jsloan

I'm having a hard time deciphering the cities. If AAA-CCC is an entire journey -- that is, you're stopping at CCC, not trying to connect -- then there's a chance that you'll be able to get it booked if you call. It's strange that it's showing up as a standard award though. Having the actual cities may help.

qplazm1982

My bad... I should have read it before posting it... Made the correction. It should say CCC-BBB., BBB-AAA, AAA-CCC (In essence, a round trip from CCC-AAA with a stopover at BBB). No problem with the first two segment, it's the last segment that I am having trouble with getting saver award when booking multi-city but it would show up as saver if i were to just search one way for AAA-CCC

docbert

Multi-city search for awards has been broken since... well.. forever.

The only option is to call - either to book the whole thing over the phone, or to add the excursionist perk after booking the other flights first.

If you mention that you can't book it online they should waive the phone fees if there are any (depends on your status)

qplazm1982

Yeah, tried calling and had agent did a one way search for AAA-CCC. Yup, shows saver available. Then I said can you now search, CCC-BBB,BBB-AAA,AAA-CCC. Got scolded that I should have asked for that in the first place. Later on she found out that AAA-CCC is not showing the saver. Agent said don't know why that is the case but it is what it is. Advised to talk to web support and web support indicated that because AAA-CCC originated from europe, that's why it may have more availability vs when I am booking it as round trip with a stopover that originate from US, the availability can be different. Ugh.....

Figured I would check with the experts on here to see if that is normally the case. Simple things like this shouldn't take hours nor should we play the HUCA game but with United, you just never know what to expect.

jsloan

I've never heard of Point-of-Sale based availability for award tickets and I imagine the agent was just making something up to get you off of the phone. Are you sure it was exactly the same segments? (Specifically, the UA segments -- there's no such thing as an everyday or saver award on partner segments).

I'm honestly surprised that the agent wasn't able to see it when you tried to feed it in.

I'd try booking the saver award and then calling within 24 hours to add the other legs.

SFOvacations

Does adding domestic leg over the phone within 24 hr still work? Trying to book one way FRA-SFO, FRA-DTW is available and DTW-SFO is available but not when searching FRA-SFO. Wondering if I should transfer my points to book FRA-DTW and call in to add the DTW-SFO leg.

castcore

Hello

this is not related to the Excusionist perk but the flight I am looking to book from SFO to Saigon round trip stops in Taipei for a transfer each way. I am asking if it’s possible to stop in Taipei for few days on way back. Doing it in one way segments will cost SGN-TPE 20k miles and TPE to SFO 35k miles where as SGN to SFO directly is 40k.(it stops in Tpe already for transfer)

Can somebody clarify if what what I want to do is doable for 40 k miles? Instead for booking separate 20k and 35k segment?

Kacee

No, it can no longer be done since UA eliminated free stopovers on awards.

castcore

Thank you

NuSilvMedal

First, please forgive me it I have posted in the wrong area. Moving to the correct thread would be appreciated.

I am trying to book RAR to PBI using an Economy Saver Award. When nothing came up using those city pairs at united.com, I began to look at segment options using a multi-city search. (Earlier, in say, October 2018, RAR-SYD-asia-usa routings were automatically pricing at Saver Award level of 35,000 miles.)

Here is what I am seeing:
RAR-SYD (NZ 61, 1/3/2019) shows Saver availability, arrives 7:20 pm Feb 1
SYD-HND (NH 880, 2/1/2019)-HND-JFK (NH 110, 2/2/2019)-(airport change to) EWR-PBI (UA 1538, 2/2/2019) shows Saver availability
The multi-city search prices at 22,500 for RAR-SYD and 40,000 for SYD-PBI for a total of 62,500.

Am I missing something? Thanks in advance for assistance.

WineCountryUA

Nothing, this is a common story over the past year+.

You can try to get it manually price (ask the agent to call the pricing desk) but most will say it is what it is,

NuSilvMedal

Thanks for letting me know I am not missing something (and for the move to the proper thread).

pushmyredbutton

It could be there are routing restrictions on the award. Your suggested itinerary routes through Oceania, Australia, Japan, and North America - 4 regions may be too much for what's allowed so that's why it's not showing up natively. Unfortunately, those rules aren't really published anywhere. I'll eat my words here since you said you did see dates where it did work natively through all regions. Personally I can only find RAR-SYD/AKL-USA

But breaking it up segment-by-segment will always price as separate awards now either way regardless. I'd keep trying or maybe look at other US gateways such as LAX or SFO and then consider a revenue ticket. The new award engine does some strange things when you try different destinations....

jmaxeden

Where is the best place to learn about Milage Plus award travel. I am trying to fly from the USA to Baku and the dates are very limited. I have Premium Gold with United, but still very few date options. Is it best to call United?

I have tried single routes, etc.

mahasamatman

Welcome to FT, jmaxeden!

Unfortunately, that's today's reality, particularly if you're looking for popular dates or on short notice (where short notice can be anything under 6-9 months out). You won't have any better luck calling.