jkumpire

Hi folks,

Three complete newbie questions here, as I am at the point I can start looking for Int'l award flights.

1. Is there a place here or somewhere when I can get a good basic understanding of finding UA award flights? I spent a lot of time looking at stuff, but obviously I have holes in my knowledge base.

2. To get Business Saver flights to the British Isles is it worth it to drive to major hub or dig for something close to home? I live between 7-10 hours between ORD, EWR, IAD, and if I can save miles or find more flights it might be worth it. Or is is better to get stuck in the back coach fare from home airport to hub on a separate reservation?

3. Are the British Isles able considered in Europe so I can use an excursionist perk to fly from USA-X-say LHR, then LHR-US, or the opposite? With all award classes but full first seemingly filled all the time to anywhere in Britain, if there are other possibilities to get there I'm open to them.

Thanks for your help!

findark

There are a lot of resources, but hard to say more without a better idea what you want to learn

Generally speaking, no. Search for award space on the overwater segments, but generally the tool will show you options with connecting domestic segments in Saver Economy (X), which is usually quite plentiful in comparison to business saver space. It's unusual that it would be economical to add a 7+ hour drive to your trip.

Yes, all part of Europe. It would be recommended to make a stopover (must be more than 24h) in continental Europe or Ireland after visiting the UK, as this will significantly reduce the Air Passenger Duty (GB) on the itinerary, from GBP 156.00 to GBP 26.00 per passenger.

jsloan

jkumpire

Thank you for the useful information so far.

1 Question pops into mind: How do you schedule and excursionist perk flight? As part of the itinerary, or how?
2. When I search for award flights should I expect to find UA metal flights, or *A flights?
3. With load factors so high, likely I will be down the list if I get a business saver award flight. Are the chances good I get bumped into a coach seat, or maybe a E+ seat (I am a chase UA card holder X2) if I am lucky?

jsloan

BangkokTraveler

I want to book an award KGL (Kigali) to ORD. However, I want to overnight in LHR. Award seats are available for KGL-LHR and also LHR-ORD (23 hours in LHR) if I use multi-segment, however, it prices the segments as separate awards and also a high departure tax on the LHR-ORD segment. Before they made the system change in Oct 2016, this was easy to do.

I *could* make a short-layover in LHR then do a SDC when I have arrived LHR, but I'd rather not do that if I don't have to, as there is a risk that there would be no flight to SDC to the following morning.

Questions:
- I'm still allowed 23 hours layover on a single award, correct?
- Do you think an agent can construct what I want with a single award?

jsloan

Post-Oct. 2016, the system has been updated so that any time you use multi-city search, it’s going to charge you for the point-to-point distance for each search you do. The old < 24 hour rule no longer exists, as such. If you can get this option to appear when searching KGL-ORD, you could book it. If not, you can’t.

An agent is unlikely to construct this particular itinerary; although, anecdotally, they’ve loosened up when compared to their original “whatever the computer says, goes,” stance, this is specifically the sort of thing they were trying to prevent when they changed the rule.

BTW, if you were to decide to go the two-award route, you should be able to get a refund from UA for the APD, because (as you noted) it doesn’t apply on transfers. You might need to fly the route first and then request the refund; there should be some more information on the APD thread on the board.

enigma_jq

Does crossing Zones on a partner triggers Partner Pricing even when major transoceanic segment is on UA?

SFO-NRT on UA, then NRT-PVG on NH costs 80k (which "should" cost 70k IMO)
but
SFO-TPE on UA, then TPE-PVG on BR costs 70k

NRT and PVG are in different zones whereas TPE and PVG are in same zone.

jsloan

BangkokTraveler

Thanks for the reply. I ended up booking ORD-LHR-ORD on one ticket, then LHR-KGL-LHR on another ticket. The total for the 2 tickets ended up far less than a single ticket, and not worth burning award miles.

PBAudit

Sorry for this post. I'm sure this has been answered before, but I can't find the post(s).

We have a family member who is on a visiting a relative (medical emergency) and are uncertain when she will be flying back. The airports she is flying to/from are small airports with limited service and will be making double connections (Small airport - Hub - Hub - Small Airport). And given the Memorial Day holiday, I saw there is extremely limited saver award availability.

I already bookied 1 saver awards (as GS, converted T fare to a saver award), and was planning to book saver awards to the for the following 2 days where there is very limited flight availablity. Is this pratice prohibited by United? I'm sure, at minimum, United frowns upon this, but wonder if they every crack down on someone who does this?

Technically, I would not be taking saver award space as the flights I'm looking have no XN, X availability. I would be taking 1 seat out of T class.

FlyerTalker70

You may want to call the GS desk for this one. Most airlines are pretty flexible and compassionate when it's a super-elite who has been extremely loyal to them and something like a relative visiting for a medical emergency. Remember you've put a lot of faith and good will into UA, the least they can do is be there for you when you need them the most (i.e. family medical emergency). They might proactive block seats for your family member on future UA flights to ensure that there is no situation where they're stuck in small city for an indefinite period of time.

Would be interested in hearing other Premier/GS experience in these circumstances.

Safe Travels,

James

findark

Like a lot of things in this category, it would be looked down on if flagged to UA, their systems won't notice it if the reservations don't overlap, and if you only do it once I doubt anyone will complain.

jsloan

IMO, that makes it worse, not better. Saver inventory is available when UA doesn’t think it can sell all of its seats.

To make it clear: Yes, this practice is prohibited by United. Yes, people — including GS members — have had their accounts closed for this kind of thing. (You can find a thread on this on the board).

You have a lot to lose and seemingly little to gain. Personally, I’d book the most likely flight and then look to change as necessary. There are two possible worst-case scenarios: 1 - you have to pay 32.5K miles instead of 12.5K miles (assuming this is a domestic trip), or 2 - the flight fills and the return is delayed by a day. These are bad, but the worst-case scenario for United getting upset is 1 - your family member is stuck at the airport without valid transportation, and 2 - you lose your GS status and 100% of your accumulated miles.

Keeping things in perspective — here’s hoping for a quick recovery for the relative in question.

princeville

TL;DR - I can't view my ticket on Saudia.com after a change to my reservation. Should I be concerned and how to fix it?

The long story: A week ago I received a "please call us" email from UA about an award reservation. I pulled it up and saw that apparently one of our flights has been discontinued and the replacement flights would cause a misconnect. I called and we found alternate flights, which resulted in some miles being refunded. I sat on the phone with the agent for over an hour as he tried to reissue the ticket a few times, called his support line a couple times, and he finally said the whole system was down but it was in the ticketing queue and the new flights and refund were all documented, and I should receive the confirmation email within 24 hours.

I looked at the rez the next day and the new flights showed up on UA's website as well as the partner airlines' sites. But I still had the "there's been a modification...." message at the top of my reservation and when I viewed the receipt it still showed the old itinerary. I waited a couple of days and checked again, this time the receipt did show the new flights, the modification message was gone and the miles had been refunded to my account. The ticket numbers have not changed and still show issued on April 22 (the original booking date) both on UA and when viewing the itinerary on the partner airlines' sites, and entering the ticket numbers on saudia.com gives me these errors:
E-Ticket Display request failed. (3006)
E-Ticket Display request failed. (9817)

Also I have not received a confirmation email from UA (other than emailing the receipt to myself a couple times). I'm thinking the process didn't complete correctly, but I'm not sure what I need to ask for if/when I call reservations to fix it.