jsloan

No. They will not re-price the award and you will not get a refund.

rosenkavalier

Hi there,
I am having a similar issue with phantom space (or as I now like to call it, alternative availability) and married segments...
Looking for a friend for GIG-LIN. When I do a search on UA.com and the UA app, nothing comes up in Saver Business.
Funny thing, when I put GIG-ZRH and GIG-MUC, it shows space on the LH flight GIG-FRA in Business...but when I do just GIG-FRA, nothing comes up.
I also searched FRA-LIN, and it is available, so theoretically GIG-FRA-LIN would be possible...
Searching on Aeroplan, that elusive GIG-FRA doesn't show up either, not even when I put GIG-ZRH.

I thought married segments were just for revenue tickets, as it has to do with fares and making inventory available for certain markets but not necessarily others to maximise revenue etc...why does it also apply to awards?!

Many thanks!

kymiller

Using a multi city itinerary and the Excursionist Perk, is it possible to make changes to the itinerary once the initial travel has started?

I'm flying SJD to SFO and then flying SFO to BOS (free, Excursionist Perk) and then have a "dummy" booking from SFO back to SJD (to qualify for the Excursionist Perk). I'm wondering if after flying the first two legs if I'd be able to change the date of the last SFO to SJD flight...

Any datapoints on this?

Kacee

You may make changes to the itinerary after travel has commenced, subject to the award rules and any applicable change fee.

But I'm confused by two aspects of your post. First, the excursionist perk should not be available on that itinerary, since it is all within the North America region. Second, not sure why you would make a "dummy" booking to get the excursionist perk, since the desired itinerary would cost less as two one-ways (SJD-SFO, SFO-BOS cheaper than SJD-SFO, SFO-BOS, SFO-SJD).

kymiller

SJD is in Mexico (Cabo San Lucas) so it qualifies for the Excursionist Perk. The dummy booking is made so that it meets the requirement that travel begins and ends in the same region.

As for cost I'm not sure what numbers you're looking at but there is no saver award availability and I'm flying business class. Hence the SFO to BOS would cost me 50k miles but I'm getting that for free. My cost for the three segments is 87.5k (SJD to SFO 70k standard business; SFO to BOS free standard business, SFO to SJD 17,5k saver economy).

By adding the saver economy at the end I'm getting the 50k SFO to BOS standard business award for free, at the cost of 17.5k. So even if I can't use it it's still saving me a bit, but if I can move it around a bit and use it it will be even better.

Kacee

Are you saying you've already booked this??? If so, there has been a major pricing error in your favor. You can't get a free standard award as an excursionist perk on a RT saver award.

Also, Mexico is in the North America region, and a Mexico - US award is thus technically ineligible for the excursionist perk.

kymiller

I do see one of the ticketing rules is that the ticket becomes void a year after booking, so that limits the date to which I would be able to push back that final SFO to SJD flight...

Yes I have booked it. Perhaps an error in my favor but IIRC Mexico and Continental US are different regions. In addition IIRC the fare is valid if the excursionist perk is the same class as the flight that precedes it. I found I was able to qualify for the Perk using a saver economy to complete the trip.

From the FAQ:

The cabin of service and award type of the free one-way award is the same or lower than the one-way award preceding it.

jsloan

It isn't a round-trip saver award, and Mexico is a separate region.

It's a round-trip award with standard business on the outbound and saver economy on the return.

warreng24

I'm seeing some sort of strangeness on united.bomb.

I found Saver Business space BOS-BKK via ZRH on 9/11

Option 1 -
LX53 connecting to LX180 (6h 55m connection)

Option 2 -
LX55 connecting to LX180 (11h 40m connection)

Option 3 -
LX55 connecting to TG971 (7h 15m connection)

However, it doesn't give me an option of choosing LX53 connecting to TG971. This would give a 2h 30m connection.

If I search BOS-ZRH, it only shows Saver Business available on LX55 (doing a multi-city). When I called the UA agent directly, they told me that they see absolutely no Saver Business seats on LX55 at all. Expert Flyer shows the same thing. However, united.bomb will let me select the LX53 & TG971 combination, and it even sent me an email saying it was ticketed!

Thoughts? Are they now restricting award space by routing as well (vs individual flight segments)?

susiesan

I am going to need 2 J award seats to fly home from EZE, Buenos Aries, in March 2018 after a Cape Horn cruise. In looking at award availability for flights from EZE to anywhere in the US they are very very scarce even in coach. When I do see an occasional award the travel times are crazy, like 30= hours with multiple connections.

Any thoughts on a creative routing on a partner airline? One I thought of is to buy a ticket from BsAs to GRU one way and pick up and award flight from there as I see more available.

Has anyone ever scored UA 818 flight from EZE to IAH as an award in any class? My other option will be to use AA miles on LAN, which is how I am getting to SCL to begin the cruise.

Kacee

That's quite a loophole in the rules and a nice use of the perk on your part.

blahter

Just a datapoint:

Had JFK-FRA-BKK booked. JFK-FRA on LH J, FRA-BKK on TG F. When JFK-FRA F opened up, I managed to get the segment changed. Took 3 calls though. First 2 agents said it wasn't showing up for them even though it was showing on ua.com.

Duke787

Has anyone had success in getting JFK/ORD - HND/NRT - BKK - SYD in F? I can separately get JFK - HND (NH F) and HND/NRT - BKK (NH Y/J) - SYD (TG F) on the days in question but having trouble getting .bomb to put it together as one itinerary, all it will give me is JFK - ICN (OZ F) - SYD (OZ Y) or JFK - PEK (CA F) - SYD (CA Y) neither of which are attractive options.

svellmann

I'm trying to get from HKG to AKL (booking far out). Since the BKK-AKL is hardly available anymore these days (let alone the direct HKG-AKL on NZ), it would probably be a nice chance to try TG F which has plenty of awards.

So I guess what I'm looking for is:
HKG-BKK-SYD-AKL

Except this connection is not shown when I search for HKG-AKL. The search just comes up empty. HKG-AKL shows result only, if any, on days where BKK-AKL is available which is basically never, if booking far out.

The following searches come up with results:
BKK-SYD-AKL
HKG-BKK-SYD
HKT-BKK-SYD-AKL
HKG-BKK-SYD-WLG
...
So it is evident that South Asia - OZ/NZ (still) allows two transfers on a one-way and my desired routing is legal.

Except I don't want to originate in Phuket, end in Wellington or find my own way between HKG/BKK or SYD/AKL. This was perfectly fine before and routing could be forced via multi city search.

Does anyone have advice of a workaround for such situations, or any experience if and how phone agents will be able to help me?

pbd456

is it possible to book a routing online, and then change to have a longer connection within 24 hours with the same routing but longer layover to avoid a redeye flight?