Kmxu

The problem is that UA restricts the partner award flights to China so that one either book two separate one-way tickets with a stop (at TPE, for example) or pay UA’s US-PVG inflated fares to get to China or return to US. Before the pandemic, you can book any Chinese city from US via ICN, NRT, HND, TPE. For example, SEA-ICN on OZ and connected to HGH on either OZ or CA. Now, you can book HGH-ICN on either OZ or CA for less than 9K miles (I flew this last month), but you cannot combine it with an ICN-US flight on a single ticket.

What I asked is whether or not UA’s internal award-booking system (used by agents) has the same restriction.

WineCountryUA

We have repeatedly told, there is no difference between what we see or what the agents see.

jsloan

Wow, that’s really messed up. (For the board — I tried it and I’m seeing the same thing Kmxu is: you can book SFO-TPE and TPE-PVG separately, but if you try to do multi-city search, it will suppress the results entirely).

I don’t think anyone will have a definitive answer unless they’ve tried calling. I don’t know where this block is in their system; it’s clearly something that they’ve added in explicitly, and it’s probably connected to the problems that agents are having booking XN at the 35K rate.

That said, the correct price for SFO-ICN-PVG, searched separately, is the cost of SFO-ICN plus the cost of ICN-PVG, with the exception of the Excursionist Perk option I mentioned,. The primary advantage to getting this on a single ticket is that you’d be protected against IRROPS. It would not be likely to cost fewer miles. So, whether the agents can do it or not — up in the air. Whether the agents can give you a better price than you’d get on your own, likely not.

Note that this is the one general case where agents have been able to see better availability than the website: multi-city trips. When booking multi-city — excepting, for the moment, this weird China block — agents have been able to see the same inventory that guests see if they were to book one-way on each leg. So, if you’re booking SFO-BKK // CNX-CGK // DPS-SFO, agents would see the inventory for SFO-BKK as if you searched that individually, then CNX-CGK as if you searched that individually, etc. The multi-city search will try to find entire combinations for all three trips at once and will therefore can up missing some. That’s what I’m hoping will happen here — the agent would see the SFO-ICN and ICN-PVG space individually even though the website won’t when you do a multi-city search. It’s just a question of where this China block in the system is.

Hope this helps.

vnfilm1

I already book an business award ticket using United mileage ( 99K/ person for one way ticket) a few months ago, from BKK to SFO. Now, I want to change my departure day. However, I keep checking for a few weeks now and a one way business award ticket is in the range of 200K to 650K ( lowest business ) per ticket. I am not sure why there is a big jump in mileage required now .

Is there any chances the business saver award is available soon . I search all the way to January 2024, but it is the same result ( the cost of an award business ticket is between 200K - 650K per ticket) . Can I still able to change departure date without paying extra mileage .

if someone know well about booking an award ticket using United mileage, please advise and thank you.

Kacee

A chance? Yes. Likely? No.

jsloan

You cannot change the travel date without paying the current price for the ticket. As for whether or not some saver / partner tickets will pop up — it’s possible, but there are no guarantees… and the ones that pop up may be unattractive (e.g., airport change in Tokyo, or an economy segment from Bangkok to Tokyo, etc.).

zxrst

I booked a united award trip and now the mileage redemption rate is lower (35K to 26K). What is the easiest way to get these mileage adjustment? Cancel and rebook?

Kmxu

Rebook and then cancel the existing reservation, to be on the safer side, unless you need those miles.

Kmxu

I called 1K line for CLT-MUC-TPE-PVG on saver business this morning. The agent tried two different systems and could not piece these flights together. She could not explain why this happened. 😂😂

vnfilm1

Thanks. Another question, I do not plan to cancel , just want to make some adjudment.

My current itinerary is BKK ==> HKG ==> TPE ==> SFO ( 2 connections at HKG and TPE) . Segment BKK ==> HKG ( Thai Airway) and HKG ==> TPE ==> SFO ( EVA), if I like to make changes so that I have only 1 connection ( BKK ==> TPE ==> SFO) and if the flight is available, will it possible to do without paying more united mileage. And I will fly with Thai airways from BKK ==> TPE . With the increase mileage now, the whole itinerary cost ~ 200K for one way ticket/ person.

JayhawkCO

It will be possible to change it with no additional mileage assuming that itinerary pops up with the same price as you've already paid, otherwise you will pay the difference.

jsloan

Unfortunately, that likely means that whatever block UA put in place to prevent bookings to China is in the system at a very fundamental level. This probably explains the lack of XN awards on SFO-PVG, even when XN inventory exists, as well as the problems that agents have had booking those when somebody calls.

If you’re able to find the specific combination you’re asking about — HKG / TPE / SFO on Thai Airways and EVA — it will probably cost about 99K in business class, so you’re likely to get a refund. However, there’s no guarantee that there will ever be seats available.

If TPE/SFO is operated by UA, the price could be lower than the EVA flight, but it’s more likely to be quite a bit higher. UA awards are available to MileagePlus members on all flights — but often for a large sum of miles. Partner awards are often fewer miles, but are much less likely to be available.

If you’re trying to come back the first weekend of January or something, pray for a recession. That’s become one of the heaviest TPAC travel times on the calendar. If you have more flexibility, and especially if you’re traveling a little later in the year, your chances are better — just check periodically to see what’s available.

ProfessorChaos

I booked the following itinerary as an award ticket on UA:

SFO - LHR - DUB (LHR - DUB is Aer Lingus)
DUB - MUC (Lufthansa)
MUC - SFO

The Aer Lingus flight was subsequently changed to make the connection in LHR very tight, but not illegal (1 hr). I am thinking of trying to change the Aer Lingus flight, and have two questions related to whether that change would require re-ticketing the whole itinerary.

1) The DUB - MUC leg is no longer available for award bookings. Will that prevent me from changing the Aer Lingus leg?
2) If not, will changing the Aer Lingus flight involve repricing the whole itinerary? I think booking it now would be significantly more expensive than when I made it originally.

Thanks!

jsloan

1) Possibly, although UA should be more willing to give it a chance in this situation. If you are able to make a change, make sure to check the ticket number on LH's site afterwards and make sure it's the correct (new) value.
2) The schedule change should allow you to make a sensible change without repricing.

sam007

Is there an easy way to guess the possibility of an award flight for BOM-JFK/EWR using United miles but flying on LX/LH with a stop in Europe over the next few days. I've been tracking this and flights were available daily. Would a good barometer to check if United is selling revenue tickets for these? Thanks