vnfilm1

It is urgent, can someone please help .

I book an award ticket business class with United using miles ( SFO ==> SIN==> PNH ==>BKK. There is 2 stops on my flight itinerary and I will fly with United Air, Singapore Air and Thai Airways .

Currently, there is 2 award ticket is available with 1 stop ( SFO ==> NRT ==> BKK) . These flights operate either by ANA and Thai Airways or ANA and JAL .

I still have a few days before my departure, Which of the following is best option to do .

Option 1 : Book 2 new award tickets with miles already in my account . Wait until receiving confirmation number from United, then cancel the original reservation. Unsure if I still have time to cancel without paying any penalty for redeposit miles to my account.

Option 2: Cancel the original reservation, have the miles redeposit to my United account, then use them to book a new reservation . I am not sure if there is any deposit fee or cancellation fee requires or not . And if I still have time to cancel without any penalty . Also, if thing does not work out well, I may loose my 2 original award tickets which is booked a few months ago .

In addition, does anyone know how long it takes United agent to get a confirmation of an award ticket with ANA and Thai airways if United agent do a booking for me .

If option 1 is best, at least I do not have to worry about missing one of my connection flight at PNH airport and my travel time is much shorter compared with the original booking.

In addition, Not sure which one is better ( ANA vs JAL ) at NRT airport and whether access to the lounge at NRT with either airline requires passenger must have the connection flight in the same day and fly on the JAL / ANA aircraft.

Please advise and thank you

WineCountryUA

Option 1 is best, if new booking fails, you still have the original. A risk is UA might see Option 1 as a duplicate but UA usually give you a little time to cancel 1 routing first.
Confirmation iof an award ticket can take 24 hours and very rarely 48.

You can cancel an award booking up till nearly departure. Best to do it no later then an hour or 2.

jsloan

United does not offer award tickets on JAL. The flight from NRT to BKK would be on Air Japan, which is an ANA subsidiary. The flight will be indistinguishable from ANA service. Take whichever layover is more sensible.

as219

A few months ago I booked a TK award itinerary with all segments in Biz (I class) except for one, which was not available at the time. Today, I see that this segment is available at the saver/I level. So I call UA to get this last segment. They told me no dice; the only way I can get this segment is if they reprice the entire itinerary, but since there is no longer saver availability for the overwater flight, they can’t do it.

Is this right? I thought that if I have a biz award itinerary but with one segment not in biz, that they can just swap that one out. Am I wrong?

WineCountryUA

Yes because it is a partner flight. If all UA may be doable, but since it requires a new ticket and the partner, may, many times does, refuse the change on the segments without present award inventory. This is not a new issue and trying to force it online will likely invalidate the ticket.

Move the query to a thread with multiple cases of travelers forcing this and them realizing they had an invalid ticket.

zitsky

Edit:

Booked with miles. I have a flight LIS-EWR-RDU. I want to get an earlier flight JFK-RDU that is now available. But my LIS-EWR in Premium Economy is no longer available. So I can’t use the change tool. Do I need an agent?

periperi

Who is operating JFK-RDU?

zitsky

United Airlines.

Kmxu

Please check your reservation carefully. UA only operates EWR-RDU, not JFK-RDU.

zitsky

I corrected my post. EWR. I’ll try chat with an agent.

Edit: Agent says LIS-EWR-RDU is a married segment and no changes can be made. I’ve never heard of this before. I’m not a frequent flyer.

abhilife2001

If there is a schedule change, does UA not restrict rebookings to within 1 week of the prior booking date? I recall being told that when I was rebooking after a schedule change.

jsloan

The agent is correct: you can't do what you're trying to do absent a schedule change or something else that would throw the regular rules out the window. You may be able to switch to the earlier flight upon arrival at EWR -- speak to a United agent at the desk past the luggage carousels before you drop off your checked baggage, if any, to continue to RDU. (You'll need to pick it up at EWR to go through Customs).

Airline tickets, including United MileagePlus awards, are sold on an origin to destination basis, so any voluntary changes that you make require fresh availability from origin to destination. You can't just swap out one leg and expect the price to be the same.

+/- 1 day is probably more common unless you have a very good story. UA agents aren't idiots. The strategy that mahasamatman meant was to go ahead and book long / inconvenient connections, an extra stop, etc. on the day you want to travel if you're booking many months out and the convenient options are more expensive, because a schedule change is likely and then you can swap to the preferred routing at no charge.

zitsky

I very much appreciate your reply. I said nothing about same price. I did not realize that an award flight could never be changed.

Do you think we could ask at LIS or just EWR before we recheck bags?

Changing the flight would mean not using the secret Premium Plus lounge with the Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon champagne. I like staying at the airport. My husband likes to get in and out.

jsloan

Well, it can be changed, but there has to be availability on the entire flight itinerary that you want, and that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment. That can change, so it's worth checking again. But when I say "the same price," I mean that you may find that you have to pay 3x as many miles just to change the 2-hour leg to RDU. I was assuming you wouldn't want to do that.

You can certainly ask; your odds might be better at EWR.

mahasamatman

But always book something you're willing to fly in case it doesn't happen.