Joe54

I had booked three RT (BDL>OGG) award tickets several months back. The outbound flight is BDL>DEN, DEN>OGG; coming back, the routing was OGG>LAX>IAD>BDL. For the outbound segments (BDL>DEN,DEN>OGG) I had purchased a total of six economy plus upgrades, three for each segment.

This past weekend I decided to extend our stay in Maui and fly back a few days later than initially planned. I logged on to the United site and changed the return leg/segments only and paid the $125 per ticket change fee (so, $375 total). We are now going OGG>ORD>BOS. I did not modify or change the outbound segments at all. I received the confirmation email shortly thereafter, and checked via united.com and the app and all appears to be in order with our proper seat assignments showing. Two days later, I noticed that the change fees had charged to my credit card, however I also noticed a total of six refunds for the economy plus upgrades I had purchased a while back. I'm assuming that the change I made to the return flight somehow triggered this, despite the fact that I didn't modify the flights going from BDL>OGG. I logged on to United and verified that I am still showing assigned to the original economy plus seats, also called the 800# twice and while the representative couldn't seem to explain the refunds they did state that we were still assigned the original economy plus seats.

Not sure if anyone has run into this before or if I should be concerned, worried that I will go to check in for our flight in a couple days and we will not have seats (the flights are 98% full). Thanks for any assistance!

SFOrunner

I'm looking for a thread (or some FT insight) on how maximize my miles for premium cabin travel from SFO to Europe, ideally AMS. I have only ever used miles for domestic travel, so there wasn't much to think about, especially because there weren't any code shares.

I flew KE First earlier this year and loved it, and I'd like to figure out how to get onto LH First using Saver awards...if that means going SFO-MUC-AMS. (I'm not terribly picky about the routing right now.) Am I correct in my understanding that LH does not release first class award inventory to UA until close to departure?

Also, I would be okay doing LH or UA Business in one direction, and LH First in the other. I'm not terribly familiar with this route, but we'd like to go in the Summer of 2019.

Am I correct in thinking that LH F awards can be had for 80,000 miles? Suppose you had 280-300k MileagePlus miles and you were to book me and my GF (2 pax) a trip like the one described above...how would you go about it?

Thanks!

EmailKid

Sadly they have not been that low in YEARS. Probably double that for LH Int'l FC.

jsloan

No. Partner First to Europe is 110K each way per passenger.

Kacee

LH F for the return is definitely the better call, as you'll get the fantastic LH F experience at FRA or MUC, plus a daytime flight.

SFO to Europe in saver premium cabin is probably the toughest UA redemption there is. You need to be patient and check regularly. LH F is particularly difficult because traditionally it only opens within 14 days of departure. As a 1K, you have the ability to make free changes, which allows you to book what's available, then keep looking for something better.

And don't limit yourself to LH or UA. OS has a fantastic product, SK is very good, and LX and LO are also worth considering. Your choices will be driven first of all by availability.

There is a ton of information available here on FT about how to find premium cabin award space. If you don't have transferable currencies (Chase, AMEX, SPG, Citi) you might want to look into acquiring some of those, as they greatly broaden your options. Most of my redemptions these days have come using those, rather than UA miles.

Oh, and if you liked KE F, you'll probably want to try SQ F

SFOrunner

Awesome, thank you! Yeah, I think we're in a unique spot with award miles. I'm flying exclusively on UA metal, and all of my travel is booked using my CSR. My KE flight use booked using Chase UR points from their 100,000 point bonus. Other two things I'm considering are grabbing the UA MP Explorer card and negotiating for at 70K bonus, and / or getting the Amex Plat for the 60,000 points there...

I'll check out those other carriers.

Thanks!

Kacee

When you start looking for TATL space, you may find the UA miles difficult to use.

Amex Plat is great, but many of the benes dupe those of CSR. Another card to consider is the SPG Amex before it goes away. SPG points can be converted to LH miles.

WineCountryUA

You can move yourself and one companion at 24 hours before departure to E+ but it will require a call unless you split the other companion off the common PNR. If you want to stay on a common PNR and pay for the second companion you will need to call, it will not work online.

mikethe1

Hi,

I'm Gold status, and for L fare 7,400 PQM flight I got 2,600 base award + 1,600 bonus award.
It's seems to me little bit low + this is pretty much the same I got for the same flight I took before I had the status.
Where is the X8 accrual they talking about for Gold status?

Thanks,

WineCountryUA

RDMs, award miles are based off of the PQDs, not the flight miles -- changed in 2014
As a guess, assuming this was a UA operated flight or on 016 ticket stock, it appears your PQD was about $520
So 5*PQD was base miles and UA Gold bonus 3*PDQs or a total of 8*PQDs for gold

JVPhoto

I'm assuming my CPH-TXL flight that I booked from SAS which is on an Air Nostrum (looks like something involved with Iberia) CRK isn't going to get me any UA miles, right? Not that it's a huge amount but it looks like I'm getting close to re-qualify for 1K and it's coming down to about 4500 PQMs so trying to dial in my exact numbers for upcoming flights.

mikethe1

Got it thanks,

WineCountryUA

Air Nostrum is an OW affialate, so no UA PQMs or other earnings

kvota

Dear United gurus,

I am deciding on where to proceed with the Star Alliance programs. I am gold on Turkish, FT on Lufthansa (and used to be senator before). I have been upgraded for a year to United gold via a corporate promotion. I am based in the US in the East shores and most of my travels are either international long-haul over Atlantic or domestic vacation-type to Florida, Caribbeans or across the US.

I have an upcoming flight IAD-FRA-DXB and back in business with a combination of LH, United and Swiss. No flights done year this year, so thinking about where to put it. United reps on the phone had a hard time calculating the miles, giving me from 21K to 23K for it. In any case, that will mean that I would need to do another trip like that plus something else for money to keep the gold. United attracts me because of the joint programs with Marriott, which hopefully will stay. What would you advise me to do - how's the United program? Or are still using other, smaller airlines a deal if you can get full mileage on them?

WineCountryUA

This is likely not a simple question -- "how the UA program" really depends on what you are looking for, what do you value? There are many pluses and minuses and it depends on what you are looking for.
What is your total mileage earning travel? Are you looking to commit to a single program or do you wish to continue to have multiple programs?
Flying in business has many benefits which replaces many elite benefits.
Which Frequent Flyer Program to Join? Help Is Here! is a good thread to help explore making this choice.

For your IAD-FRA-DXB trip, it is just under 7,100 flight miles one way and with at least 200% PQM earnings, you should get close to 28K PQMs. Note the agents may have been talking about RDMs, award miles. You need to be clear when asking which you are asking about -- award miles or status/elite miles.

So you will be short of renewing your UA Gold status, You will also need to have 4 UA operated flights and a spend on UA operated flights or UA issued tickets of $6K (your IAD-FRA-DXB trip may cover that if ticketted on UA 016 ticket stock).