Kacee

Is LAX-IAH-SJO available in economy? If so, book online, then call within 24 hours to change IAH-SJO to business.

threeoh

I want to make an award booking to SCL now for 330 days out (to see the eclipse) on dates I'm willing to fly, but there's a real possibility I'll want to adjust the dates as I get closer, to make my trip longer, if work allows. No status, so trying to decide if I want to do a r/t or two o/w tickets to minimize fees in the case that I want to adjust one or both legs. Aiming for saver Y, and I don't plan to use the Excursionist Perk.

Question 1: If I want to adjust either leg of a r/t, I need to find availability on both legs to make the change, correct? Is this true of both partner and UA metal?

Question 2: What happens if I fly the first leg and then, while in SCL, try to change the second leg? Will that work and sidestep needing to find new availability both ways? If I change my Saver return to Everyday return, does that retroactively upfare my first leg too, since it's a r/t ticket?

Leaning toward r/t so I can change both legs with one fee once I'm a month or two out, but don't want to paint myself into a corner if there's tons of options one way and everything has dried up the other way. If it's possible to make the change after flying to SCL and I make that my plan, and there's no last-minute saver availability on the return leg, I'm willing to live with either flying on my original flight or paying up for Everyday saver.

jsloan

That should only be true on partner flights, and even then, there are sporadic reports of people being able to make changes even when there's no partner availability. (I would try not to rely on the latter, though).

Yes -- once you've flown a leg, it's no longer a problem. And, you can mix Saver and Everyday, so that's not a problem; it won't upfare. (Note that Saver vs. Everyday only has distinct inventory on UA and CM).

Dpetryszyn

Thanks for this advice. After about 30 minutes and put on hold a couple times the agent was able to add on JNB - CPT for no extra miles, however I had to pay an additional $10 in taxes. Thanks again Flyertalk!

br2k

Current award res is DEL-MUC-ZRH-TLV in business saver.
Just now DEL-FRA in first saver became available. However, at this point there is no longer ZRH-TLV in business (on Swiss).
So, I am trying to change the ticket to DEL-FRA-ZRH-TLV, upgrade DEL-FRA to LH first and keep ZRH-TLV on Swiss.

Online I can only change to DEL-FRA-TLV and flying 4 hours in an economy seat on A320 just does not seem very attractive.

For now one phone CS agent told me she does not see the availability at all (clearly did not want to bother). Another agent saw the availability but does not know how to make these changes (went to call a supervisor, and line dropped).

Anything else I can do here? Call Lufthansa and get them to issue it somehow? Any advice would be appreciated.

Update: got another agent, they tried and according to them "it's impossible" to keep one original segment and change the others. This is unfortunate.

cheltzel

My apologies if this has already been asked and answered. I did a few searches in this thread but did not find anything specific on this.

I can find award space on ET from Africa to YYZ and IAD on a given date but none to ORD (on that date). I am willing to purchase a separate YYZ-ORD or IAD-ORD ticket on UA if needed. Is it possible to get UA to include the paid segment in the ticket so I can have the bags checked all the way through to ORD?

zombietooth

No, you cannot join award with revenue travel on the same PNR. However, it's no big deal because they will happily check your bags through to your final destination-just give them both PNRs at check-in, and don't check-in online.
I have done this 4 times already this year and it's never an issue.

cheltzel

You mean interlining ET to UA on two different PNRs??

jjmoore

I know most gate agents are fine doing this. I will say that I have come across some (lazy) United check-in agents that have told me that they are not supposed to check bags through multiple PNR's (often times when I have a business booking followed by a personal booking that would have been way to expensive to rebook as one PNR)... though I believe this is entirely fine because 95% of the time, I have had no issues doing it. Just in case you run across one of those agents... just ask another to do it for you or ask for a supervisor. Foreign *A airlines have never given me an issue, so I would imagine ET would accommodate.

My advice... just to make this seamless... is to do the IAD itinerary. That way, you would have to pick up your bag from int'l arrivals anyway, and you can then go straight to the UA counter at int'l arrivals and check your bag into the new PNR... that would require 0 intervention on ET's part and you can take care of it on your own.

Hope this helps.

cheltzel

You are correct about the IAD option requiring the least intervention. And I've seen the UA service center on exiting customs at IAD. But there are two things that push me to using YYZ.

First, YYZ now has a transit process for International to International(US destinations) that allows your bags to be checked through without you claiming and rechecking them. All it takes is a boarding pass and your luggage tags. After clearing this transfer point you go straight to the GE US immigration lanes and then the US style security checkpoint and off the the AC lounge.

Second, the UA and AC ticket prices for YYZ to ORD are a lot lower than similar tickets from IAD.

So if I can get ET to interline my bags and I can print my BP at the ET lounge in ADD, I am good to go.

jsloan

Per policy, UA will interline to an *A partner flight on separate tickets. However, because you're not protected against a delay out of Chicago, make sure to give yourself plenty of time. Ideally, you'd want at least two intermediate ORD-IAD flights that you could hope to move onto if necessary. At a minimum, you'd want one.

Whether or not ET would interline for your return flight is a question for the ET forum.

cheltzel

Agreed ... it looks like they will.

Rumples

Hi FT,

Wife and I have a flight from LAX - NCE via LAX - ORD - FRA - NCE in early Sept. We currently have this on a 70K mile award ticket. I've been looking at close-in booking (3-4 days) in advance and from what i'm seeing based off 3-4 days from today, there's a LH 1 stop or a Swiss 1 stop. LAX - ZRH - NCE on Swiss or LAX - FRA - NCE.

I can cancel the flights and then rebook on the new flights if there happens to be award space right? and I can ensure that there's 2 seats open? Can I do this via the 1K desk?

Thanks for the help!

laxmillenial

Yes to all! I would call it in as well to ensure there's two spots
Or if you have the mileage balance, book (make sure it's ticketed and confirmed) and then cancel the other reservation.

jsloan

With the caveat that if you have additional partner segments on the reservation (e.g., a return flight), those may need to have current award availability when you make the change.

OP: If you're not planning to use the Excursionist Perk, as a 1K you should stick to one-way awards. That will ameliorate any issues with the change affecting other segments.