jkumpire

I'm very close to having enough UA miles for a J fare to LHR, and I'd like to take my spouse along

Finding J class award seats is a real pain, especially for someone who does not live close to IAD, EWR, JFK, ORD, or even YYZ. But if I drive to the closest hub which for me is IAD I can find some. Does United make it fairly easy to purchase a J class seat (or any other class) when booking an awards ticket. Any tips or tricks that might help? Should I look very hard into *A partners to find something?

Thanks for your assistance here!

sbm12

If it is a simple itinerary like a non-stop on UA metal only then it should be relatively easy to do, though the price might not be so pleasant. Once connections and multiple airlines get involved the complexity and price typically increase significantly.

There is no way to book them "together" so much as you just book two seats on the same flight(s).

cyclogenesis

Yep.. You will be split PNRs. But if you are happy to pay (both in miles and $$, ie get an Award full price, not an award saver) you should have no issues.

We were on the way back from Aus, I was on Y Upgraded to J via a GPU and managed (very very lucky) to snag some award saver Polaris seats for the wife plus daughter..

RandomBaritone

As sbm12 points out, the key here is not to try and book two one-way awards together followed by two one-way paid J tickets together. One-way long-haul J tickets are often exorbitantly expensive. There is one (uncommon) exception though: if your destination is in the developing world, one-way partner J from the developing country back to your origin can sometimes be had for a great price.

Much better to open two separate browsers -- e.g., Chrome and Safari -- one searching for a single round-trip award ticket and one searching for a well-priced paid itinerary. Starting with award inventory makes the most sense, as it's usually more constrained.

When you find space on the same flights in both browsers, you'll know you're ready to strike! Of course you and your traveling companion will be on separate PNRs, but that's unavoidable.

username

Wouldn't it be cheaper if OP buys 2 Y tickets and use Co-Pay and Miles to upgrade both (assuming there is availability)?

jkumpire

Folks,

Please excuse me but I have obviously mistyped. It is a RT Award ticket, not a one-way Award. My apologies for the confusion.

RandomBaritone

We figured you were heading home afterward! But a lot of folks trying to do what you're doing notice that one-way awards are half the price of round-trip awards, and try to book them that way so they can stay on the same PNR. I just wanted to make sure you knew there was a potential downside.

jkumpire

Wow, I didn't even know how little I knew. Please keep the education going, I have much to learn. @:-)

txaggiemiles

It very well may be, but it isn't always. And many times it is close enough (within $100-200 or so) that it might be worth it to just pay for the ticket to (1) earn miles and (2) minimize chances of being down gauged for any reason and/or maintain being rerouted up front in case of IRROPS

This is something the OP may be interested in double checking, however.

Kacee

In addition to the challenges booking this, be aware the degree of difficulty if you need to make changes to the itinerary is very high.

Duke787

Echo everything said above.

Given your newness to this, I would strongly recommend calling in to make the booking even if there are fees involved (never understand when phone booking fees are waived or not waived) to ensure that the two itineraries match and of course verify the receipts within 24 hours to ensure the CSR didn't screw up when booking

aacharya

OP, if you live somewhere, the piece XXX to IAD should be free to tack on to any Saver J award - unless XXX to IAD is only available in Standard.

So not sure why you're not finding an award XXX-IAD-LHR with the IAD-LHR in J and XXX-IAD in Economy.

Unless some married segment or impractical route (like EWR-IAD-LHR).

DonnieZ

Beware of that nasty LHR departure tax on fares in classes higher than Y - adds about $90/ticket.