Kmxu

YES!
I just wasted about one hour with 1K line, trying to book ICN-HGH award ticket. The agent and support desk could not price the ticket even after I told the agent the mileage for the opposite direction, HGH-ICN (I flew this in January and booked it with UA miles). Before the call, I asked my son to check the availability on AC and Avianca. So, I will have to ask my son for help with this flight.

This is just the stupidity of UA by restricting its members to book award tickets to China from ICN/TOK or directly from US to other Chinese cities or US-PVG on any other *A carriers.

PanAmWT

Thanks. I did not know this and could make a mistake booking RT instead of two OW.

superosky

I"m at my wits end with United Excursionist perk and their unfriendly website. I"ve studied the regions and have been trying to book the following flights:

MIA-SFO
SYD-AKL
SFO-MIA

of course ill pay to get from SFO TO SYD and AKL TO SFO on my own.
this flight plan starts and originates in same region and there are flights on United partner airways (new zealand air) between syd and akl
however United's website always returns unavailable flights .
I searched for the flights as one way invidividually and they are all saver awards flights.
only difference i can find is the domestic flights are XN but all the australia flights are X
does that make a difference?

VFR

I can make the website work for AKL-CHC on NZ and SYD-MEL on VA but not for SYD-AKL. My guess is that UA did not actually properly code Australia and New Zealand as the same region...

zombietooth

I've been waitlisted to go from O to PZ to Japan for 3 months now and I just noticed that I can get saver awards for 72.6K miles each way. I'm am tempted to book these awards and cancel my P+ ticket for FFC so that I will be in J for sure for only 145.2K miles, which seems like a great deal on a $9K ticket.

Is IN ever greater than I? If not, then there is really no elite advantage on award travel saver inventory, correct?

Thanks!

jsloan

Try calling. Not all possible flight combinations may be returned by the multi-city search. However, this is the one case where agents may be able to book something that doesn’t appear on the website.

Yes, IN is frequently greater than I. It’s become common since last year — PNx PZ0 INx I0.

zombietooth

Thanks so much for the quick answer. I am going to change my search pattern for international J seats to look for IN inventory when PZ=0. It certainly wouldn't hurt me to use up some of my miles to get a guaranteed a J seat. The only thing I lose is the business tax deduction. But a guaranteed seat is worth piece of mind.

boat stuck

How long does it take for newly opened OZ award inventory sync to UA's booking system?

I had a reservation made with UA miles for 2 pax on OZ on ICN-LAX. At the time, that was all the award space on ICN-LAX.

Today, I saw a 1 extra award seat open up on that ICN-LAX flight. What I should have done is just to book that seat on a separate reservation. Instead, I foolishly cancelled my existing ICN-LAX in hopes of getting all 3 seats on the same reservation.*

However, even after I cancelled my existing ICN-LAX booking, UA only shows 1 award seat on that ICN-LAX flight. The OZ website now shows 3 award seats as available (where as the OZ website only showed 1 before).

How long will it take for the UA booking system to figure out that there's now 3 award seats on that ICN-LAX flight?


* - In my defense, I've done this before with UA and NH award bookings, and availability always updated instantly.

JayhawkCO

Unfortunately, there is a decent likelihood that those seats don't go back into inventory. It's not a guarantee.

boat stuck

Update - UA saw the updated inventory (all 3 seats) in about an hour. Re-booked with all 3 passengers on the same PNR.

It was a really nerve-wrecking hour though!

Not doing this again! I'll just book an additional, separate reservation next time.

O62

That's a great data point! Thank you for sharing. One never knows whether or not partner award seats will magically appear.

WineCountryUA

Very true for a variety of reasons

Some carriers may limit available to X seats and if sold mat release another X seats or less but if someone cancels, not all of those seats will be release especially if that leads to exceeding the magic X.

Also airlines are continuously re-evaluating their future $ sales and if someone cancel, the airlines may decide to not re-release those seats and go for a $ sale instead.

While seats may return to award inventory, one should never count on that happening.. Because it does not always happen. Same for discount cash seat inventory.

tstauck

Question on an a flight booked with miles in economy. EWR - LAX with PE, can I pay up to PE? Right now it shows I can't select those seats (hopefully it would allow me to and then prompt the price). When checking for upgrades, I receive "no upgrade available" for both money or miles.

Flight is in end of June and currently very few seats selected on the flight.

TIA!

JayhawkCO

You should have the ability to with cash. I bought up an XN segment to Z on an itinerary I have.
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WineCountryUA

The OP was asking about PremPlus, not business / first. But for either, while award ticket cash upgrades are offered at times, and can be done, neither is not a guarantee to be offered.