Hawaiino

Aloha Supine,

Very helpful, mahalo

Aloha Kacee,

That's what I feared when I scratched the surface....it just seems the new reality that "loyalty" is net foolish.

Jim

jsloan

You've conflated two values there. It's 500/750 for Economy or PE (non-preferred / preferred partners), and 1000/1500 for business or first (again, non-preferred = 1000, preferred = 1500).

Blind loyalty is foolish, and always has been. Attempting to leverage the program to your advantage, on the other hand, makes sense. First, find the flights that are most suitable, then figure out where to credit them; your status goals should mostly be a weighted tiebreaker. Spending an extra $50 a couple of times a year to help secure 1K status next year? Sure, that can make sense. Spend thousands more to fly UA/*A? The airlines would love it but it's not generally smart.

You can see what you would earn here: https://pqp.economiles.com/?q=HNL,IC...N,BKK,OZ,U|BKK,,, For example, for OZ discount business class, you're looking at about 2300 PQP RT. For NH, if you can get it booked on a United (016) ticket you'll do better -- but if the price difference is $4K just book OZ and be done with it.

Hawaiino

Mahalo jsloan,
Once again Flyertalk shows it can be efficient

Hawaiino

restlessinRNO

Flying RNO-SFO-NRT-BKK, I always seem to end up on NH805 NRT-BKK, as all UA flights USA-NRT funnel into this evening flight. I am usually in coach, but this time I was able to book premium economy on NH at a reasonable price (on united.com).

Flight is a B787, with three rows of seating 2-3-2 in PE. Surprisingly PE was only 1/2 full. Seat was fine. Food and drink seemed to be the same as Y, just served first. With the first drink service, there was a red and a white wine (house wine), as well as the usual coffee, tea, juices.

However there is an unusual feature of NH PE I would like to share. After the main meal, pax in PE can request wine from the business class wine list! You have to ask, but FA was happy to oblige. I looked at the J wine list - a champagne, 2 reds, 2 whites. So I chose the Castelnau: “A toasty, round, crisp palate with hazelnut and stone fruit flavors …”. The champagne was served to me in a paper cup! Haha! I’m not sure if any other airlines offer this. UA does not.

BTW on SFO-NRT, UA offered Duval-Leroy champagne in J. 🥂

Kacee

Was recently pricing BKK flights and SFO-BKK OW via NRT in PE was available for around $1400. The downside of ticketing that on UA is there's no way to upgrade the BKK-NRT segment (which books into N). You also have to be careful that the NRT-BKK segment isn't dumped into Y. SQ in PE is a few hundred cheaper, though the final segment (SIN-BKK) is in Y.

restlessinRNO

These are good points. Yes my PE tix on NH booked into N, and it is very easy for this segment, booked at united.com, to default into Y. 😊

WineCountryUA

A related post earlier today

EmailKid

I've done SIN-BKK (and v v) in SQ regional Biz as well as AirAsia and TG in coach, and for such a short flight it's no big deal in Y. I would take the "few hundred" savings for this short hop

Menko

Planning a trip for two senior adults from St. Louis to Thailand, in December 2023 to January 2024. While searching the UA website, I realized UA no longer flies to Thailand, and most of the UA flights are now connecting at Tokyo (NRT or HND) to other carriers, but primarily NH.
Unfortunately, the UA web site does not show seat maps or permit seat assignments for the NH segments, during the on-line booking purchasing process, making it somewhat inconvenient and iffy having to separately call NH and then hassle for preferred seating. Any suggestions how I can get around this?
Thanks in advance.
Menko in STL

IAH-OIL-TRASH

You can select ANA seats after booking and receipt of ANA confirmation. You have 24 hours after booking to cancel. No need for stress.

cfischer

definitely also check one-way pricing ... can be a decent deal for such a route. STL-FRA-BKK would be 1-stop, but not an easy purchase ...
If NH doesn't work out and you want *A, AC via YVR is an option

UAL250

Also, I believe ANA has seat maps for their flights on their website so you could check their website before booking to see what it looks like. But after booking, you should be able to select seats on ANA once you get the confirmation number from them. I've done that before on their website for a NRT-HKG rt. Good luck!

Kacee

Is there a particular reason you're trying to book this ticket through UA?

paperwastage

Discounted economy on NH gets you middle seats in front/mid of Economy (and window/middle/aisle seats at the back). If booking via UA, you cannot pay to get better seat (if buying via NH, you can payy ). No seat selection benefits for *G.

At checkin, remaining seats (besides bulkhead?) Are free to select

See ANA offering only middle seats to United flyers in Coach

emcampbe

A couple of things here.

first, note that if you do end up booking this via UA with an NH segment in a lower fare class, there are very restricted ‘free’ seats you can choose in advance. At least in Y, these are limited to middle seats (any row), as well as most seats in the last several rows of the plane. Second, NH charges for the other seats that aren’t available for free, however, if you book via UA, you will be on a UA ticket, and if that is the case, even NH won’t let you pay for a seat assignment in advance, since they can not add the EMD to a UA ticket (don’t worry about the terminology - essentially, they can’t take money for an add-on because the ticket was not issued by NH itself). So the only way to get seat assignments together in advance is in the last few rows of the plane (if these are even available - if it’s busy enough, they may all be taken by the time you book). At check in time, you are able to select any available seats for free - with many needing to pay for those toward the front, there is a good chance something will be available, but checking in as soon as possible will increase your chances, and who knows if it’s a busy flight. So YMMV.

other thing is, I do beleive, that when you go through the full booking process (not using the link for seats in the results page, you should see the NH seat map and be able to select seats, but if it is a ‘paid’ seat, NH will reject this, and this and you won’t have a seat. So always check the booking after with NH.

if getting specific seats together is important, I’d be hesitant to book via UA - if just being together is important, but not in a specific row/area, should be ok to book via UA, as long as you know the restrictions on seating.