kb1992

Have to agree. :-::-::-:

halls120

But on some routes - IAD-SYD, for example - savers don't start appearing until T-14. I want to use my miles for an Australian vacation someday, but unless I'm willing to wait until T-14 to book, I'm going to have to pay dearly in miles for that trip. Otherwise, the alternative is a thrown-together-at-the-last-minute vacation.

spin88

Well, looking at SFO-LHR for the same day you looked at ORD-LHR (May 13, 2014) I get M-W 5/11-13 and 5/18-20 and Sun-W 5/24-27 in Y, then nothing. Not a single J or F saver. Run the same search for one passenger, it shows only ONE J saver award, and that if for 70,000 miles one way on AC. Which is not exactly a "saver" award in my book.

Nothing you have posted shows that MP is a "much better program" at best at this point it is somewhat in the same league as SkyPeso, which as Lucky points out has some sweet redemptions, as does VX - as I pointed out. (SFO-HKG/SIN/ICN on SQ for 95K in J/130K in F is "sweet" in my book).

If you want to show me some realistic actual good redemptions at saver on UAL, fire away, I have not found any from SFO, and I'm not trusting your management to do me right.

andrewwm

So...you're comparing how hard it is to get 4 seats in premium cabin on one route on UA miles during peak season to the best, most outsized hypothetical redemption possibilities in competitor programs.

How hard is it to get 4 seats on VA upper class from SFO during peak season? My guess is pretty darn hard. How hard is it to get 4 seats on SQ C during peak season? (hint: haha, that's a funny joke is the answer you'll get from the phone agents).

It's hard to get 4 seats in premium cabins on any airline in the world on 10+ hour flights on your choice of days in premium cabins during peak season. To be honest, any airline giving away premium seats like that during the busiest times of the year deserves to go out of business.

But sure. Here are some redemptions you can take.

5/13 - 4 seats SFO-IST in C. 12h55m in an excellent premium cabin to a great destination (can also connect onward to any number of interesting short haul flights too)
5/15 - 4 seats SFO-NRT in F, 80k miles. Get to see a world capital and only have to pay standard UA rates (note that you can connect onward on the same date from NRT to many places on an ANA flight)
5/13 - 4 seats SFO-LAX-ICN in C, get to see one of the fastest growing Asian cities and fly on Asiana's brand new A380 experience.
5/13 - 4 seats SFO-YVR-PEK in C, get to see some of the best, most interesting tourist sites in the world.

This is with about 5 minutes worth of work.

Anyway, I'm not going to do your vacation planning for you. If you have a little bit of flexibility UA miles can take you pretty much anywhere in the world including interesting stopovers and the ability to have a nice open-jaw.

Or you can collect VX miles which can get you to...LHR. Sometimes. And maybe, sometimes, Tokyo, Seoul or Hong Kong. And about those stopovers?

Or you can collect DL miles. Where can you get from SFO on DL in May of next year with 4 people in a premium cabin? (note: I am not a masochist so you will have to do your own research on delta.dumb, although I am not holding out much hope for you).

spin88

And you seem to just ignore that each flight you list is either a "standard" not saver rate, or is at the super high *A rate. Sorry, but paying 160K miles per seat for *A C is not exactly a bargain in my book.

All you have succeeded in proving is that (1) *A seats are available, (2) you can't find any UAL J/F seats, and (3) the highway robbery rates for *A is what you have to pay is you want anything with your suddenly devalued UA miles.

Sorry, I'm not accumulating miles in a program that wants 160,000 miles for J (240,000 for F) to Asia and 140,000 miles for J (220,000 for F) to Europe.

andrewwm

UA rate in F is at saver. I only looked at basically the 13th on most routes, but I'm sure if I looked I could find UA in C (lots of UA in Y and UA in F if that's your thing) to some places.

Instead, however, you'd rather accumulate miles in a program that can't get you anywhere and never has any award seats available? Interesting.

Also, I noticed you never answered my question about what dates you could go somewhere on VX or DL miles for 4 people during the month of May. I'm not holding my breath that you'll answer, but my guess is: nowhere.

Complaining that UA has no award seats to places you want to travel: Not true
Complaining that UA has no award seats on own metal to places you want to travel: Only true if you are strict about your dates and demand 4 seats in premium cabins during peak times
Then choosing a program that has no route flexibility and rarely has award seats available (let alone 4): Priceless Spin88 logic.

LaserSailor

You won't be flying for much longer. No airline is interested in flying you to Asia in F for equivalent of 1600 USD.

AAExPlat

This isn't true. First of all, the awards are only seats they could not normally sell. Second, we don't know what the exact reimbursement rates are (at least I don't know). Third, 240k points have a FAR greater value than $1600 in my book.

cfischer

I have indeed been looking for Europe awards recently and found DL availability but no UA ... times are changing. DL is closing the gap. UA should be very concerned.

LaserSailor

My bad. 1600 in J, not F. They aren't interested in flying you for 2400 in F, either.

240,000 miles might be worth more to you, but they aren't worth it to the airline. They have the product you seek, so its the airline value that is relevant, not your perceived value.

..and we got used to them not being able to sell these seats post 2008. That party is over, for all airlines. Now they can sell them, so they won't give them way for SkyDOngs.

AAExPlat

You are making my point...if the availability is there then they are willing to "sell" us the seat at the saver rate. If it's not there, then they don't.

But sooner or later the pendulum will swing in our favor again.

LaserSailor

And you are missing the point that just because a seat is empty, they are not willing to sell it at any combination of miles/cash. Revenue management does not equal load factor maximization

hookthem

If you're willing to go out of your way, you can route IAH-GRU-EZE pretty much any day in March (UA979/TK15). It is pricing out at 55,000 miles each way for me in saver business. I see a lot of availability on that route.

berto714

I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but very recently saver J to SYD was opening up far in advance (~330 days). You might have to play around with the gateway and then tag on a flight to the gateway later, but it can definitely be done. Even if you need to pay a change fee to add the flight to the gateway later, or even pay your own way to the gateway, it seems a small cost to pay to fly J all the way to Australia.

I think another thing, that I'll definitely agree with, is that there has been a cutback in domestic saver availability. This can make it difficult for people to find flights abroad who don't live in a gateway because there are no saver flights to the actual gateway. While this is annoying, it hardly seems insurmountable - just pay cash for the flight to the gateway.

ainternational

Just checked and booked as there was multitudes of availability in saver across all three classes on UA and NH from Japan to NA, just 1-3 weeks out. NH primarily Y but UA GF and C wide open.