tomwhom

Why the 15K mile saver difference between TG BKK-PVG & UA PVG-SFO 90K vs TG BKK-HKG & UA HKG-SFO 75K all in business cabin?

jsloan

Because BKK-PVG is interregional whereas BKK-HKG is intraregional. UA allows you to add an intraregional partner award in business, in conjunction with an interregional UA flight, at the UA award level -- but if it's an interregional award, you have to pay the partner level award fare from origin to destination. So, for transit via HKG, you're getting the price for a UA-operated award from South Asia to North America, but for transit via PVG, you're getting the price for a partner-operated award from South Asia to North America.

Kacee

BKK and HKG are same region (South Asia), BKK and PVG are different regions (South Asia - North Asia). You have to pay the *A award price if your connecting flight (here, TG) crosses regions.

WineCountryUA

One guess
As BKK-HKG is intra-regional travel, you are being charged just the UA metal saver business award rate -- this was an exception to prevent shorter partner flights from bumping the award mileage when the bulk of the travel was on UA metal.
But BKK-PVG is intra-regional, so you are being charged the Partner metal saver business award rate

tomwhom

Thanks to all three of you! That's the same reason I got 75K SQ/BKK-SIN UA/SIN-SFO business saver award. I love both SIN-SFO & HKG-SFO which gives you more sleeping time though I have to book transit hotel in each case. The mile saving is enough covering the hotel cost plus both SIN & HKG lounge offerings are much better than those at TYO and PVG/PEK..etc. I try as much as I can to avoid transiting at mainland airports while I believe both TYO airports are efficient. However ANA business lounges really sucks despite being ANA's home base and it's not easy to kill 8 to 9 hours at NRT/HND, I even rate UA NRT Club better than ANA J lounges.

TommyB1965

Need some advice as to my rights, or lack of them, in this scenario

I booked award travel via united.com for the following flight segments (all with *A partners) : MAN-CPH, CPH-WAW, WAW-ODS (Manchester/UK, Copenhagen/Denmark, Warsaw/Poland and Odessa/Ukraine) for a few weeks time; its actually to get me & a couple of friends to the Champions League Final, so we have separately booked internal ODS-Kyiv flights.

A couple of days ago I got a notification from UA that one of the segments had changed and could I confirm I was OK with it. As the change meant that the new CPH-WAW flight was due to land 20 minutes after the WAW-ODS flight was due to leave, I, obviously, was not OK with it.

I then spent more than 2 hours on the phone with a UA agent to try & sort this. To be honest, most of this entailed me looking up options with *A airlines and asking her to check them; each time led to me being put on hold for 10-15 minutes only for her to come back saying the option I proposed was not possible. I found two potential routings, one via Vienna with Austrian and one via Istanbul with Turkish, but for both she said that while the flights were a valid connection and seats were available, at least one of the segments did not qualify for awards seats. She got to the point where she suggested the only option was to cancel all flights, which I desperately did not want to do as getting to Kyiv for the final date is getting very difficult due to high demand.

I suggested I could pay for the legs where no award seats were available, but she said that was not possible. In the end I managed to get her to book me as far as Istanbul as an award flight & then I separately booked & paid for three IST-ODS flights at a cost of STGŁ600 ! I went ahead and did this as flights were selling out fast (there were only 4 seats left on the IST-ODS flight) and I felt I needed to act quickly.

Now, my expectation would be that if I have successfully booked award travel and a flight segment changes that makes the connection impossible it is up to UA (or more broadly speaking *A) to honour my reservation via alternative flights, if there are seats available, even if there are no award seats. I don't know if that is actually the case in the T&Cs, but it seems logically fair to me. Of course, I understand that the flight changes, being on a *A partner flight, are outside UA's control, but as my contract is with them I feel they are responsible.

Do I have any grounds to claim recompense for the additional & unexpected cost to myself?

WineCountryUA

Short answer is no --in the world of partner flights, UA is acting effectively as a travel agent. It has no control over the partners and changes they may make. You are at the mercy of award space availability after a schedule change. UA can not force a partner to open up space. UA will open up space on their flights but this will not help in your circumstances.

UA will also waive any booking, change or cancellation fees.

The only obligation is a free refund.

TommyB1965

Thanks. I guess I was expecting that ... oh well.

Yes, they did waive the change fees

FlyMusic

I have a fairly complex trip coming up in July that basically routes as follows over the course of 2 weeks: NYC-SFO-AKL-PPT-NRT-KIX-NRT-ORD-LGA

Much to my delight (and that of my wallet), I was able to book the entire itinerary in business class (combo United saver + AA award) with the exception of the NYC-SFO leg. In fact, I have not been able to book an award from NYC to anywhere (IAH, LAX, SFO) that could possibly connect me to my SFO-AKL flight (either July 11 or 12). The airfare to SFO is dirt cheap so I could just pay but it would be nice to have the satisfaction of knowing I was able to do the whole thing on points. I am coming up short looking on Expert Flyer. Any thoughts/suggestions?

zrs70

In short - you are looking for an award seat NYC-SFO on July 11 or 12, right?

WineCountryUA

Very unlikely you will find a UA business saver award on EWR-SFO non-stop. You might try a economy saver and waitlist for business, but even then the odds are poor. Travel mid-week in the summer, there may be a non-zero chance of space opening up -- but even less at booking. Routing via ORD might increase the chances.

Kacee

ORD-SFO? Not much chance of scoring saver F on that. Best odds of EWR-SFO in F would be a non-hub routing, e.g., EWR-LAS-SFO. But domestic saver F is pretty tough all around these days.

gusd

I'm looking to book CLE-ORD-FRA-OTP one-way in business. There is saver business available ORD-FRA-OTP on LH, but no saver first on CLE-ORD, so the itinerary doesn't show up in the search, not even as a mixed itinerary, though there's plenty of saver economy available for CLE-ORD. If I do multicity CLE-ORD and ORD-OTP, I get CLE-ORD in saver economy for 10,000 miles + ORD-FRA-OTP in saver business for 70,000, so ends up being 80,000 miles? Shouldn't I be able to get this at 70,000 as a mixed itinerary?

FlyerTalker70

Absolutely! Did you click the header that says Business Saver Award? That way you force the search results to first show you Business Saver Availability flights search.

I've done a search on UA for CLE to OTP and found that exact itinerary you're looking for (in this case for July 11):



If for some reason you cannot find it online then I'd recommend you call the Premier line to make the booking. As a Platinum the phone booking charge would be waived.

Hope that helps.

Safe Travels,

James

gusd

Thanks, James.

Yes, I did. I can see this on July 11, as in your screenshot, but not for December 13 Though there is XN space on CLE-ORD for the 6am flight for that day.

Married segments?