./Eastern Ida.

Programs: Amethyst Premier Plutonium Medallion

Posts: 20,619

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyingDoctorwu

The memo did go out. Like all post merger memos it said "do whatever the hell you want"

Feb 15, 2014, 12:12 am

#101

ATD

Join Date: Aug 2008

Programs: Emirates Skywards, Delta Skymiles, Continental Onepass, etc.

Posts: 114

Message from Mileage Plus

I wrote to the MP email address to query about changing a pre-Feb award ticket and the response was:

"As long as your award type, cabin, carrier or region do not change, you are able to change the award ticket without incurring additional miles."

It's good to know that you can even inverse the routing and only pay the change fee without extra miles.

Just confirms what many here have already experienced.

--ATD

Feb 15, 2014, 12:51 am

#102

jasonvr

Join Date: Feb 2005

Location: So Cal

Programs: UA Gold/0.744MM, WN AL, Hyatt Diamond, MR Scum, Hertz PC, National Exec, Avis PC

Posts: 5,559

Quote:

Originally Posted by ATD

If you are talking about swapping origin and destination ("inverse the routing") I definitely wouldn't count on that working. I'm not saying it wouldn't since the number of miles is technically the same, but your origin and destination regions are both changing, even if you are just swapping them.