longleaf

Can someone tell me why this isn't pricing out to 40,000 miles? I'm using multi city tool to piece it together, but the connection is less than 24 hours, so it should price out at 40k instead of 55k. When i get to the final page it still totals to 55k. If I call in will they price it out to 40,000?

pushmyredbutton

Sadly that's not how it works anymore. Your itinerary will now price as two awards.

The way it works now is you input an origin and destination and it gives you the options. You can't piece it together with <24 hour stops unless it's one of the options when you search. You do get an "excursionist perk" if you're doing a multi city award usually

There's a whole thread dedicated to this change somewhere

mduell

Yes, they are allowed.

If offered by UA for the starting and ending point you enter, they're free.

If you force them with multi-city, you pay for each segment you forced, minus any applicable excursionist perk.

Merlinrnr

Agree with everyone above. You can only go with what their computer system gives you for routings. Also, if you call in they're limited to the same itineraries and will rarely be willing to "override" anything anymore.

char777

That looks like a miserable itinerary anyway. I see XNA-ORD-PVG-BKK on the same day for 40,000 miles + $20 o/w. Gets you there about 12 hours faster too.

longleaf

Bummer.

It was just a sample itinerary to test the connection. Not looking to book that exact layover. Being that PEK is in a different region than BKK, it won't count as an excursionist perk, so i was trying to test forcing a long connection (preferably during the day).

Thanks guys.

krog

[moved from another thread that mentioned SFO-BKK award booking problems]

I am also having trouble booking round trip SFO->BKK award travel. I want Aug30-Sept11 Business Saver on EVA but I get an error on the site after selecting the first flight. I called in twice and was told the flight wasn't available from EVA for an unknown reason.

I've since tried multiple award tickets across different airlines and dates but get the same website error after selecting the first flight.

Is anyone else seeing similar behavior?

[Update: It's magically working 24 hours later. Flight booked!]

cbender

Both Expertflyer and AwardNexus (*A AC) think there are 2 business class seats on the OS LAX-VIE flight on May 10. I couldn't get united.com to pull this up, so called. The agent said she sees 1 seat on that day.

Can anyone explain the discrepancy? Or tell me how to get more reliable availability?

LondonElite

All of these services sometimes display phantom inventory. There is no conspiracy.

newlbs

I am not sure is this always the case or the new system/rule caused this. I search for a Multi-city trip from A to B, B to C and D to A. It worked out fine. There is only one flight option for me in the A to B leg in this way. However, when I ran the search on the same day for A to B, there are three options now, with two shorter trip options. I called the representative but received unsatisfying answer. She explained as multiple people are searching the system, the free one way leg caused the limitation(problem still exists when removing that leg) etc... Basically none of them make sense since the availability should be the same for everyone for the same flight. It should not be differentiated based on whether you have future flight or not (if there is any, it should give customers who are paying more with more options right?) Has anyone had similar experience? Is there anyway get around with this system defect?

WineCountryUA

This sort of issues have been reported by others in even simple OWs vs RTs. Multi-city is having worse issues.

Generally no but in the thread's link there is a link to a blogger's approach.

spgaston

Yesterday I successfully modified a J award online (from 1K account so no change fee). VCE-OS-VIE-OS-LAX-UA-SFO. After I modified, I got an availability alert from expertflyer for the next day (our preferred date), but UA wasn't showing VCE-VIE as available. Today the whole route is available on .bomb, and I can book it as a new ticket, but if I try to modify my existing PNR I immediately get the error that there are no seats available on that date. Called in this morning, and was told they are having system issues and I should try again later. Thoughts on strategy? Should 1K desk be believed?

Edited to add: I can book this as a completely new round trip itinerary. Is there any risk in booking the new itinerary, waiting for it to ticket, then cancelling the old one? Any chance the duplicated pax on same flights would trigger something nasty?

Kacee

Living dangerously!

golfingboy

Hi everyone! Been awhile since I have posted in the UA forum!!

Quick question as this is my first time redeeming miles as a non-status member... I am looking into booking an award ticket in saver business class returning from Europe in the summer. One caveat I have is the connection in ORD is over 8 hours as there is no saver space on the earlier UA flights (ORD-PIT is the connection).

If I go ahead and book the award flight will I be able to switch to an earlier UA flight if saver space opens up? I am not too concerned about whether it will be in Y or F - just want to get back in PIT in the afternoon or early evening not at midnight.

Thanks! ^

WineCountryUA

Yes this is allowed. There will be a fee for making the which will vary dependent if this is before or after 60 days prior to departure.

There have been issues reported in making changes when new available opens up, not sure if this is fully understand yet.

SDC is also possible within 24 hours of departure of both the old and new flights but it requires award space to be available. There will be a fee also, but there would not be any needed to impact the rest of the itin.