Kacee

While technically no comp is due, they will likely throw you miles or an e-cert if you complain about the equipment downgrade.

JHake10

I'll shoot and email to 1K Voice and see what happens. Not expecting much

Rubinae

Yes, it's for JFK-FRA. It was the most convenient flight considering all the NYC-TYO-KIX flights were taken up already. Do you know if they'll agree to EWR-NRT-ITM on UA then NH? It's available on the UA site for 75k and I'm considering it since it'll give me 16 hours in Tokyo (free day trip!).

jsloan

It can’t hurt to ask, although given the distance between NRT and the city center, I’d expect you to spend much of that time either in transit or asleep. It may take a couple of agents before you find one who understands that ITM is in Osaka though. :-)

UA can definitely open EWR-SFO-KIX if you prefer, provided that they have seats for sale — they don’t even need to have award seats, since it’d be all UA metal.

Rubinae

I was looking at EWR-SFO-KIX and the timing doesn't really work out. All the flights I saw will either get us into KIX too early or too late. I'll give it another look.

I figured 16 hours is not too much but at least we'll be able to get dinner and wander around a little. We hit up all the popular spots during our last trip to Tokyo, so I was thinking it would be nice to go to an area we've never been before.

jsloan

SFO-KIX is once a day, so if the flight timing isn’t convenient on that end of it, it’s not going to be much of an option for you.

As for the other — you’re the best judge of how much of an effect jet lag has on you and your companions. If that sounds like something you want to try, go for it. :-) You might also look for HND-KIX or HND-ITM flights. Anything that comes up in a one-way NYC-OSA award search should be bookable if you get a friendly agent.

Rubinae

It looks like UA only does EWR-NRT so I don't think HND is doable unless I can find partner award.

NYC-OSA?

And thank you for answering my questions. I kind of have an idea of what's doable now. Hoping I'll get a nice agent and work this schedule change out to my benefit.

jsloan

NYC = city code for New York; OSA = city code for Osaka. So, basically, a generic way to find all applicable airports. You can certainly search for specific airports also — EWR to ITM, for example. Kobe (UKB) is also Osaka, but I don’t know if that’s useful for wherever you’re going in the Osaka area.

As for HND — while you could probably force EWR-SFO-HND-ITM/KIX, that wasn’t really my suggestion. UA will often return awards that involve a change of airport. If you want to create a day trip in Tokyo, you might prefer EWR-NRT/HND-ITM/KIX, since it will eliminate the need to get all the way back out to NRT for your onward flight.

Happy to help. :-)

Rubinae

I took another look at the EWR-SFO-HND-ITM flight you suggested and I'm starting to think it looks great besides the 1hr 4 min connection time in SFO Do you think it's doable? I've only been to SFO once and that was for a day trip years ago. One last question, can I call in and provide them with the specific flights I'm looking at? The EWR-SFO-HND-ITM routing doesn't come up on the UA site unless I search each leg individually and this routing is drastically different from what I originally booked. I'm looking at the one that will give me 16 hours in HND and then fly out to ITM the next morning at 7 AM. I wish I could take SFO out of the equation but they only fly into NRT from EWR and we really don't want to deal with having to bring our luggage with us into the city for 3-4 hours then have to take the train to HND.

transportprof

I dunno about that 1 hour 4 minute connection @sfo. Did you read this thread?

Worst Flight Experience Ever! -Booked Biz SAN>SFO>SIN 26hr delay rebooked Y no refund

jsloan

I agree. I’d be very nervous about a 1 hour connection at SFO, especially to a once-daily flight. It’s one of those things where if everything goes perfectly, you won’t have any problems, but if you hit even a single snag, your plans fall apart.

Whatever you do decide, in theory, the agent can build it up flight by flight due to the schedule change. However, the more complicated the change, the more likely it is that an agent will push back. If that happens, be prepared — say, “no problem; I’ll need to research my options further” and end the call politely. The last thing you want is a note in your PNR saying that your request was refused; that’ll cause all subsequent agents to do the same thing.

It would definitely be best if you could do a single search from origin to destination and get the flights you want to show up. That requires the least work for the agent and guarantees that you won’t run into any “married inventory” issues where UA’s computers refuse to pair up certain combinations of flights. However, if you don’t like the options that are presented there, it’s up to you whether or not to try calling anyway. The biggest risks are a snippy agent who annotates your PNR thinking you’re trying to pull a ‘fast one’, or just a lot of time spent on hold.

Rubinae

Thank you again. I really appreciate all the information you're giving me. I *might* give this routing a try, but most likely not since the connection time in SFO is too short for comfort.

I'll be ready with a list of alternatives to provide the agent and if not, I'll try to take the day off to take the LH flight they changed me to and explore Frankfurt for a few hours.

Rubinae

I just saw that, thank you for pointing it out to me. I googled around a bit and people we're saying it should be an easy connection if everything works out perfectly, but I don't think we will be risking it since they only fly SFO-HND once a day.

Baze

Fly to SFO the day before and go into the city for a little while.

Rubinae

Lack of PTO is really preventing this or we might consider it and this trip is starting to cost more than we had originally planned (change fees, extra hotel nights, etc).