Dec 27, 2016, 9:23 pm
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
United's Announcement and FAQ
Kacee's Interpretation
Main Impact Since October 6
Useful Links
This is an archive thread, the active thread is Award booking questions/ issues/ routing/ excursionist problems / help
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)
Useful Links
This is an archive thread, the active thread is Award booking questions/ issues/ routing/ excursionist problems / help
UA award booking,change questions/fees/issues/routing/excursionist problems {Archive}
Mar 7, 2019, 3:50 pm
#3046
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Yorkshire, UK
Programs: *A "Top 1000 2015", FB Lifetime Plat.; BA Silver; Ma; Hilton Diamond.rriott Gold
Posts: 497
because there is no saver availability on Dec 21 on the UA routing -- i agree this is a bit of a long way round. Also there are 3 other UK based PAX, so need 4 tickets altogether, preferably all travelling out together all in biz. For the UK based pax, I don't mind adding a positioning flight the day before so as to save the UK high tax. I could position the AMS based pax to MAD on a separate direct flight, but if I can include it al in one award ticket then I hoped it might be all included except for a little bit more tax. MAD-BOG-UIO seems to be the only way to get 4 PAX to UIO on Dec 21 in biz....
As soon as you use multi-city search, United will now price it as point-to-point, regardless of whether it's a stopover or not. The only way to get the 80K price is to get AMS-UIO for the 80K price is to get it to appear on a single search result or to get a kind agent to relax the rules for you, normally by booking the long segment first and then calling to add the shorter segment.
That's what I'd recommend, anyway; book what you can, let it ticket, and then call within 24 hours to add the rest and see if you can get the lower price. If it doesn't work out, you can cancel.
That's what I'd recommend, anyway; book what you can, let it ticket, and then call within 24 hours to add the rest and see if you can get the lower price. If it doesn't work out, you can cancel.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Mar 7, 2019 at 7:26 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
Mar 7, 2019, 4:08 pm
#3047
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 7,904
I once had to call to get 4 segments ticketed. I thought it was a website limitation at the time.
Mar 7, 2019, 4:41 pm
#3048
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Yorkshire, UK
Programs: *A "Top 1000 2015", FB Lifetime Plat.; BA Silver; Ma; Hilton Diamond.rriott Gold
Posts: 497
btw, my understanding is that as a 1K, I can call up any time until departure to add/delete segments or even cancel the entire tix at no cost -- correct? (assuming space is available, and of course with financial adjustments if taxes change).
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Mar 7, 2019 at 7:27 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
Mar 7, 2019, 5:14 pm
#3049
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,412
Mar 7, 2019, 5:32 pm
#3050
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, MR LTT, HH Dia, Amex Plat
Posts: 32,055
just make sure you understand that space must be available for ALL flights on the entire itinerary at the time you make that change. It is not enough to have space on the segment you want to add ... or subtract ... you need fresh inventory once partner metal gets involved.
Mar 7, 2019, 5:48 pm
#3051
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,412
just make sure you understand that space must be available for ALL flights on the entire itinerary at the time you make that change. It is not enough to have space on the segment you want to add ... or subtract ... you need fresh inventory once partner metal gets involved.
Mar 7, 2019, 7:18 pm
#3052
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: PHL
Programs: UA Plat, 2MM
Posts: 1,860
just make sure you understand that space must be available for ALL flights on the entire itinerary at the time you make that change. It is not enough to have space on the segment you want to add ... or subtract ... you need fresh inventory once partner metal gets involved.
Mar 11, 2019, 9:06 am
#3053
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 7
How to get a stopover when booking with points...
I am looking at booking a flight with points from Raleigh/Durham to Christchurch New Zealand. The flight path is RDU->SFO->AKL->CHC.
Since the flight will go through San Francisco, I would like to spend a couple nights there before heading on to New Zealand. The only option online with United is to do a multi city research which then charges me extra miles for my flight from RDU to SFO.
Would an agent be able to book this for me with a stopover without charging extra miles? Is there any tricks/trades to make this happen or am I just out of luck.
Thanks!
Since the flight will go through San Francisco, I would like to spend a couple nights there before heading on to New Zealand. The only option online with United is to do a multi city research which then charges me extra miles for my flight from RDU to SFO.
Would an agent be able to book this for me with a stopover without charging extra miles? Is there any tricks/trades to make this happen or am I just out of luck.
Thanks!
Mar 11, 2019, 9:13 am
#3054
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Israel, APAC
Programs: UA PG, IHG Diamond Amb
Posts: 186
Pretty much no way to do it. You just have to pay for RDU-SFO and use award ticket from there.
Last edited by thedon; Mar 11, 2019 at 9:13 am Reason: no quote
Mar 11, 2019, 9:32 am
#3055
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,060
Free stopover not allowed on a one-way award booking. Allowed on a roundtrip as "Excursionist Perk", but it's not allowed in your origin region. So you still wouldn't be allowed to do it as North America is your origin region.
Mar 11, 2019, 9:33 am
#3056
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,412
No. UA eliminated this type of stopover from their awards a couple of years ago (and they never applied on a one-way itinerary). If this is actually a round-trip award, you could add a stopover within New Zealand using the Excursionist Perk, which is UA's replacement for the old stopover policy. However, there's no way to get a free stopover within your origin region (North America, in this case).
Mar 11, 2019, 8:28 pm
#3057
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 84
Mixed cabin J/Y makes excursionist let Y only. Can fix by calling.
I'm flying an itinerary using the excursionist as follows:
A->B
C->D (excursionist)
D->A
Trying to book in business class, but forced to take mixed cabin A-X-B where A-X is business and X-B is economy.
A is US, B,C,D, and X are all at the destination (Africa).
When I select business for the C-D leg, united.com wants to charge me an extra 30k, but it shows 0 for economy. But it should be 0 for business, too, since I am paying for business for the leg beforehand (and after). Yes, both the business and economy for CD were Saver availability.
I called United and, after much checking and checking with a supervisor, the agent was able to book it without the extra 30k (160k total) and also agreed to waive the phone booking fee since I was unable to book it correctly online.
Just FYI
A->B
C->D (excursionist)
D->A
Trying to book in business class, but forced to take mixed cabin A-X-B where A-X is business and X-B is economy.
A is US, B,C,D, and X are all at the destination (Africa).
When I select business for the C-D leg, united.com wants to charge me an extra 30k, but it shows 0 for economy. But it should be 0 for business, too, since I am paying for business for the leg beforehand (and after). Yes, both the business and economy for CD were Saver availability.
I called United and, after much checking and checking with a supervisor, the agent was able to book it without the extra 30k (160k total) and also agreed to waive the phone booking fee since I was unable to book it correctly online.
Just FYI
Last edited by physics; Mar 11, 2019 at 8:40 pm Reason: note that it is saver availability
Mar 11, 2019, 9:43 pm
#3058
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,412
Good to know. There have been several reports of Excursionist Perk pricing being broken in exactly this way recently. I'm glad to hear they're able to fix it on the phone.
Mar 18, 2019, 2:43 pm
#3059
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Auckland, NZ
Programs: UA 1K, QF Plat, HHonors Diamond,
Posts: 82
Changing first leg(s) of award booking but keeping last segment(s)?
Managed to book 4x Business Class tickets on a *A partners (SAS/TG) from AMS-MEL in mid-December once availability on TG reappeared. It now seems that all availability on TG for business class from Thailand-Australia has disappeared. It now seems that we'd ideally like to fly TLV-MEL. Routing shows TLV-Europe-BKK-MEL. There is availability in business class on TLV-Europe-BKK but on the last segment UA availability only showing in Y class. If i was to ring up and try to get an agent to delete the first two segments (AMS-OSL-BKK) and replace them with (TLV-Europe-BKK) do you think they would be able to do this and keep the last segment and reprice correctly? It used to be possible but seems more difficult these days. Ironically a business class ticket from TLV-MEL is less miles than one from Europe, despite it being a longer trip! Go figure.
Cheers!
Mar 18, 2019, 3:25 pm
#3060
Join Date: May 2016
Location: SLC
Programs: United Gold, Hilton Silver, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 768
Hello,
Managed to book 4x Business Class tickets on a *A partners (SAS/TG) from AMS-MEL in mid-December once availability on TG reappeared. It now seems that all availability on TG for business class from Thailand-Australia has disappeared. It now seems that we'd ideally like to fly TLV-MEL. Routing shows TLV-Europe-BKK-MEL. There is availability in business class on TLV-Europe-BKK but on the last segment UA availability only showing in Y class. If i was to ring up and try to get an agent to delete the first two segments (AMS-OSL-BKK) and replace them with (TLV-Europe-BKK) do you think they would be able to do this and keep the last segment and reprice correctly? It used to be possible but seems more difficult these days. Ironically a business class ticket from TLV-MEL is less miles than one from Europe, despite it being a longer trip! Go figure.
Cheers!
Managed to book 4x Business Class tickets on a *A partners (SAS/TG) from AMS-MEL in mid-December once availability on TG reappeared. It now seems that all availability on TG for business class from Thailand-Australia has disappeared. It now seems that we'd ideally like to fly TLV-MEL. Routing shows TLV-Europe-BKK-MEL. There is availability in business class on TLV-Europe-BKK but on the last segment UA availability only showing in Y class. If i was to ring up and try to get an agent to delete the first two segments (AMS-OSL-BKK) and replace them with (TLV-Europe-BKK) do you think they would be able to do this and keep the last segment and reprice correctly? It used to be possible but seems more difficult these days. Ironically a business class ticket from TLV-MEL is less miles than one from Europe, despite it being a longer trip! Go figure.
Cheers!