venomtrilogy

Why does United have flights out of ORD T2 but no agents in that terminal before security? To make a long dumb story short, it really screwed me this morning on a reservation glitch, especially because there was apparently only one agent available to Premier Gold (over in T1) who could handle it. And she had her hands full.

StuckinITH

I think it has to do with United going to give that Terminal to Delta but I have no clue when that will happen and if United will construct a new Terminal or increase the size of Terminal 1. And if you terminate your trip in ORD, you have to go to Terminal 1 to grab your checked luggage. I agree with you that UA should have agents in Terminal 2 before security until the last day that they don't have flights from there. On every one of my boarding passes when I go from ORD to my city they mention the fact that they don't have agents in Terminal 2 and that if you have luggage to check you have to go to Terminal 1.

threeoh

United is not giving T2 to Delta. Delta is moving to Terminal 5. Terminal 2 is being torn down and replaced with a new terminal that will handle int'l arrivals and be shared by UA/AA.

StuckinITH

Thank you! Now, I finally know why it has been a pain for many months. Do you know how many more years it will be like this?

threeoh

Slated for completion in 2028:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Ha...Airport#Future

http://www.ord21.com/

The first step is to add two additional satellite terminals (like Concourse C) and expand T5 with more gates. With that capacity up and running (2021 at the earliest), T2 can be torn down and replaced. It's going to be a long slog.

StuckinITH

Makes sense. By then I will be retired and never have to fly through ORD again......

ttervooren

Requesting advice on a one-way award flight (FLR to ONT) I am working on for my husbands 80th birthday next October.
I have no status with United. But I have 800,000 UR points and will be happy with a Business Everyday award.
I've spent a lot of hours wrestling the United Award website and hope you can help me figure out how to make it produce a result I'd like.
I would like to fly on an aircraft equipped with the new Polaris seat.
So here are the questions:
--From what I have read, to be on a true Polaris flight, onlyUA 59 from FRA to SFO will work. Is this really true? The only flight equipped with the new Polaris seat from Europe to the US is UA 59? Are there others? Will there be others next October...should I wait until later to book?
--The flight UA59 from FRA to SFO (1:55pm-4:30pm) is available and the connection to ONT on UA5425 is available. And I can get a non-stop from FLR to FRA Economy seat early in the morning at 6:40 arriving FRA at 8:15am, if it pairs with an economy flight 454 on LH to FRA, but cannot get it to pair with UA59 and UA5425. Is there a trick to make that happen? I'm ok with the economy flight to FRA and the long layover in FRA.
--Lufthansa is the only airline that flies direct FLR to FRA. I thought about just buying LH309 if there was a way to attach it to my award tickets in case there are flight delays that day, but the economy ticket on United is $1291. On Lufthansa it's $205. Why the really big difference? I doubt there is any way to attach an LH ticket to a United award. Should I call United about the price difference or is this normal?
I would appreciate your thoughts.

WineCountryUA

At the moment from SFO, it is the only flight with true Polaris seats.
In a year, there will be more Polaris aircraft but hard to predict which routes
If you are booking EveryDay awards, they will have better availability than Saver awards but as non-elites, you are not guaranteed availability. But should be good until early 2019, maybe longer.
.That, unfortunately, is an issue with the new awards system, you can try calling but the phone agent is likely to see the same. But worth a try to call.
Another trick is to book all but the LH flight and then call immediately to see if an agent can add the LH flight. You have 24 hours after booking the UA flights to cancel at no costs if the agent is unable. to add the LH flight.
There is no way to attach the LH paid flight to a UA award ticket.
You might consider flying the night before and staying overnight at the Sheraton at FRA.

As for the price, LH will not allow UA to sell the discount fare for European only flights. UA can only do it in conjunction with long flights, such as a TATL ticket.

threeoh

I would at least consider a paid ticket using the UR travel portal. If you have the CSR you get 1.5 cents per UR point for travel booked on their site. Next October in Business I see one-way fares for $4,100 and r/t fares for $3,700, so that's 270k UR points one-way and 250k r/t compared to 155k one way (+ $60 cash) for an Everyday Business Award.

Especially if you haven't booked your other TATL leg yet, it is cheaper to book with UR points through the portal for a non-award round-trip ticket (effectively 125k UR points per direction instead of 155k + $60). And you'll basically almost make Silver, if that's worth anything to you. If this is a one-way trip or you've already booked your other leg, then it will be more expensive to use the portal but may be worth it if you can get the flights you want.

The advantage of a paid ticket (other than it may be cheaper and you earn miles) is that you may be able to piece together different segments more easily, either online or over the phone. They took away the ability to do that with award tickets. The disadvantage is it may have higher change fees.

Necho2

Is it a pipe dream to try to get ORD-MSY flights without BE for under $350 each in early spring? I know Feb-Mar is Mardi Gras season but was still shocked to see tickets so close to $500. AA occasionally has them down to $245 (might be for BE)- is it worth waiting for a price drop? Hoping for a long weekend if possible...

EmailKid

Well, with just a long weekend Megabus option would really eat into your time, but I've seen IAH-ORD fares prices under $100 r/t.

When I've lived in Texas, I've done a positioning run a time or three Mind you only within Texas, so more like four - five hours. Very tolerable, at least on weekdays.

There's a redeye option as well, but that is where even I draw the line

IIRC there's a nonstop from Dallas as well, but I'm guessing that would take even longer. Not sure what options are arriving from the east.

ttervooren

WineCountryUA--Thank you for thoughtful answers to each of my questions! I have applied for the United Explorer card, so that may help make sure I can get on the UA59, but I'll have to think about how go get to FRA. Thanks for telling me about the Sheraton FRA at the airport. That looks like an ok option. I have 90,000 SPG points, but as luck would have it, no award rooms are available Oct 1. I do have one for Sept 30 booked in case I go that way. The best the United agent could do was to book two tickets each for 180K and $162.03 each (FLR to FRA for 25K and $44 and then FRA to ONT for 155K and $118.03.) Long lay overs, but a possibility.

Threeoh--a great idea to look at the UR site for the ticket. A combo with UA59 is there for 276,370 points each. The 10:05 non-stop flight to FRA is better than the flights on the United award site. It would cost an additional 96,370 points each which is not great, but I don't have to spend the $162.03 either. So another option.

So now another question. I've been searching when to buy wondering if the cost on the UR site may go down in a few months. A couple sites say 3-6 months before the flight...so April to July. I know Oct 1 is still in the prime time. What do you think? Is there often a sale on business class from Europe to the US in the Spring or Summer?

threeoh

Generally, one-way TATL fares are not going to go down and don't go "on sale". They will go up as the flight fills up, but probably not till ~3 months before. UA (and other airlines) don't generally offer the deepest discounts on one-way fares across either ocean.

If you were looking for discounted round-trip tickets, then you could try to get a better price by timing your purchase, when the 3-6 month advice might be valid.

Why are you trying to book a one-way? Maybe we could give you advice if we knew the reason. Even if you already have your flight there or back booked, it might be cheaper to cancel that ticket and book a round-trip from scratch. Currently, for the dates you're looking at, the full round-trip ticket (there and back) is cheaper than a single one-way.

I wouldn't book two one-ways unless this is a truly one-way journey (you are moving permanently from FLR to ONT), your trip is longer than one year, or you plan to take a boat the other direction. There are very few reasons, from a cost perspective, for a leisure traveler booking 11 months in advance to book a one-way across the ocean. If you're not sure of one date but want to lock down the other, book a round-trip and then pay the change fee when you know more.

ttervooren

Thank you for the really good information.

With regard to why I want to book a one-way FLR-ONT award flight...I already have the outbound award flights on AA into FCO. I could cancel them for a fee...something like $175. And am ok doing that.

Since we will finish our vacation in Florence, I wanted to fly from there rather than FCO as we are not as spry as we once were and I'm thinking we'll be a wee bit tired after 4.5 weeks of traveling and entertaining family in Italy. We will be celebrating his 80th birthday there.

I tried to use the RT feature for ONT-FCO on the Ultimate Rewards travel site but it will not allow me to have the UA59 on the return. There are lots of options on the outbound, but the return is limited to just 2 flights. Not sure why as looking at one-way gives a lot of options for both the outbound and the return. Wish they would let you choose your flights rather than combining the Outbound and Return together. I could not find a way to separate them. I also tried the Multi-Destination but could not make it work their either. All that being said, I am new at this UR site so it could just be that I don't know how to operate it very well. Embarrassed to say I've spent 5 hours on it today. Yikes, was it really 5 hours! Need to go walk the dog.

CrazyFoool

Does united ever promote similar "sales" like DELTA has every year where roundtrip flights only cost 98k points for business class?