Kacee

Unfortunately the reports have been pretty consistent that they are repricing these at the new rates. The only way you might get around it is if there's a schedule change on your existing flights. Otherwise I wouldn't bother calling.

mommafrica

Hello. Hopefully I'm in the right place (doubt it although I have been searching). Question please. The S/O and I are going on a multi-city trip for our B-Day: PHL-BUR (1/21-24 Universal City booked w/ 25K miles + $122), drive to PSP (1/24-27 Morongo Casino), PSP-LAS (1/27-30): my ? is here w/ trying to find out if it's best to use 20K + $111 a/i or UR points (25,920)? And finally LAS-PHL. We'll be doing that on Alaska ($303 a/i).

Far From Home

Ah, this is what I had feared based on the lack of reports so far. Definitely have been able to finagle things based on schedule/aircraft changes, as you mention, but that's all so far. Thanks!

motoridersd

Is there some sort of rate/search limit when looking for award tickets? Twice already this weekend I don't get any Business Saver award results after a few searches within the same hour.

Could be an issue with partner airline availability, but just thought it was weird.

findark

Not quite sure what you mean, but the backend query has a timeout and will give up after a set amount of time. This may lead to inconsistent results being returned.

motoridersd

I'm looking for Business Saver tickets to/from different cities in Japan. There are a few options that come back with NH whenever I search, but it happened last night and again today where the results only give me Economy Saver results, and no Business or First availability. The dates are the same.

What I mean about rate or search limit is some kind of protection to avoid abuse where if you have searched for say 5 award tickets, it stops giving you results. It might not be directed at me, but maybe NH has some sort of limit when UA queries their availability. Results are inconsistent, so the backend query could be the problem. What's the best way to deal with that? Just wait and try again? There's usually a good amount of time between my searches as I consider options and dates, say 20-30 minutes.

I'm sure it will be back when I try again later.

Edit: Looks like a backend issue. No ANA sites are coming up when the Business Saver options disappear

SandLake

Hi
I have been collecting Mileageplus points for several years and so far my wife and I each have about 90K miles. We would now like to use these miles for a flight from Dublin to Dubai. There are award flights available typically for 200000 miles plus Ł100-200 so we are 20452 miles short, I plan to buy the additional miles.

I cannot make the award booking online as I don't have anywhaere near 200000 miles in my account, I need to use both my and my wife's miles.

Is it a simple matter of me buying the required miles into my account then phoning reservations/mileageplus and making the booking using both sets of miles?

TIA

Explorer789

Yes, I think your only option is to buy the remaining miles.

If you were in the US, I would have suggested just getting a Chase credit card with a signup bonus and accumulate the miles through normal spending.

jsloan

You will not be able to combine accounts for the purposes of getting an award.

However, if you're planning to come back from Dubai, you can buy one direction using your miles and one direction using hers. You'll have to pay twice the change/cancellation fees if you end up needing to modify the itinerary, but it will work. Or, if that represents two round-trip tickets, you can buy one round-trip with your miles and one with hers.

This is important, though, because it sounds like you may need to buy 10K miles in each account, not 20K miles in yours.

BTW -- search the forum for "Award Accelerator" for the cheapest way to buy miles. 20K miles should cost about US$400.

SandLake

My wife and I now have a few miles over 100K each and I am ready to book each way seperately - I have even discovered that as a one-way I can actually fly home to my home airport.


Thanks

RandomBaritone

That's great news! FYI, there's a wealth of useful info about using UA miles for award bookings in the relevant thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...2017-a-61.html

A new thread may be created for 2018, but until then that's the place to go with follow-up questions.

SandLake

Can I ask a couple more questions about Award booking.

If I encounter a delay which makes a connection unavailable, how well will I be looked after? Will they rebook on a non-*A carrier? On a DUB-FRA-DXB booking, if the DUB-FRA runs late then the next flight to FRA won't make a connection to DXB?

If I book DXB-ZRH-LHR-BHD all in one day as a mixed cabin Award where LHR-BHD is Aerlingus who do not have any business class, do I get any lounge access at LHR?

TIA

jsloan

The carrier who causes the disruption is responsible to get you to your destination, whether it's an award ticket or not. They're likely to want to try to keep you on *A, but you may be able to be put onto another airline if you can talk them into it.

Not based on *A rules, no. Swiss or Aer Lingus may have their own rules; it'd be best to ask about that in those fora.

mh3265a

Question on ANA award booking. Flying today from IAD-NRT. We're confirmed in C but would love to be in F. ANA has been F5 for days but O space never opened up. Is this normal or a trend with ANA?

zitsky

Looking to book a South America trip in December 2018. Absolutely no Business Saver awards. Is this normal?