D582

You are probably finding P class fares with P on UA and P not available on NH so it books down to Y. You would need to try searching for a higher fare class like Z directly.

goodeats21

Seeing UA with P class, and ANA in B (most times. sometimes Y). Not sure why it would not just return the lowest available business fare for all segments. There must be something preventing it from being a valid routing / fare or something.

When specifying Z, C, D in the search, No TYO options show as available either.

I am not very knowledgeable on all ticket / fare minutia, but it should not be this tricky to get a normal business class ticket on this route.

ADDED: Playing around with dates on the Z,C,D search, I finally found a flight. Full C on each leg with a RT price of $14K
Crazy. Flights on better airlines are available for half that.

spartacusmcfly

Go through YVR and enjoy a non-stop to BKK. Avoids the legalized collusion pricing via Japan.

I believe J was ~$4.5K last time I checked.

Kmxu

Have you search the flights directly on ANA website? Sometimes, ANA won’t make the lowest fare available for UA.

goodeats21

Yeah, there are lots of options at lower prices. Seems odd that United is so out of line with competition on these routes.

YVR would probably be a good option, but they don't seem to available on the dates I need.

Interesting. Yes, looks like ANA shows reasonable options. P fares on all 4 segments... $3.7K. I would have thought Google Flights would have found that as an option.
Also thought that the reason for the JV was to not block each others lower fare options. Isn't it supposed to be metal agnostic? Or is that just LH?

Will have to look into any differences in booking on ANA stock. Good news is it shows all ANA flights, so better service levels.

Hate how complicated this is sometimes.

fumje

Google flights turned up a $3.7k option pretty quickly when I tried with a few simple filters:
https://www.google.com/travel/flight...QaJfefmbY5M5A9

I went through and limited the connection points first, as it seems to get overwhelmed by all the possible routing options and just stop adding results. You can ticket it 016 that way, if it makes sense for accruals.

I never go to UA first; the search is just so bad. I don't believe they're intentionally limiting results, they just have a totally defunct search tool currently.

EmailKid

The AC flight is seasonal. And a short winter season at that

uastarflyer

goodeats21 when you price it on UA is it UA or NH metal for the TPAC flight? How about on the ANA website?

Wondering if that is also a variable.

cmhua777

I have been dealing with this same issue recently. ANA is not selling any low fare classes to/from NRT-BKK. Sometimes they aren’t selling any J at all when connecting to USA. Though you can buy J as a single leg to/from NRT-BKK.

USA - Tokyo is higher yielding than USA-BKK. Selling USA-NRT-BKK blocks seats on both flights and earns less than selling two separate tickets USA-NRT and NRT-BKK. Seems NH knows this and isn’t open up space for connections.

dkc192

Anecdotally from several posters here on FT, NH and JL both enjoyed very full J cabins on TYO-BKK over the summer, mostly filled with Americans. So NH RM must be wise to the strong J demand and is controlling inventory accordingly.

That said, I just flew BKK-NRT on JL and J was half full at best. The same goes for most JL/NH flights within a day or two of my flight. If this is indicative of a broader drop in J demand in the fall, RM might respond accordingly by releasing more P space.

cmhua777

I just flew BKK-NRT on NH three weeks ago and can say at least 25% of the J cabin was going to USA, because they were my US-based colleagues!

As an aside, I would guess 75% of the cabin or more was going to USA. This makes sense given the timing of the flight connects to the US-bound departure bank for UA and NH. The summer also saw Japan essentially bar foreign arrivals, so again not surprised the majority of passengers were connecting onward. The BKK-HND flight is likely more Japan-centric now, however.

With that said, NH knows that if they don’t sell J on a connecting flight from the US but still offer J on a standalone basis corporate travelers will be forced to buy one ticket that is priced as a round-trip USA-NRT and a round trip NRT-BKK. It’s way more lucrative for NH and they seem to be taking this risk. This isn’t true for SGN/KUL/SIN/CGK, which are showing broad availability in J when originating in USA.

Hawaiino

Aloha, Hawaii resident and long time Delta Diamond. I built status with annual trips to AMS (1x), BKK (2x), and GRU (1x) for my business, so I can expense the ticket. However
it's my business so I watch how much it costs, carefully. With that Delta has gotten harder to afford so
Post-Covid I status matched to UA and am now a 1K for 2023. I'm of the mind that it's most efficient to just find a fare you can afford
and don't sweat the airline or the alliance. But old habits die hard, and I'm gonna try to figure out the best way to work the *A system. From Hawaii it's ANA and OZ besides UA
Out of HNL on UA BKK is now prohibitively expensive, cheapest is + $10k RT. ANA is same. On OZ it's $6k. I called the 1K desk and they told me to book it direct and
then call the Mileage Plus desk to see what kind of miles/credit I can gain and credit to my UA. Is that the most efficient ? I started reading the UA website but it's not readily promoted
Delta had charts that allowed you to see what was your credit with various level partners.
Mahalo

supine

I think you are asking about your MileagePlus earning when flying on other *A metal, in which case you'll find plenty of info in Earning Status (PQP) on non-016 Tickets and Partner Metal

angetenar

When are you trying to travel? I randomly picked some dates in June for a 1 week stay and I'm seeing pricing from 3.6k on Asiana.

Kacee

There's currently no sensible routing to BKK flying any segments on UA, so I assume you mean ticketing NH or OZ operated itineraries on UA stock.

I'd suggest you run searches on googleflights rather than trying to use the UA website. You may find it's not possible to book the cheap fares on 016 ticket stock, in which case your accruals will be based on flight distance and subject to the 1750 PQP per-segment limitation.

Note also that at some point OZ, which is being acquired by KE, will likely go away as a *A option.

Personally, I gave up booking BKK itineraries with the goal of UA accrual several years ago. It's a hassle and the options are usually not competitive on price. I've been flying either OW or SQ and crediting to AS.