og

Its hit and miss. One set of ET flights ex ADD went smoothly and ticketted almost immediately. But when trying to book ET CPT or JNB to ADD, phantom availability was everywhere - indicated by error codes when attempting to book. A phone agent went through "its now unavailable" but eventually she tried and said "oh yes, this is wierd - I hate this system so much". Several times on hold (I assume she was conferring with a supervisor) and eventually she / we found flights that fitted my itinerary. It was clear that the inventory visible to her was different to that shown on ua.com.

Mattymess

My wife and I are going to Portugal and Spain in July. We locked down our dates and began planning our itinerary, finally settling on:

July 3....LAX > LIS
July 20...FAO > BIO
July 25...BIO > LAX

We generally try to fly business class on the way home and just my luck, I found Business Saver availability from Bilboa, Spain to Los Angeles via Dublin.

Flight details...

July 25...BIO > DUB
Aer Lingus...EI 749

July 26...DUB > LAX
Ethiopian...ET 504

Fast forward to this morning and I got an email stating that they were unable to confirm our flights. I called them to see what was up and I learned that the Ethiopian flight is sold out and there is ZERO business award availability from pretty much any city in Spain or Portugal.

I could book a standard economy award for 65k miles, but that's hard to swallow considering I thought I as getting business class for 70k.

Does anyone have any advice on getting from Bilbao, Spain to Los Angeles, preferably in business class?

I've previously waited to the last minute to book business class on AA as partner airlines typically release some seats a few days before the flight. Does United have anything similar?

We have about 200k united miles, 240k UR, 28k AA, and 56k SPG

Thanks!

WineCountryUA

How much time lapsed?
The way partner flights are handle, the partner has to accept the award request and that can take time. And as business award space, if that popped up it could have been noticed by others and you lost the race. Plus the inventory information can be stale at times.

no standard awards on partners, just UA operated flights

Yes, this can happen but it is up to the partner and if the flight is sold out, it of course will not happen

zrs70

Can you edit the title, as it suggests that you succeeded in having UA get a partner to give you an award!

I would suggest, "UA advertise and sold a phantom saver award"

Advice? Keep checking!

findark

Yes, the logic is the same in that a common time to find premium award seats is within 7 days of departure as they finally give up on the hope of selling them for cash or upgrade instruments.

But it's by no means a guarantee and you should have a backup plan.

Mattymess

I alerted the mods to change the title to your suggestion. Thanks.

I'll for sure keep looking. I have to find something and hope an award flight becomes available

I booked the flight on Wednesday evening, so roughly 40 hours since original booking.

That's exactly what I do with AA. Book an economy flight with awards and then wait a business/first award pops up. The good thing with AA is that they don't charge you for award flight changes. How about United?

Often1

The other carrier, ET has 72 hours to confirm positive space or else the reservation is auto-cancelled. UA cannot ticket the reservation until the space is confirmed. Here, ET chose not to confirm with 32 hours to go on the clock. Note that this applies to all tickets, not just awards.

While some carriers may confirm positive space relatively instantly, ET is not one of them.

Thus, your situation is simply that you don't have a ticket and should not plan until you do. It seems a bitter pill, but your choices are the Y and hope for J or figure out another route, perhaps via FRA-EWR-LAX (where UA might help you on its own metal).

thejaredhuang

Depends on status:

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...ticketing.aspx

mahasamatman

Not true according to https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...v#awardcharges

GetSetJetSet

ET flies from DUB to LAX?

beachmouse

It's apparently a fifth freedom thing that allows them longer distances from their high altitude home base in Addis Ababa, and Dublin will allow segment flyers for the LA route rather than just a refueling stop.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/t...blin-1.2177237

sethweinstein

I just booked a UA award ticket on ET and it ticketed within 4 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised, but maybe they're getting better at this.

Seth

pbd456

There is zero ET award space showing on UA.com?
glitch? or something new?

RobOnLI

I've found the opposite to be true. Often United.com shows award space on ET flights only to be told it can't be booked and doesn't actually exist.

Call UA and check what they see because the website still has many issues.

-RM

5DMarkIIguy

Just ticketed ET instantly using United miles.