KSA indeed looks amazing and that’s what we planned initially. Two nights in MAJ and another three in KSA. But a friend would be in Guam so we decided to join them in Guam instead and leave KSA for next trip.

Was pretty lucky and was helped by two very helpful UA agents. Initially booked XN TPE-MAJ, MAJ-GUM and GUM-TPE for 35K. Called back the next day and changed to I NGO-GUM while waitlisting on the Hopper for an extra 10K.

It’s not a ruse, per se, but it’s definitely not a bug in the system. What you’re seeing is married segment availability. United uses it on all flights, not just awards, but it’s more obvious on award flights because you know what bucket you’re looking for and what an award should cost.

Basically, UA keeps an entirely separate set of inventory — independent of the underlying flights — for most valid domestic connections (transfer time less than 4 hours). Awards use a different transfer rule, which is why you’re seeing the XN peek through on the longer transfers.

I completely forgot about the excursionist perk and need to add it to an upcoming award trip. I stupidly did it as two one way awards. My first one way has no more availability. My second one way still has available seats and I can price it out correctly online using add destination feature online to the first one way award. My question is how long does it take to have the miles recredited to your account? Would this be better to do on the phone? I don’t have the miles to cover adding it to the first one way then canceling the second.

You should try to do it on the phone, absolutely; preferably during the hours that the MileagePlus Service Center (MPSC) is open (the last I heard, it was 7 AM to midnight, US Central time).

If your first one-way is on United, this should be pretty straightforward. If your first one-way is not on United, the agent may tell you it’s impossible. In that case, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can ask the agent to cancel the second one-way and have the miles re-deposited immediately. They should appear in your account while the agent is on the phone; if the agent can’t do it, you’d call the MPSC. They can definitely do it. Then, you can try to make the change online.

It is extremely important to re-verify your re-issued ticket with the operating carriers of your flights after making changes, especially if you do them online. You need to see the following:

1 - You previously had a ticket number starting with 016 for the first ticket
2 - You now have a different ticket number starting with 016 for the new, combined ticket. If you still see the same number when you look at your receipt, call United and ask them for the ticket number. If it’s still the same as your original 016 ticket, tell them that you made a change and it needs to be reissued. (Normally, they’d notice something was wrong before you had to tell them this).
3 - The new 016 ticket number has to match what each operating airline has in their system. Some airlines show the ticket number on their websites when you look up a reservation; for others, you need to find a number and call them. If they have the old ticket number, you need to give them the new one.

If the ticket number is not updated in the partner airlines’ systems, your reservations are likely to be cancelled, because it’s going to look to that airline that you don’t have a valid ticket.

You’re correct, but OP is suggesting converting the two one-way tickets into a round-trip ticket, which would then be eligible for the Excursionist Perk.