pushmyredbutton

Quite simply it's no longer allowed to book if it doesn't come up in a single search. Using the multi-city tool will almost always break it apart as two awards.

Calling likely won't get you a different outcome. It's one of the biggest, imo, downsides of the new award booking system.

Paulchili

Yet US to Europe is 57.5K in J.
What about those people that do not live in a UA hub and have no choice but to connect via a hub - is it always a 2 award for them to fly to Europe?
Is this something new? I am not a frequent user of UA - although am switching from AA.
My SIL is flying form Oregon to LHR via SFO. They charged her flight as 2 awards last year but when she called they changed it into a single award. Will they no longer do that?

RandomBaritone

Honestly, most folks don't bother trying to find awards on UA metal; for example, I have an abundance of *A saver J space available to me from BOS on LH, LX, and TK. It's an extra 12.5K miles to and from Europe, but it's worth it.

The inability of phone agents to piece together awards based on individual segments is less than a year old. It can be worked around, but it often does require more miles or a willingness to pay for positioning flights.

Paulchili

Agree with above for preference for *A partners vs UA - in fact my flight from LAX to VIE would be on OS.
My actual destination is TXL and my preferred routing would be SFO-MUC-TXL. That may not be available but I know that OS J awards LAX to VIE are almost always available at T-335 (as is TK SFO-IST).
So if I get myself to LAX, can I get an LAX-VIE-TXL on OS/LH for 70K (or SFO-IST-TXL on TK for 70K)?
TIA

RandomBaritone

I frequently travel to TXL myself. Saver award space BOS>FRA>TXL is omnipresent.

There aren't any guarantees, but when I searched LAX<>TXL award inventory just now for the second half of July, awards on LH and LX were abundant. And to my surprise, searching SFO<>TXL yielded almost the same result. August was spottier, but there were a few open dates. One downside of TATL awards from the West Coast is that they sometimes involve a TCON segment in Y. That's no fun.

To my surprise, I didn't see any OS or TK awards. Apparently they're easier to snag from the East Coast.

jsloan

The person who suggested using the multi-city booking tool likely meant to search VIE-SFO, SFO-BOS, BOS-VIE, not each individual flight you wanted to take.

The best way to proceed is to search for -- but don't book -- one way flights between VIE-SFO, SFO-BOS, and BOS-VIE. Whatever flight options appear for each of those searches can be booked as a single ticket if you call. The online tool will not always list every option when you do a multi-city search.

So, if VIE-LHR-SFO appears when you do a VIE-SFO search, you can book it as part of a 60K award. If it doesn't, you can't.

I'm not aware of any BOS-LHR nonstop flight that can be booked using MileagePlus awards. None of the airlines that fly that route are United partners.

Kacee

Correct. It's a RT open jaw VIE-SFO // BOS-VIE, with a free one-way (excursionist perk) SFO-BOS. If there is availability for all segments, the SFO-BOS should return as 0 miles.

Paulchili

Thank you but I didn't make myself clear.
I am looking for awards (2 J awards) for next year not next month. I will have a cruise booked that leaves from Berlin and that will have to be paid for in full well more than a month or two before the cruise. Thus I cannot count on and rely on availability a month before the cruise because it may or may not be there.
At best I can make reservations that are not my first choice at T-335 and then change it closer to time with better airlines or routes if such appear (at a cost of change fee or redeposit).
Looking at T-335 now there are plenty of LAX-VIE-TXL on OS/LH as well as SFO-IST-TXL on TK. If I get one of those and an LH or LX appears closer to the trip I can change.
Also, my question is that if I can get LAX-VIE-TXL, could I add SFO-LAX as aprt of the award or do I have to get a separate award/paid ticket for that segment.

RandomBaritone

Good for you! I was just focusing on near-term awards because I didn't know your timeframe.

Nope, you can no longer arbitrarily add a segment the way some savvy customers did prior to last October. Unless you find space all the way from SFO to TXL, any positioning flights will require payment in miles or cash.

Paulchili

Thank you - that helps.

Happydayy

Thank you Kacee and Jsloan!

mampcs

Hi, I have a one way saver business award from BCN to JNB. My actual destination is CPT and SA has flights from JNB to CPT with saver business availability that leaves 3 hours after i land in JNB. But i'm unable to get the system to add it to my itinerary. I tried calling the 1K line once and was told that they cannot do anything different from what the system would allow me to do online. Anyone have any experience with that? Is there a way to add the JNB-CPT leg to my one way award? Thanks in advance.

cfischer

if BCN-JNB is still available ... then no issue ... just change it to BCN-JNB-CPT. If not available ... no chance, you can't just add another partner flight without re-pricing.

mampcs

I'm guessing you are suggesting making it a multi-city itinerary (which would then require additional miles for the JNB-CPT leg). What i'm trying to figure out if it's possible to change my existing one way from BCN-JNB to BCN-CPT instead (it's the same number of miles obviously for both). I already have BCN-JNB, and JNB-CPT is available.

mahasamatman

United will no longer allow building an award segment-by-segment. If the entire itinerary doesn't show, you can't book it.