hiyo

Mrs hiyo and I have saver awards in Business from San Diego to Palau RT. The routing was SAN-LAX UA LAX-ICN-ROR OZ. I got a call from UA, Asiana canceled ICN-ROR so the agent was ready to help with a rebook. I said I'd look into it and call when I was ready.
I've booked hotels and a liveaboard dive boat on the strength of the awards through ICN with lie-flat beds. There isn't any saver availability SAN-ROR for dates that work now that I've committed with deposits.
There is standard award availability on all United metal through both HKG and PVG. Do I have action on standard awards without paying the additional miles, given the circumstances?

jsloan

Yes, absolutely. UA can and will open inventory on their own flights to account for a partner cancellation. If the first agent you call refuses, politely decline and try again. It shouldn't take many tries, provided you're asking for something reasonable (e.g., not SAN-EWR-SFO-HKG-ORD-HNL-GUM )

WineCountryUA

When a partner cancels a route / flight UA will do it best to re-accommodate you on UA flights. UA can not force partners to open award space.

So you will need to request UA to open up saver space to ROR -- but this will not be a lie-flat routing thru Guam .

Kacee

Theoretically, UA will open saver space on its own metal for you. Finding an agent who will do this for you may be quite a challenge however. The rebooking specialist who called you could have done it quite easily. Unfortunately there is no way to call him back.

findark

Yes, you should be entitled to get rebooked on UA metal in positive space (i.e. as long as there is availability in any fare class) in your originally ticketed class of service. You should HUCA if an agent won't do that for you.

They can't force award space on partners, but you can connect to currently available awards (not sure off the top of my head what your HKG/PVG-ROR route is).

LordTentacle

UA will generally force open space on their own metal
UA flight from GUM is on a 737 (iirc) with domestic style F seats
UA Flys SFO->HNL->GUM on 777 with good seats so you can do most of the trip still in some comfort

hiyo

Thanks, that was my next question.

Kacee

When you call UA, you may get an agent who acts offended you would even suggest that UA open business class saver space for you due to a partner cancellation. Thank that agent and hang up. Repeat until you get one who will do it.

JayhawkCO

Just a thought, but can you keep your current flights up to ICN and then fly ICN-MNL-ROR?

Chris

BBSHOPSINGER

My question is why didn't you let them help you with the rebooking when they called? I'm sure they were ready to give you options.

DoTheBartMan

The MNL-ROR UA flight operates twice a week (Tu, F). May not fit the OP's schedule. And would require OZ award space for ICN-MNL.

hiyo

In retrospect I wish I had, but the call was a bit of a blindside and I wanted to explore options on my own before committing to a new itinerary.

Kacee

Yeah that's perfectly understandable. It's actually better to miss the call because then they keep calling back.

hiyo

I called on this and first try got a knowledgeable agent in Houston. Now we have SAN-SFO-HKG-GUM-ROR with SFO-HKG in Polaris and ROR-GUM-NRT-SFO-SAN with NRT-SFO in Polaris. Our domestic segments were in economy and now in first. So we are okay with the outcome especially with Saver pricing.

AZjohns

I totally understand that and would have done the same.

Just recently had a business saver award on international AC flights which canceled one of the flights. As a good FT student, researched all UA metal options before calling to change flights.

Of course, first agent I talked to said that I needed to call AC and have them open up inventory on their metal even though I booked with UA miles on the UA web site. I asked her how long she has been with UA and the answer was "a few months".

Said I need to call back, hung up, and called again. This time got an agent who knew his stuff and booked me on UA metal which route I specifically requested after doing my homework. And yes, there was no saver business award open for these flights but he booked me for no additional miles or $ (as explained from other posters).

Suggest you look at flights at UA metal LAX/SFO to KIX/NRT and then on to ROR.

PS: You are going to love the diving there!!

Never mind, just saw your post after I finished mine. Have a great time