Kacee

There is no set schedule for when award inventory is released. Could be at 330, could be never, could be anywhere in between.

If you know when you want to travel, it's certainly worth watching beginning around 330.

OP is asking about LH inventory, which is released by LH, not UA.

RandomBaritone

Actually I think mention of LH was in one of the replies. OP just wants to get to FCO or VCE in saver J, and I'd wager would prefer UA metal since it'd be fewer miles.

aussieinsf

Tried to book the itinerary below on United using the Excursionist award and failed even after talking to a supervisor. It seems like it is within the rules but I've notices that the system seems to have trouble when you build in overnight stops less than 24 hours (which are allowed and technically not stops on an intl. itin).

SFO-ORD-YUL//overnight*//ZRH
VCE-ZRH-CDG
CDG-ZRH//overnight*//SFO

*less than 24 hours
United wants extra miles for the VCE-CDG leg which I think should be free under the Excursionist rules. Is there anything I'm missing?

Booking into Business saver with the SFO-YUL sectors in economy as no saver business is available. Booking this routing to make the travel a bit easier on my wife who has back problems.

jsloan

Are you sure it's the VCE-CDG leg that's causing the problems? That one should definitely be free. However, I could see them charging you for either / both of SFO-YUL and/or CDG-ZRH.

While you're right that these connections are not stopovers, United no longer considers duration when pricing an itinerary. Instead, if the flights that you want aren't available with a simple origin - destination search, they'll price them on a point-to-point basis. So, unless you see SFO-ORD-YUL-ZRH when you do a SFO-ZRH search, you're unlikely to get it to price as a single award. The same is true for CDG-ZRH-SFO.

So, the best advice I have is to try each origin-destination search individually and see if any of the routings work for you. If you have to piece something together manually, it's likely to cost extra miles.

aussieinsf

This is the issue I was raising - my routing is within their award rules but their IT/search function has trouble creating it. Charging me extra miles for an award routing that doesn't require it per United's rules seems like a fail to me.

I walked through this with the agent and only when she pulled the VCE-CDG leg did it price correctly. I'll call back again and try to add that sector and see what happens.

jsloan

Unfortunately, they changed the rules in October, and any award that uses multi-city search will now require extra miles -- and you're at the mercy of their computer system regarding what requires multi-city search and what doesn't.

I wish I had a better answer, but this is the way their new system works. Their immediate intent appears to have been to eliminate awards they considered abusive, such as criss-crossing Europe on a single award, spending 23 hours in each city. The actual result is to squash plenty of perfectly reasonable awards such as yours.

VCE-CDG is absolutely valid per the Excursionist Perk, so I'm guessing that the actual problem segment is CDG-ZRH -- I think it's pricing that on its own rather than as part of CDG-SFO. Therefore, it would be counting CDG-ZRH as the Excursionist Perk now. If you add VCE-CDG, that becomes the Perk... but CDG-ZRH is no longer free (the first eligible segment is the free one).

You may be able to swap the two; get VCE-CDG for free and eliminate CDG-ZRH. You'd then need to find another way to get from Paris to Zurich, such as the train.

Good luck!

bosboy73

We are looking at SYD-BKK-LHR-EWR-ROC. Does not violate the 4-segment (3 connection) one-way rule, but not sure of the regions. Is this valid and bookable using a UA award (in coach)?

pushmyredbutton

Things are much more strict than just the four segment rule now. If it doesn't give you those exact options when you put it SYD to ROC, you're pretty much out of luck, unless you price and pay for a multi-city award.

Kacee

I don't think you can route to Australia via Europe.

N104UA

Correct you can only route to Australia through Asia, you would have to book two separate awards SYD-LHR and LHR-ROC, unless you are doing to stopover in LHR I recommend going through Asia.

EWR764

Replacing LHR with ICN, NRT, PVG, HKG, etc. (Asia) will yield a legal routing, but good luck getting UA to offer you that itinerary now that itineraries can't be pieced together segment-by-segment using the multi-city tool and 'correctly' autoprice.

Kacee

Yeah usually all it returns is OZ ICN-SYD or maybe CA PEK-SYD.

LangerhansCellHistiocytosis

Given all the recent nightmare stories about CA awards not ticketing and PEK being a terrible airport for layovers, I'd avoid this route if at all possible.

EWR764

Yes... my wife and I recently had occasion (and sufficient time off!) to route SYD-BKK-ICN-JFK in TG F through ICN and OZ to JFK, which was a fond farewell to the 'old' way of building award itineraries!

Ingrins

Hello all. My fiance and I are trying to find two 1 way business class or above seats with 200k miles from LAX to Italy. We have been searching and have been finding saver awards with Swiss but want to ask the pros to see if this is good or not. We have flexibility but ideally we would fly out the 18th of March and come back the 25 through the 28th of March of 2018. Thanks in advance for any tips or other things found.