sfo789

Unfortunately, while UA can open revenue business space to displaced award holders on its own metal, it can't do the same for partner metal. If you're lucky you might get an agent who's willing to call NH and ask them to open I space on NGO-CTS, but NH has every right to say no in these cases.

You can also look for NH I space on NRT/HND-CTS on the days you want to travel. Worst case, I think the morning GUM-NRT on the 772 with half a day in Tokyo might be enjoyable, or else the later GUM-NRT on a 73x, connecting onto the (very short) evening NRT-CTS. Both those give you a decent run in F/J with only a short hop in Y.

jsloan

You're not wrong, but your understanding is incomplete. The class of service is never guaranteed, for one thing; there is always a small possibility that you'll arrive at the airport with a business class seat assignment and be given a new boarding pass for economy. All UA would owe you is the difference in fare -- which is zero, in this case, if you are in business to Japan. (BTW -- GUM-CTS was already in 'domestic first' -- they used a 737 on that route with domestic first class seats).

For another thing, as sfo789 stated, UA can't open award space on another carrier. They can ask, but ANA (NH) may say no, at which point there's not much that they can do. If you prefer, you are entitled to a full refund.

And I have never seen business class award space on UA for NH domestic business class awards. It seems to me that NH doesn't open this space to partner airlines.

Finally, for perspective: GUM-CTS is 2,026 miles. GUM-NGO/NGO-CTS is 1,554 miles followed by 607 miles; GUM-NRT/NRT-CTS is 1,559 miles followed by 489 miles. As far as downgrades go, it could be worse.

Further, I agree with sfo789 -- If you have the time to spare, I'd ask to get onto the 777 flight to NRT, which is lie-flat (albeit 8-across -- it's tight). There's not much to do in the NRT domestic departure area, but there's a bus to the Aeon Mall Narita that you can use to get out and enjoy the layover a bit.

FormalHall

I have a tricky schedule change, which was only picked up by myflights (no notification from UA or TG yet): Thai Airways has cancelled BKK-USM flights over most of January; ruining my SYD-SIN-BKK-USM award itinerary. My booking on both the UA and TG websites now just shows SYD-SIN-BKK. TG is code sharing with Bangkok Airways (PG), but they are not a star alliance member; indeed there is no other star service to USM (Silk Air which is owned by SQ flies SIN-USM but is not a Star member).

Will it be possible for the MP call centre to get me rerouted onto a PG flight BKK-USM?

WineCountryUA

Sorry but that would be very out of character for UA to do.UA can request but not force a partner to opern award space and UA will not paid segments especially from non-*A.

The choice will be to refund the ticket or e-structure the ticket based on available space (UA will open space on its flights). At this point unless you can find a routing that gets you close (such as the exisiting trip to BKK) and then purchase out of your pocket a paid ticket to UMS, you are probably looking at a refund.

A major weakness of award tickets can be canceled segments.

Kacee

The itinerary is ruined? Virtually everyone who visits Samui flies PG. It's a 1 hour flight and PG has two dozen flights a day. Roundtrip fare is $227.

drvannostren

Original sked was SEA-IAH-MSY (2255 departure 1005+1 arrival), I guess that 2255 flight got cancelled. So there is now a 0005 departure that I could actually get in at 0853 or 1107. Am I too into the conspiracy that they didn't give me that one because it's more than 30 minutes change, thus giving me more licence to request a refund or a bigger change?

What they gave me was SEA-IAD-MSY (2230 departure 1037+1 arrival)..,just a 25 minute change, though I suppose one could argue its more than 30 minutes due to the ETA, but it forces me to fly almost 1100 miles extra.

Any chance this is grounds enough for me to get this changed to a YVR departure? If they had changed my return flights (more than the 10 minutes they did) I would definitely think I had grounds for this, but I don't wanna call and just have to HUACA a couple times if I have no shot at actually getting what I'd prefer.

Kacee

If you call, a decent agent will give you that routing rather than forcing you to route via IAD. "I'd rather not backtrack 1000 miles" is a perfectly valid reason for a different routing.

I would not expect to get a new origin (YVR) with reasonable alternatives available ex-SEA. But you never know. Sometimes you can score big playing agent roulette.

Two Bee

UA/MP can't help you, at all with this segment.

In July, 2012 Thai Air ceased most of their domestic flights, under that name, and became "Smile Airlines". Like FormalHall, I too had flights booked via BKK to KKC (Khon Kaen). My Thai flights were cancelled and NO NOTIFICATION. I needed to purchase separate tickets on "Smile" in order to get to my final destination. NO Star benefits-No admittance to any of their clubs, and 20 kilo limit on luggage. Cost cuts due to the fact that Thai Air loses tons of baht every year. The airline (Smile) itself is fine, just that you are on your own re any help from UA or Thai Air people, and they let you know that up front, at every turn.

drvannostren

Haha, "agent roulette" I like that. I kinda didn't think I'd be able to get YVR, I might nudge the agent that way, but in fairness that is a little greedy. Flight isn't until April anyways so who knows it might change again. Thanks!

jsloan

Personally, I would much prefer SEA-IAD-MSY to SEA-IAH-MSY; I'd argue they did you a gigantic favor. The potential extra hour of sleep is precious.

However, if you don't see it that way -- the chances that they will give you a free change to a YVR departure are slim to none, especially if you're trying to keep similar flight times. AFAIK, there aren't any UA-operated redeyes out of YVR, so you'd be asking for at least one AC segment.

Having said that, if the ex-YVR price is acceptable -- presumably it wasn't before, but perhaps now it is -- you might be able to talk them into a refund. I wouldn't call this a 25-minute schedule change; at a minimum, it's a 32-minute change, because arrival counts just as much as departure. But I'd actually call it a 57-minute change, as that's the increase in travel time. You're still below the 2-hour policy for a refund, but you might get a sympathetic agent.

transportprof

In the summer season, there is a YVR-ORD redeye flight.

jsloan

^ Thanks for the correction. I still expect that it would be difficult to change from an ex-SEA flight to an ex-YVR flight, but if YVR-ORD happens to be operating that day, the chances might go from 0.1% to 1.0%.

daslax

Kacee

You're entitled to a refund. It won't happen automatically. I'd wait until after you've flown, then contact MPSC.

PsiFighter37

Looks like LAX-SIN in May got pushed back by an hour - now departing at 10:35 PM.