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UA award booking,change questions/fees/issues/routing/excursionist problems {Archive}

Old Dec 27, 2016, 9:23 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
United's Announcement and FAQ

Kacee's Interpretation

Main Impact Since October 6
  • Fee Changes such as platinum members are subject to various award fees
  • No more free stopover - replaced with Excursionist Perk
  • Agents no longer have the ability to find routings that do not show up on united.com
  • Manually constructing trips using multi-city search results in multiple award fares being charged
  • Changing any segment MIGHT require current availability for all existing Os&Ds in the PNR (as if a brand new booking is made) - YMMV
  • Singapore Airlines segments are priced separately (add-ons)

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This is an archive thread, the active thread is Award booking questions/ issues/ routing/ excursionist problems / help
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UA award booking,change questions/fees/issues/routing/excursionist problems {Archive}

Old May 5, 2018, 3:16 am
  #2461  
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Originally Posted by j2simpso
Is it just me or is it impossible to book J on TK using UA miles? I've put in a variety of dates and starting airports (i.e. ORD, EWR, IAD, etc.) and only managed to find 1 flight out of ORD on TK that got me to where I needed to go (DEL)? I see similar results with ExpertFlyer which leads me to believe that TK doesn't release much J availability.
Originally Posted by findark
Hard to say for your dates, but historically speaking TK via IST has been a plentiful option for partner award space.
I haven't followed lately, but historically TK has released award space in bunches. Which means there's a lot, then less, then nothing until they release again.
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Old May 6, 2018, 5:09 pm
  #2462  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 2,530
Originally Posted by swingaling
I booked the following with UA miles as a single ticket partner award:

19 May -- TG603: HKG-BKK connecting to TG321: BKK-DAC
23 May -- CA901: PEK-ULN

I'm going to arrive in HKG on 19 May a few hours prior, but in the unlikely event of a very late arrival, I may miss the TG flights. I understand that TG may or may not accommodate me in those circumstances, and I'm willing to take that risk. It's more likely that the HKG-BKK will be late and cause me to miss the BKK-DAC flights, as there's only a 70min transit at BKK.

1. In the event that I do miss the TG flight(s), is there any way for me to protect the PEK-ULN flight?

2. Alternatively, is it possible to separate these flights on to separate tickets to prevent an auto-cancellation?

My main goal is to preserve the PEK-ULN flight in the event that something gets messed up with the HKG-DAC flights. FWIW, the TG and CA bookings have separate record locators, though not sure if that's necessarily relevant.
1a. If you miss your connection in BKK, I don't think you should worry. I have done this before (missed a connection on a UA partner award flight; missed connection; re-accommodated on a later flight; no change to or problems with my return flight a week later) and I can't imagine this would be a problem (though stranger things have happened).

1b. If you miss the initial flight in HKG, and TG accommodates you under a flat tire rule situation, you should be fine. If they tell you that you are SOL and you have to buy another ticket, then I would definitely call CA or UA or anyone who will listen and try to get them to preserve the PEK flight for you.

2. I think the answer is "yes, but you have to pay the change fee (depends on status) and there has to be availability right now in all unflown segments". I think the number of required miles for a multi-city vs two one-ways is the same here.
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Old May 6, 2018, 7:38 pm
  #2463  
 
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Originally Posted by threeoh
1a. If you miss your connection in BKK, I don't think you should worry. I have done this before (missed a connection on a UA partner award flight; missed connection; re-accommodated on a later flight; no change to or problems with my return flight a week later) and I can't imagine this would be a problem (though stranger things have happened).

1b. If you miss the initial flight in HKG, and TG accommodates you under a flat tire rule situation, you should be fine. If they tell you that you are SOL and you have to buy another ticket, then I would definitely call CA or UA or anyone who will listen and try to get them to preserve the PEK flight for you.

2. I think the answer is "yes, but you have to pay the change fee (depends on status) and there has to be availability right now in all unflown segments". I think the number of required miles for a multi-city vs two one-ways is the same here.
Gotcha. I appreciate the advice. Unfortunately, award availability for the HKG-BKK-DAC is currently zero, so I'll just have to take my chances.

I suppose I could book PEK-ULN separately with Asia Miles, though I'm unsure if it would get auto-cancelled by CA due to the fact that I'd be double booked on the flight.
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Old May 7, 2018, 5:22 am
  #2464  
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 97
Booked an award for wife Saturday. Round trip with excursionist perk. Just looked and saw that the first part of the trip just dropped 7,000 points. Can i call and have them credit or how does that work? Southwest did this no problemo.
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Old May 7, 2018, 5:35 am
  #2465  
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Originally Posted by goduke7
Booked an award for wife Saturday. Round trip with excursionist perk. Just looked and saw that the first part of the trip just dropped 7,000 points. Can i call and have them credit or how does that work? Southwest did this no problemo.
You'd need to pay the change fee (varies by status and time until departure). Also, if there are any partner flights on your itinerary -- and there aren't many Excursionist Perk flights without them, if you're originating in the continental US -- they may require current award inventory on those sectors to be able to make the change.
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Old May 7, 2018, 6:04 am
  #2466  
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 97
OK thanks. I'll call the 1k desk. No change fees as 1k.
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Old May 7, 2018, 11:09 am
  #2467  
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,310
On Friday I booked two one ways on LOT. Ana and Expert Flyer both shows the seats as available.

It's Monday and the tickets still haven't been confirmed by LOT. My ticket hasn't been canceled yet.

Should I just wait it out? Seems like LOT has been slow to confirm recently.

"There is a delay in the issuance of your ticket(s). We have requested confirmation of your flights from LOT Polish Airlines.This process may take up to 24 hours. Your miles will not be deducted from your account until your flights are confirmed and your ticket is issued. We will notify you via email upon confirmation.

This reservation is not ticketed. Pending confirmation from LOT Polish AirlinesThank you for choosing United Airlines. Your purchase is confirmed. We'll notify you when we've finished processing your reservation so that you can request additional receipts, export to your calendar, check in, cancel, upgrade, email or print your itinerary."
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Old May 8, 2018, 6:09 am
  #2468  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 191
redemption on LO

Originally Posted by Jesperss
On Friday I booked two one ways on LOT. Ana and Expert Flyer both shows the seats as available.

It's Monday and the tickets still haven't been confirmed by LOT. My ticket hasn't been canceled yet.

Should I just wait it out? Seems like LOT has been slow to confirm recently.

"There is a delay in the issuance of your ticket(s). We have requested confirmation of your flights from LOT Polish Airlines.This process may take up to 24 hours. Your miles will not be deducted from your account until your flights are confirmed and your ticket is issued. We will notify you via email upon confirmation.

This reservation is not ticketed. Pending confirmation from LOT Polish AirlinesThank you for choosing United Airlines. Your purchase is confirmed. We'll notify you when we've finished processing your reservation so that you can request additional receipts, export to your calendar, check in, cancel, upgrade, email or print your itinerary."
Did LOT confirm for you yet? I'm in the same boat, two one ways in business class, neither one confirmed.
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Old May 8, 2018, 6:45 am
  #2469  
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Hi there. Am I correct in understanding that a UA award ticket on a partner airline should always include a free checked baggage allowance? There are a small number of mentions of problems in this thread, but no further info about whether the issues were resolved. The UA checked baggage calculator would lead you to believe that the first bag is free, at least on the carriers I looked at.

I'm specifically interested in Economy awards SPU-ZAG (Croatia Airlines) and ATH-DBV (Aegean or Croatian).

Last edited by aspro; May 8, 2018 at 7:58 am
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Old May 8, 2018, 8:25 am
  #2470  
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Originally Posted by aspro
Hi there. Am I correct in understanding that a UA award ticket on a partner airline should always include a free checked baggage allowance?
No that is not correct. It depends entirely on the baggage rules applicable to your ticket, which on a single segment itinerary would be set by the operating carrier.
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Old May 8, 2018, 9:14 am
  #2471  
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
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Originally Posted by Kacee
No that is not correct. It depends entirely on the baggage rules applicable to your ticket, which on a single segment itinerary would be set by the operating carrier.
And OU seems to have a "Basic Economy" type of fare class that has no baggage allowance:

https://www.croatiaairlines.com/Trav...hecked-baggage
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Old May 8, 2018, 9:43 am
  #2472  
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Originally Posted by cheltzel
And OU seems to have a "Basic Economy" type of fare class that has no baggage allowance
The good news is that awards (X/XN) do not typically book into basic economy type fare classes.

But just using UA as the most obvious example, you would not get a free bag on a domestic UA economy award itinerary (at least not without status or one of the Chase cards), since there are no free checked bags on domestic UA flights.
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Old May 8, 2018, 11:13 am
  #2473  
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Originally Posted by aspro
.... I'm specifically interested in Economy awards SPU-ZAG (Croatia Airlines) and ATH-DBV (Aegean or Croatian).
To common on bag allowance, you need to provide the entire itin (and cabin -- this case economy). There are two sets of bag allowance rules (IATA MSC and DOT) and individual segments are affected by other segments.
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Old May 8, 2018, 11:48 am
  #2474  
 
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Is there any way to customize an award?

Going ORD-HND in a couple weeks

Found ORD-FRA-LHR-HND on LH F, C and ANA F. 3 flights should be allowed. When I call the 2 separate agents said routing via Europe is not allowed and its 2 awards. I showed them examples where routing via Europe works but they said its only 1 award if united.com says it is. I also cant get a flight from FLL-ORD to price onto any flights so I will just buy it. This seems kind of like a scam since flights are available but united.com picks and chooses what they will give you.

Does anyone know a way around this?
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Old May 8, 2018, 11:53 am
  #2475  
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Originally Posted by aero0729
I showed them examples where routing via Europe works but they said its only 1 award if united.com says it is.
That is the official policy in the Excursionist Perk era (post-Oct. 2016). If it doesn't show up via a single search, from origin to destination, UA will charge end-on-end pricing to book it. There have been limited reports of people successfully adding connecting flights to award reservations after booking, but most people are hearing the same thing you are.
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