Hello I am a novice when it comes to booking award travel. But I noticed that availability changes significantly when searching for 2 tickets vs 1 ticket. I am also looking to travel 11 months from now, so does that play a factor?

Basically I would just like to book 2 business saver tickets on a partner carrier from BKK to LAX for 80k miles or less. I just need the flight to return to LAX by Monday January 9. It can leave BKK either Sunday Jan 8 or Mon Jan 9.

Right now the only availability for 2 business savers is for BKK to LHR to LAX on 1/9/2017 (total travel time is 28 hours!). I booked this award for 80k miles each ticket for now but I can change it if something better comes up. Kinda of a long route, but at least it will be in business class all the way.

My question is: Can two different mileageplus accounts search at the same time for only 1 ticket and select an identical award at the same time? Or is there really only 1 business saver award for alot of segments which is why alot of them disappear when the search is increased to 2.

Are there any tips or tricks when trying to book 2 business saver awards?

Apologize for the lengthy post! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you see awards when searching for one passenger, and they disappear when searching for two passengers, then yes, the airline has only released one award seat on that flight. There is no way around that. Although it's possible if you book one, another will open at some point. Thai Airways (TG) is particularly prone to do this.

Eleven months out, if you keep looking, I have no doubt you will find something that works for you.

It is entirely common for there to be a single award seat available. If two different accounts try to book it at the same time, only one of them should ticket successfully. I wouldn't try it -- even if it appeared to work, you may end up in a situation where UA discovers the situation later and fixes it by rerouting or delaying one of the passengers.

The best advice for trying to get two premium-cabin seats is to be patient and diligent -- keep checking inventory regularly to see what might open up, and if you see something you like, don't delay, because it may not be there later. The fact that you have a backup itinerary ready to go means that you can afford to relax -- the worst that can happen is that you'll spend longer in transit than you'd prefer. Heck, there are plenty of people on this forum who would intentionally route through Europe in order to maximize the amount of time they spend up front.

Have a great trip!

This might help http://flyertalk.com/forum/united-ai...1748442--.html