B747-437B

Looks like ET awards are once again available via the United website now.

pbd456

only X class? cant find any I class yet

view-with-a-room

Interesting thread. ET options via North America are Washington Dc,New York,Los Angeles & Toronto. ORD or IAH are not the better options. I too am from Kansas City and I too am planning on a trip to Tanzania and oddly enough found availability via LifeMiles. Search via LifeMiles and call United with the outcome of the searches. Everything you have ever heard about LifeMiles is true so proceed with caution. LAX is easy enough from MCI so do consider a flight from LAX to JRO. Southwest on sale is $49 to / from LAX.

The notation of using ORD or IAH is confusing. The only Star Alliance flight out of MCI are United and the easiest way to search for United availability is via the United site. Determine ET availability via ANA and United availability via United and call United to piece together the itinerary.

riphamilton

i 'booked' an award reservation on .bomb that has ET flights. i received both UA and ET PNRs, but the reservation has not ticketed. my card has been charged, but the miles have not been debited.

the outbound for this flight is for this coming wednesday (a little over 48 hours from now). what likelihood is there that the reservation will complete ticketing, and what options do i have if it doesn't ticket? the flight is ATL-IAD-ADD-KGL in saver Y; would UA be willing to 'force' availability on SN or TK if ET is unable/unwilling to ticket? thanks!

WineCountryUA

UA is unable to force award availability on any partner.

aindfan

I tried to book an award that included flight ET706 (ADD-FRA). The reservation didn't ticket automatically, so I called the 1K line to find out what happened. All of the segments on the reservation came back confirmed, and the agent initially said that the system showed an invalid date error message. Once she verified that everything looked okay (and that the dates lined up), the agent escalated to a supervisor, and both the agent and the supervisor were unable to find ET706 at all. Once I demonstrated that the flight was still available for sale as an award on the UA website, I went back on hold while the agent and supervisor dug around further. After about an hour and a half (with a few check ins from the agent to let me know they were still searching for the answer), the agent came back from one of the holds and said that the ticketing desk had let them know that United was not allowed to e-ticket ET flights between ADD and FRA unless they're under a UA codeshare flight number since sometime in the middle of last year. They offered me a few other alternatives, one of which does work, but the story about not being allowed to e-ticket ET flights to a specific destination just sounds... odd. Has anyone else experienced this?

I wouldn't have stayed around on hold for this long, but I grabbed the last available award seat on one of the segments that I really want to keep, and I don't know if ET will release the inventory if I cancel.

(Just to confirm, after switching to a flight that didn't involve ET706, the agent and supervisor were able to get the reservation ticketed. Just be fore we ended the call, the agent also mentioned that ET706 was a TAP aircraft, and that was another reason why the reservation wouldn't ticket. Hmm...)

SkyTeam777

I have never seen I class availability appear for ET on UA; it is a known glitch. Unfortunately, what I didn't realize is that availability comes and goes on Expert Flyer. That erratic availability makes it hard to plan ahead for awards. Have people found ANA to show I availability when EF is not? Perhaps EF is not getting access to true availability in a similar way that UA is not??

TomMM

Back in Sept 2016 I booked I class on ET via UA.com.

WineCountryUA

Codeshares cannot be booked as awards, awards only can be booked directly from the flight operator.

However, ET706 does not look like a codeshare.

B747-437B

I've booked plenty of I class tickets on ET via UA.com over the years.

ani90

I booked one March 2017, but seems consistently impossible since Summer 2017

coolbeans202

Today I was looking at changing an existing reservation to CPT at the end of February and lots of ET I class showed up in the results on UA.com. It definitely wasn't showing up last week, so either this is new inventory that is now available, or something has changed. Also, I did not actually make any changes so I don't know if the booking would've gone through.

EDIT: I was seeing IAD/YYZ-ADD and FRA-ADD show up in I class (for 2 people no less)

theblogger87

I just booked award ticket business class IAD-ADD-CPT for July. I didn't have any issues booking.

Anyone ever go on their business class? It doesn't look great but was the only saver award left. Plane is a 777-300ER. Also haven't gotten to book my seats on the plane yet.

TomMM

I flew EWR-ADD ET in Business on the 787. Wasn't bad.

B747-437B

The 777 Business Class seats are arguably the most comfortable in the fleet. Flat beds with excellent padding. Just try to avoid the center section with the middle seat (2-3-2).