ff100

Last May I booked saver DEN/ORD/BRU MUC/IAH/DEN
A few weeks ago I added AMS/LIS (5 day stopover) and LIS/GVA/MUC (20 hour connection).
I noticed that saver business opened up on TAP nonstop from LIS to MUC still with a < 24 hour connection. When I called to change they wanted another 25,000 miles and said that they should have collected on the previous reservation change. I tried to explain that the MUC connection was <24 hours and therefore was a connection and not a stop over. I spent over an hour on the phone with the agent talking to a supervisor with no success. I asked if I could change the reservation back to where it was without a mileage charge and the agent did. I am still worried that at some point UA will try to collect the additional miles.
Is there any reason my itinerary doesn't qualify as a connection in MUC?

jsloan

Post 6-Oct, UA has eliminated / greatly limited the ability to customize routings on award tickets. Your first change should have been grandfathered in to the older system, which is probably why they didn't deduct the 25K miles.

Under the newer system, they've eliminated the language about connections vs. stopovers; instead, they're basically going with "whatever the computer will price." You can still get some lengthy connections, but only when they appear organically in the search results; as soon as you start piecing things together, UA will price it point-to-point, regardless of the duration of your stop.

In this case, unless the flights that you want come up when you search for LIS/DEN, I wouldn't necessarily expect them to ticket it for you without charging extra miles. :-(

omghaxcode

My wife and I recently booked the following one way flights with a J class award:
DFW-ORD (Y)
ORD-TPE (J)
TPE-BKK (J)

The issue is that we moved from DFW to AUS. I'd like to change my ticket to AUS-ORD and keep the J segments unchanged. Is it possible to have that first segment changed without messing up the 2 J segments (EVA partner award)? I see one way saver space AUS-ORD available that day but I'm not sure what routing rules come into play. If this is possible, is there any way to get this for free? Can I use the fact I'm not in business and there is a 15m schedule change as leverage?

** Just read this thread... So to be clear the AUS-ORD-TPE-BKK OW doesn't show up organically when searching... Does that mean I can't make the change to AUS without rebooking new flights? Additionally, what does the wiki mean when it says it might require availability on existing segments? Am I double screwed here?

AAJetMan

Hello...Can you please advise?
What can I expect in terms of Business class award availability DFW-LAX in the near future?
I see award availability in my international portion of lax-icn-tpe (first xLAX, business xICN) for Jan 2018, but cannot find biz or first on the domestic dfw-lax leg.
I understand that the award cannot be ticketed using economy on DFW-LAX because I already have a mix of First (LAX-ICN) and Biz (ICN-TPE).
I'd be willing to go Texas-LAX if DFW were not available (ie. IAH, or???)
Would like to get this ticketed in the next 2-3 weeks.
Also, if I don't score a domestic, what would I be looking at in terms of changing to add DFW-LAX after ticketing, should it open up?
Greatly appreciative of y'all's expert advice!

Kacee

Did a UA agent tell you that? They often just make stuff up when they can't explain why an award won't price. I am able to get the website to return an X/O/I itinerary on that route.

As for DFW-LAX, domestic saver F award space is very difficult to come by. I would not count on DFW-LAX ever opening in F.

If you are looking at ICN-TPE on OZ that is a really crappy seat. I think I would just try to book BR in J from LAX or SFO. OZ F is not worth the premium IMO

cricketer

I have a PER-BKK-TPE-SFO saver business award booked, on TG/BR/BR. There's a more convenient flight for me on TG 636 from BKK-TPE which allows me an overnight and day in TPE. It's available in saver business, however I've called in twice now and been told they can't change the middle segment.

I've never had this problem before - is there some new married segment logic issue that I'm unaware of, or is this just a HUACA (again) scenario?

thanks!

Kacee

It's the new system. There are two potential problems:

1. The new interface provides front-line agents very limited options for booking/changing awards. Basically, if united.com doesn't return a particular itinerary, the front-line agent can't see/book it. There are apparently work arounds, and higher level agents have access to more powerful booking tools that allow them to book itineraries the website doesn't return.

2. Agents will generally tell you that changing a partner award requires current award availability on all your segments. In this case, PER-BKK and TPE-SFO. It's not entirely clear that's actually true, but it is a default response.

cricketer

Makes sense. Both of those are exactly what I heard from both agents. Both started with "it's not returning that full itinerary, and I can't just change one segment" and then moved onto "PER-BKK" isn't even available in J --- which is true, because I booked the last J award seat available on my date, and am holding it in my reservation.

Guess I'll try again another day. Not flying till December, so I've got time. Managed to snag NZ J, albeit only AKL-PER, on the outbound as well. Polaris First from SFO-AKL, which will hopefully still exist by then.

misterno

i Just learned about stopover and openjaw by united airlines

So I booked IAH-IST, IST-ADB and then ADB-IAH with just 60K miles

So when in the above example stopover is IST? And I am flying back to IAH from a different city, is this open jaw?

After booking this flight, I just wanted to test the system by adding additional stopovers but now it is not only asking 15K Miles to ADB-ASR. So United only allows 1 stopover for free?

What if I want openjaw in a different country, is this possible? Online I tried to do it and it asked 15K miles for the new city. Maybe calling united make things different?

mahasamatman

There is no open jaw here. It's a round-trip IAH-ADB-IAH with a stopover in IST.

I believe it's OK as long as it's in the same region.

Correct.

laginibre

Apologies if this has already been covered.

UA Gold here. I want to fly SFO-CDG late May. UA non-stop would be prefered but it's only available as a Standard award. I can book SFO-FRA-CDG (first leg on UA, second on LH) as a Saver Award. If the non-stop flight becomes available at the Saver level, would an agent be able to modify the itinerary, skipping the connection, and redeposit the mile difference? What about fees when date and departure/arrival cities do not change?
Thanks!

747FC

You can have your preferred SFO-CDG waitlisted. No problem there, once you book SFO_FRA_CDG.

laginibre

So, they'll automatically notify me, rebook me, and redeposit the excess miles? That would be super! Thanks!

jsloan

What excess miles? If you're booked across the water on UA, it should price the same as the non-stop -- unless you forced that itinerary using multi-city search.

Grace B

On a similar? issue, I have booked a 1-way first-class saver award for SYD-BKK-HKG-SIN in December, the first two sectors being on TG and the last on UA.

Booked into O class for the TG flights, but economy (X) for HKG-SIN, as UA wasn't sowing any availability in I or O.

Is it possible to request a waitlist on HKG-SIN for a higher class, or do I have to keep checking and then request a change to the reservation? I am MP platinum.