fumje

I have not flown CLL-IAH but have flown a handful of other short flights to/from outstations. What are you wondering about the wait? My typical experience is minimizing my time at the airport and then sitting in a chair near a window until it's time to get on the plane.

jsloan

If you book ANA from IAH-NRT-SIN and back, you will get ANA's baggage allowance for that flight, even though it is using UA miles. ANA is the marketing carrier in that case. (The marketing carrier is determined by flight number -- UA7937 and NH173 are the same flight (UAH-NRT), but if you book as UA7937, United is the marketing carrier, and if you book as NH173, ANA is the marketing carrier. In Star Alliance and MileagePlus, award tickets are always booked under the "native" flight numbers, so that the operating carrier and the marketing carrier are the same. (In other words: your award tickets would use ANA flight numbers).

I flew into CLL as a substitute for AUS once; I dropped off a car at CLL parking and picked it up when I returned. No issues; small airports are usually easy to get in and out of. The only caveat is that frequency is limited, so if you miss a connection or have a weather cancellation, it may take a while before you can be re-accommodated.

houstontraveler242

I'm new to this board and only recently started travelling more for work and made Gold level last year. I currently have 2 questions/issues:

(1) I'm trying to book a family vacation from Houston to Bonaire in May on Saver Miles and there are no saver awards available. I've been watching for a few weeks and it appears that they open them up only a few weeks prior to departure so i was thinking maybe if i could see the number of those seats available that would help. After searching for awhile i see you can see XN class and number of seats in "expert mode" however those are all old articles and i cannot find this anymore - is there a way to see number of seats for award classes or upgrades anymore?

(2) I have a business trip to take in May from Houston to London. My company allows me to fly Premium Economy but as you know United does not currently offer PE (cant wait til they do!). So i can sit in Economy Plus but that's not very comfortable. Is there any chance that i will get upgraded with Gold Status? I saw that automatic upgrade on B and Y fare flights and i saw i can find one of those fares for the trip which comes up as Economy Flexible. If my company purchases this fare (Which is definitely more expensive) does that mean i automatically get upgraded?

Sorry if these questions have been answered before but i tried searching and was not finding help.
Thank you!

findark

Nothing has changed - turn on Expert Mode and look at XN inventory. You need to do a revenue (not award) search.

Instant Upgrades as an elite benefit only apply to CPU-eligible routes. You will not get upgraded as a Gold on IAH-LHR unless you support your upgrade with an instrument (like miles+cash). I recommend flying paid Premium Economy on a carrier that offers it, like LH. With a little deftness you can even plate this 016 for the PQDs.

jsloan

1 - Expert Mode is still available on the website. Account / Manage Profile / View All Flight Search Preferences -- you should see a checkbox for Expert Mode.

2 - There are no complimentary upgrades on transoceanic flights, even on Y/B fares. The "instant upgrades" only apply to complimentary upgrade routes: and, even then, they're capacity-limited, so you often end up on a waitlist anyway.

If you don't mind making a connection, you could fly Lufthansa in Premium Economy through Frankfurt to London. However, you will only earn Premier Qualifying Dollars (PQD) if you book through United, which can be tricky -- the website won't give you this option. You'd need to call them. UA status levels require both a number of Premier Qualifying Miles (PQM) as well as a corresponding number of PQDs. (The PQD requirement is waived for non-US residents; and it's waived for Silver, Gold, and Platinum with qualifying spending levels on a United-branded Chase credit card).

houstontraveler242

1 - Thank you so much for the instructions, got it turned on. Now of course everything shows 0 for X and XN. Is Gold considered Elite or Non-Elite? not sure which one i'm supposed to be looking for. How often do they open up additional fares? EVER? The standard award of $40k is killer, would love the saver award but not looking promising.

2 - Was trying not to fly Lufthansa as they dont fly direct and it adds quite a lot of time to the travel. I've flown ANZ before and they give you PQM which equates somehow to dollars spent on the ticket, the PQD i usually dont have an issue as i have a Mileage Explorer card.

jsloan

Happy to help. Gold is Elite. You'll want the XN award class. They can (and do) open award availability at any time. Basically, they watch to see how well sales are going on any given flight. If they're ahead of projections, they'll close down some of the cheaper buckets, including the X/XN Saver Award bucket. If they're behind projections, they'll open them up. A flight may go from XN0 to XN9 back to XN0 over a period of a day or two without anyone actually booking an award seat -- just based on total available (award and cash) inventory and updated projections.

PQM depends upon the distance traveled, not the fare paid. As long as your projected travel for the year is below 100K PQM, spending $25K on the MileagePlus Explorer card means that you can safely ignore PQD. If you think that you might pass 100K PQM, however, you should be aware that there's no credit card spending waiver for the PQD requirement for the 1K status level. If you were 1K, you would have the opportunity to use an upgrade certificate to upgrade the UA IAH-LHR flight to business class. (It still might not clear, though! People with flexible travel plans can often use these certificates, but people who need to travel on certain days -- e.g., for work -- often find them to be more hassle than they're worth).

And, yes, you're going to be spending longer in transit on Lufthansa (although, as a UA Gold member, you'll have lounge access on international trips, which is a nice perk). It's entirely up to you whether or not the increased comfort of PE is worth the extra time and distance flown.

Frugal Doctors

If I fly Eurowings as part of a United award booking, am I subject to their baggage policies and fees? It's an economy itinerary, but I can't tell what type of ticket that translates to on Eurowings' side (I've never seen one of the budget airlines on part of an award booking). They operate the first flight on a return trip back to the US. The rest are United.

Kacee

Assuming that this is a round-trip ticket originating in the U.S., with the first segment operated by UA, the rules require that UA's baggage allowance be applied to the return as well. This does not mean that an uninformed EW agent might not give you a hard time at check-in in Germany.

WineCountryUA

But a key difference is EW will not recongize any elite benefits. You will get the standard UA economy baggage allowance and no additional elite benefits. Also EW carry-on rules are more restrictive.

Frugal Doctors

It's a multi-city booking, if that matters at all. USA --> Europe, then the intra-Europe excursionist perk, then Europe --> USA.

vtbobf

Is there a thread somewhere about the change to the 'roundtrip' price? It doesn't make a ton of sense to me.. is there an actual change or is it just display?

mahasamatman

United showing fares roundtrip on united.com

KmKx151

Quick PQD question!

I like the many Star Alliance carriers that are based in Asia.

I was looking at UA's EVA air mileage accrual chart and did not see anything about how many PQDs you earn on flights you don't purchase through UA.

For example, per American Airlines Qantas partner chart, I would get 1.5x elite qualifying miles and 20% of the miles flown would be accrued as EQDs (elite qualifying dollars) if I booked at T class PE ticket.

Does this mean that I would not be able to earn any PQDs if I were only flying on Star Alliance partners? I live in an AA hub so I would rarely ever fly UA metal but as mentioned, I really do like the *A Asian carriers...

WineCountryUA

No UA ticket, $0 PQDs if a partner flight.

Yes, that is correct.

The only other option is getting a Chase UA MP credit card (and spend $25,000) to get a PQD waiver up to Plat status. Or qualify as a non-USA resident