Totoro

The past few years, I've booked my TPAC premium cabin trips mostly on BR/CX/NH/JL. I suppose someone in Chicago decided to retain me as a customer and offered me bonus miles for spend on UA.

Hence, I'm contemplating booking TPAC P-fare on 016 ticket stock with outbound on UA and inbound on NH. Other than the risk of UA booking me into Y during IRROPs, does anyone see a compelling reason to not jump on a discounted price? With the customer service I've come to expect from NH, I have a difficult time seeing NH re-booking me into Y even with a P-fare.

This would be my first flight in the new Polaris seats (flight is actually on 777-300ER), so I do feel curious to try it out. Thanks in advance for your advice!

Kacee

Not sure why you think that would be a risk. A TPAC P fare is a business class fare.

WineCountryUA

Are you seeking UA status? Do you need PQDs?

Totoro

Unfortunately, the search function doesn't accept "P fare" as a search term, but I recall reading other flyers' experiences with UA treating P fares as an economy fare with an upgrade. I am certainly open to the possibility that I recall incorrectly.

I would definitely feel happier if P fares are true business fares that allow re-accommodation in business if it were necessary to move to another carrier.

I no longer actively seek PQM/PQD but rather am working on the last stretch to million miler status. I've made little progress the past few years as the competition entices me with better seats and service. In this particular instance, I had the option to book UA or NH for the same price, and I chose NH for the better experience despite losing out on BIS million miler miles.

ryman554

The search function certainly does work with P. Just make sure to select business class cabin.

jsloan

Increasingly rarely, that can be an issue (for any fare class, not just P) with short-haul first/business class tickets -- agents are getting much better at treating them correctly, but there's still an occasional mixup. On longhaul flights, it's never been an issue, as they're all true business class fares.

The only reason that you would be re-accommodated in Y during IRROPS is if J is full and you elect not to wait for another flight with available J seats.

Pretty sure OP meant the FlyerTalk search function. It, too, works for "P fare", but the query has to be in quotation marks. If you search for P fare, without the quotation marks, it'll omit the P because it's "too short."

UA_Flyer

It should be ok purchasing P on 016 stocks.

Totoro

I will purchase directly off united.com, so I don't have to worry about the bulk fare issue. After I reach million miler, these concerns will all fade away so that I can fly based on schedule and price!

Thanks to all for the reassurance. Definitely very nice to see several familiar FTers replying!

Yes, I referred to the FT search function. I did forget to put quotation marks around "P fare," so the search engine rejected my query.

Kacee

google is much more user friendly (and effective) than the FT search engine.

EmailKid

To drill down a little further, /advanced_search where you can select FT.com as the only domain to search.

Works like a charm for me. FT search, not so much.

Didn't see it in this thread, but FT search function has on occasion offered Google search right from the toolbar.

Sykes

You can also just add site:flyertalk.com to the search query to avoid the extra click.

fumje

I just type 'flyertalk' at the beginning or end of the query term, and that usually is good enough.