FlyerGoldII

Wanted an economy award ticket for my wife between YOW and OKC - with Star Alliance - on specific dates around the last weekend in May.

That meant UA and AC. AC does not fly to OKC - so no awards with Aeroplan between any one of these 5 hubs - ORD, EWR, IAD, IAH, DEN - and OKC on the dates I was interested in.
Than I went to a fellow FTer who is a MP IK member. To my surprise, there was no basic award (ie 25,000 miles round trip in economy/coach class) that FTer with Premier Access) could find for me, that would be suitable for the dates I was interested in.

Why so few awards on my preferred dates - between any one of the 5 UA hubs and OKC on the dates I was interested in, and between YOW and one of the 3 UA hubs (that UA flies) - ie ORD, EWR, IAD.

garkster

Last weekend in May has the Memorial Day holiday in the US - not as high travel as some other holidays, but 3-day weekends are always popular, so not surprising that UA would be holding back award travel until closer in when they see actual bookings. Availability can, and does, change every day, so keep checking. Given its proximity, my guess is that routing via IAH would be your best bet, but you never know.

chermorg

Is there any reason you're not just flying UA metal the whole way? I understand you may be looking to book through Aeroplan, but you may have better availability if you look through UA (apologies if I misinterpreted your OP).

I am not fully certain, but I believe that Premier status only gives you some extra award availability, and having Premier status and a Chase co-brand card gets you the full availability of award seats. On that note, I see saver awards on UA metal on Tuesday and Wednesday (22/23 May) on the outbound, but they are only due to being Premier+Chase Cardholder. There are even a spattering of AC operated first segments (allowing you to avoid the almost certain ERJ45 between YOW-ORD/EWR on the first segment by routing through YYZ instead) if you're looking for that.

On the return, there are no saver awards available even with premier+cardholder for any day before 29 May (Tuesday) and even that one is extremely sub-optimal as it involves an overnight in ORD.

Given that you are looking at paying a very small amount of taxes anyway, is there any reason you don't just book a one way award (if saver is available on the date you want one way) and then either pay the other way or buy the award later if it becomes available? You say you spoke with someone who's a 1K - if they book and fund your award travel from that account, you will not pay the close-in fee (I am assuming you yourself have 0 status with UA) if you wait until 21 days before (or sooner) to book. I am not sure (you only say fellow FTer) if you actually know the person and they would do this or not, that is up to them and you. You as no status would have a $75 fee to book the award flight (in addition to miles+taxes) if you booked less than 21 days to the hour before departure.

If I were you, if your travel was on Tuesday or Wednesday on the outbound and you're okay with two separate tickets (i.e. two separate change/cancel fees if you run into issues) for the two directions, I'd probably snag one of those saver spots for the outbound now and either watch and hope saver opens or just pay for the return. But that's just me and my preference to have things set in stone rather than wait if at all possible (and if this trip is absolutely mandatory, I wouldn't be watching and waiting).

raehl311

Chances are if you have specific preferred dates, other people have those specific preferred dates, which means less availability.

Kacee

Because award availability - which has always been limited - has been reduced even further by UA in recent years.

And with all the credit card bonuses and churning, there are more miles than ever out there chasing an ever smaller number of award flights.

mahasamatman

Having both status and a credit card does not give you access to any additional inventory over having status alone.

narvik

No additional inventory, but possibly less miles then? There is the occasional blurb on united.com that mentions "exclusively available because of credit card membership..." or somesuch.
Never bothered to read exactly what it meant though.

Kacee

All Premiers, as well as Chase cardholders, have access to XN inventory (much better economy saver availability)

Plat and higher have access to IN inventory (occasionally better business saver availability).

There is no affect on the price of the award.

narvik

Yeah, but why even mention the "exclusive for credit card holders" thing then?
Ahh, United IT, we love you so.

Kacee

Maybe because that's not what it says?

NH_Clark

gotta love those marketing folks. 😉

narvik

Ah, okay, thanks for that.
So your description in post #8 in the way you used"as well as" is actually better than United's "and". "and" could mean both are required.
In that phrase a more accurate phraseology would be "and/or".
Or am I getting that wrong?

sbm12

It says both there because the member is both. I don't have the CC and I see a similar message highlighting only my status.



Access to XN is the same for either group.

Often1

1. It is a holiday weekend in the US. That is when many people burn miles.
2. The economy is on screech. That means people buy tickets.
3. Carriers, including UA, adjust demand with availability, not by dropping prices. Thus, they cut frequencies and downguage aircraft before they chop prices too far.
4. By tossing miles around the way both AC and UA do, they create vast balances of miles which are chasing the same number of seats. That creates inflation in the same way it does when there is too much cash in the system.

All of this and a bit of good or bad luck can make all of the difference.

rbAA

I would suggest you keep checking. I find things may open up if you are patient. Of course, that makes trip planning problematic, but that's the game. I needed to do an LAX-MCO next week and the only options were 2 stops going thru Aspen and ORD. Then, SNA-IAH-MCO opened up. Or, the 25k per for the direct and nonstops. At over $300 one way, I chose SNA.