jsloan

No, that's not the least bit unusual. For cash tickets, UA would rather sell you flights on its own planes. They may not even be able to sell you the NZ flight if they wanted to -- NZ may restrict them from doing so. For example, here's a sales restriction from a discount NZ LAX-LHR economy fare:

1k-all-the-way

Reading this thread about CofC and multiple bookings....never really occured to me. I don't want torget into trouble here.

My situation is a have a flight SFO-europe with a connection on staralliance partner in business in the evening. The next day I have a United Y award with a waitlist for business on a nonstop to the same destination. I will take UA if waitlist clears, or get on StarA flight evening before and cancel UA if waitlist does not clear by then. Is this a bad things to do? (There are still award seats available on both my flights in cabin I booked so not blocking others from booking) My intention was to book a backup if upgrade didn't clear, but does this violate the rules in a significant way?

***UPDATE***

Made my decision here to cancel waitlisted UA flight. Not sure if it was going to be an issue at all but didn't want to worry about it. Figure if waitlist clears, that would mean there are saver business seats available and I would change other reservation....

jsloan

If UA had noticed the two reservations, they would have cancelled one of them. If you were lucky, they'd have asked you first which one you wanted to keep.

You should be able to have the best of both worlds, though. You should be able to waitlist for the UA nonstop on your existing one-stop itinerary. It's worth calling to ask, anyway.

1k-all-the-way

thanks for the advice, but how can I waitlist for non stop? My understanding is you can't waitlist united flight when on star partner. Is that true?

PVDtoDEL

Shouldn't be a problem - just book them as "adults" on the NZ website.

jsloan

Just call. You can't waitlist for a partner flight. However, you have a confirmed business class award, so you should be eligible to waitlist for the United flight. You may need to HUCA once or twice, but it's definitely within the rules.

iapetus

Hmmm ... I hadn't thought to do that. So this is what would happen:

• The iapetus jrs. would fly LAX-LHR on a UA award ticket on an NZ-operated flight as "adults".
• mrs. iapetus would fly paid Y on the same flight, booked directly with NZ.
• The three of them would continue on another flight (prob'ly AL or AF) to Italy. (I'm seeing connections that would be 4-5 hours in duration -- plenty of time to collect bags, clear immigration and check in for the next flight.)

I suppose that could work. I don't like telling UA that my kids are adults, but it's not like they're going to actually be unaccompanied.

wco81

Been looking for J saver awards to either VRN (first choice) or VCE (second choice) for late August, early September. Originating from SFO.

There is some good award availability to either location via LH or OS TATL to about March 26 and then nothing. In August, there are some awards to VCE on LOT but they're like 20 hours or more outbounds, some approaching 30 hours so a long layovers in WAW.

Is there reason to hope that within 2 months of my target travel dates (last week of August or first week of September for the outbound) there would be more options, especially the more rational travel times of around 15 hours via LH?

Or am I only seeing awards on LH metal for close-in dates and/or because it's winter and they're unlikely to be available in late August or early September, which are still in peak season for TATL flights?

PVDtoDEL

Summer is peak season, so award availability TATL often sells out almost a year in advance. More inventory might open up close to departure if the flights haven't sold as well as inventory management predicts - however, that's taking a pretty big chance.

WAW is a reasonably nice city to spend a day, especially in the summertime - might be worth just taking a long layover and exploring a new place.

iapetus

Last year I snapped up some TATL award tickets in ~March for June travel when some inventory suddenly opened up. It looks like I might be in the same boat waiting for something to open up ... and I'm not happy about being in this situation again. If I don't see something in the next ~six weeks, I'll probably just nab what I can ... unless what I want just happens to open up between now and then.

cheltzel

How long does it take UA to ticket an award? I am trying to book a one way award involving AC and CA and it has been about 36 hours since I purchased it online. Nothing special involved. I was able to find the flights using the UA search and purchased it without incident.

WineCountryUA

36 hours suggests there is a problem and CA is not uncommonly the problem. Suggest you call.

wco81

I can try to wait to see if something opens up.

But what do I do, book hotels and cars at refundable rates and hope award flights open up for the dates you happen to book in advance?

I usually book the flights first to have certainty about dates and book the other things afterwards.

cheltzel

I was going to call today, assuming it may require the assistance of someone working a day job here in the US. And I found the the ticket confirmation email in my inbox about 30 minutes ago. It only took about 44 hours.

iapetus

That's exactly what I'm planning to do ... but, yes, it's not the way I'd prefer to do things. In my case, though, it's not that bad. I'll be in Europe for three weeks. The first week will be for work; so I'm confident that that will happen, and I know the constraints to which I will have to work. The next week will be spent with friends who have already arranged housing for everyone. The third week is up to my family and me. I'm confident that I'll find something that we can make work.