terpfan101

Great thank you, not a huge deal if it can't be changed, it'd just be nice to save a few hours of time and not have to Amtrak to DC.

One other question, I have to start at YYZ because there's no saver space from DC to Toronto. I don't believe you can combine saver & standard on a one way, but would it be possible to book two separate awards or even two separate tickets and have them linked to prevent missed connections?

jsloan

Unfortunately, it isn't possible to link PNRs to help with missed connections. However, if you are willing to pay for the standard award from WAS to YYZ, try using multi-city search to insert YYZ as an additional destination. UA to AC has a one hour minimum connection time at YYZ, and I'd argue the sensible connection time is closer to two hours, especially if you're planning to stop at the lounge or at a restaurant.

Anyway, under the new policy, this will price as a one-way intra-North America standard award plus a round-trip North America to Europe *A award -- in other words, an extra 25K, assuming you choose coach for the WAS-YYZ leg. I just tried this out and I can verify that it priced correctly.

terpfan101

Good to know and yes I tried it and it worked exactly as you described even with the many routes. However as I was getting ready to book I ultimately decided it didn't make sense to pay 25k miles for me and my wife for a flight that'd cost $160 each. I'll pay cash and go with a flight that gives me at least 4 hours connection time.

kingkewl

Sorry if this has been asked and answered. I am currently waiting for my flight using the Excursionist Perk. I am flying Brussels Airlines from CDG to BRU. They said my economy award ticket from United doesn't include checked baggage. Does the Excursionist Perk flight include baggage? I ended up paying 35 euro baggage fee and I'm wondering if I can get United to reimburse me.

LunaresAeran

So I am trying to book award tickets to new zealand (ZQN in particular via AKL or SYD) in august for a ski trip. Departure airport will be SFO. United stopped running it's AKL direct route in the southern hemisphere winter, so the only airline that does so is Air New Zealand. I can't figure out how to find (if any exist) even direct economy tickets on that flight via awards. Is it possible to do so?

If not I'll just have to route through SYD or somewhere in Asia. Any recommendations on how to do so and end up in ZQN? Obviously business class saver is hard there, so I might try the waitlist trick?

bosbjg

UA Experts -

Looking for some ideas and help

I currently have two bookings (1k saver awards):
1: TLV-SEA (via FRA)
2: PDX-TLV (via SFO)

The first one was made back in September before the Award Ticket changes.

At this point I am trying to find a way to combine the two reservations into one so I can add in a "stopover" using the new excursionist perk.

Desired change:
TLV-SEA (via FRA) - No Change
SEA-LAX (excursionist perk)
LAX-SEA (via SFO) - Change PDX-SFO to LAX-SFO (same day)

I have found (online) saver availability on the SEA-LAX and LAX-SFO segments.

How can this be done? The agent i got on the phone couldn't find a way - suggested just canceling it all out and re-booking - issue being Saver space on the international legs.

I guess my back-up option is to just change PDX-TLV to LAX-TLV and purchase with $$ the SEA-LAX leg

Kacee

Not possible.

Your only option is canceling and rebooking, but that only works if there's saver availability for the full itinerary.

maa3

Trying to book PLS-EWR-RDU for 2 adults and 2 children in Economy. If we book it as one trip (flights less than 24hrs apart) it wants 37,500 miles/pp but if the EWR-RDU is two days later it wants to charge another 25,000 for that segment. (The award miles needed are really high because the dates are over Thanksgiving).

Is there a way to book it as a single trip PLS-EWR on Friday and EWR-RDU Fri or Sat with the 37,500 miles/pp and then call and change the second segment EWR-RDU to Sunday without having to pay the additional 25,000 miles? If so when can the change be made (within 24 hrs? Will we have to pay the change fee of $75pp or the phone fee of $25/pp?)

Dollar wise the tickets would be $670 (M class) if two days apart or $636 as one oneway trip. My inlaws are buying us our tickets and would rather use miles (they are United Chase explorer cardholders and accumulated a lot of miles but haven't flown United recently and have no status and neither do we.

WineCountryUA

OW awards are not allowed to have a 2-day break (or any break >24 hours when an international ticket). The two day break is causing this to be booked as two separate awards. You will not be able to call in and change from a valid award to an invalidate award without paying the higher mileage levels.

maa3

Ok, thanks.

FlyingDoctorwu

Currently booked on international C award but one domestic in Y because of no availability at booking. The flight is now available in C. Will UA charge fee to get that leg changed to C?

thanks
fdw

Evident

I made a change to an award itinerary last night for my wife on the united website. I picked out the new flight and paid the change fee and miles. Everything looked like it went through, but the reservation was never exchanged, as i got the "Please call United" message when i view my itinerary.

I've been on the phone with them for the last hour over lunch just to get them to cancel the old flight and ticket the new one for me, had to provide my credit card and security questions again. why cant the website just work? i feel like any time i do anything on the website, it involves me calling united up anyways, and worst part was that the flight never got ticketed. if its this tough for an experienced traveler i couldnt imagine the frustration for the kettles!!

Antonio8069

You will have a very hard time convincing this FT that united.com is a terrible WEB site. For over a decade, I struggled with aircanada.ca which is certainly a candidate for this dubious honour. When I switched to united.com, it was a big improvement - better security features, seat selection, it tells you miles per segment, permits courtesy holds.............I could go on all day.

Your problem, Evident (ly) is you do not have status with UA. Once you do and you call the 1K desk, you will soon discover they have little or no wait times (versus 45 mn at AC). I very much doubt if you will feel the same way.

Evident

I've been 1K/PP with United for years. I had no wait time getting to a rep. It was the rep actually processing the change and reissuing the ticket for me that took an hour and 20 minutes. and they still aren't done, but will send me a confirmation in email later. If the website isn't built to handle the backend of a simple change on an itinerary, then it's pretty much worthless and that option shouldn't be made available to customers.

Premier Owl

Holding on for 60 minutes with or without status is not acceptable.

The shame is the airlines customer service teams don't realise this....