jsloan

1. Probably not; awards are priced from origin to destination. UA may decide to charge you whatever the going rate is for CDG-CMH.
2. PN is an upgrade class, not an award class. Did you mean IN, and you're Platinum or higher? Either way, yes, you likely need fresh I inventory on BRU-IAD to make this change.

serpens

Thank you for your knowledge sharing. Certainly I appreciate it.

It's of little importance, but I'm confused and trying to learn. I had an award flight AMS-ORD-xxx in Polaris AMS-ORD and a single cabin aircraft ORD-xxx. The equipment was changed for the ORD-xxx leg to an aircraft with a first class cabin. I asked FlyerTalk if I was eligible to get moved to the front of the plane for that second leg, and I thought it was you that said yes. (It took repeated calls to United, but I did get moved.)

What was different about my award flight compared to O62's award flight?

jsloan

I remember that. Since it happened, UA has gotten progressively stingier about this sort of thing.

That said: the first O62 is asking about involves a change of destination. The second flight, which seems like it might have been a closer analogue to your flight, (a) wasn't clear if there's actually award space available on the short-haul flight, and (b) involved a partner segment. The partner segment, in particular, is key -- UA, in most cases, will not reissue an award flight involving a partner segment unless that segment is still available in the booked class. There have been too many occasions when passengers lost their award flight because the other airline refused to honor the re-ticketed reservation. (More to the point -- UA's systems don't seem to be particularly good at getting those airlines the updated ticket information).

emcampbe

which case are you talking about.

in O62’s first case, they want to change destination from CLE to CMH. In the old days, it wouldn’t be an issue based on opening of additional inventory on one segment. For the past few years, award inventory is based on married segments, meaning that it isn’t about the last segment, but whether inventory is available on a CDG-CMH city paid with those segments. It might be, it might not, but availability in the final segment alone is not a determination of that - in fact, it could also be the other way around, where inventory doesn’t open on that single segment, but does on the overall O-D pair using those flights.

in the second case, O62’s travel begins on a partner carrier, and UA has no control over that space. On UAs own flights, they can leave you in the originally booked fare class and change just the second segment based on the upgraded cabin, if the right space is indeed available (which is still not determined, as O62 just commented on upgrade space, not award), but even if award space is available, UA needs to rebook the whole thing, including the partner segment they aren’t trying to change, and UA can not hold them in the space they sit in now on a partner. So if that availability isn’t there, they can not keep it. I suspect the I space on a TATL is much more a priority than the short last hop, so there is no reason one would want to risk losing that.

serpens

Thanks for the quick response. Apparently I got in just under the wire with my change; thanks for your encouragement at the time.
Rookie mistake. I missed the change of destination on the first question.

spacemanvt

Sorry for the rather basic question, as I want to be clear on this new policy, but I am looking at booking a one way flight using Mileageplus miles but haven't confirmed the date exactly.
If I booked two different one way flights using miles, I can cancel either of them up to the last minute without any fees or problems and the miles will go back into my account free?

is that correct?

Thanks in advance!

unitedwildcat

UA has a system in place to see if you book overlapping flights that would be impossible for you to take. Not sure if that’s your situation but something to watch for, since they will cancel one of them if that’s the case

WineCountryUA

No redeposit fees but as mentioned booking multiple flights with the intent of only flying is a T&Cs violation. If the OW flight dates are multiple days apart, you will probably will not get flagged.

spacemanvt

I plan to book the same one way flight but about a 5 days apart and then cancel the one I dont need.
I will probably have a finalized date more than a month out though. That should be ok right?

WineCountryUA

In the sense you will not get caught, probably yes.

It is still a T&C violation and will remove potential award inventory from others. But you will not be the first to do this. and likely increased with dropping of fees

spacemanvt

Thanks for the info, I plan to cancel the unneeded flight in the next few days anyways. Just trying to firm up my plans.
Do all the taxes and fees on the flights get refunded as well? Regardless of when you cancel it?

cfischer

full refund

spacemanvt

thank you!

gpen1827

Now that UA recently devalued TATL & TPAC redemptions, will additional miles be required upon date change of an existing (Pre-June 2023) partner(BR) reservation? Didn't see any recent datapoints on this but wanted to know if anyone's done this recently, thanks.

cfischer

voluntary changes will re-price. Involuntary changes will get an 'even exchange'