Fiverowleys

Hello everyone
I'm not sure if this is the the right place to ask but here is my situation...My best friend has put me on her flight benefits this year. I have to fly United...I have no choice. But I am just thankful I will have the opportunity to see family in Europe. She told me that flights are really packed during the summer and United is notorious for over selling seats. My question is...which airport is best to non rev out of? Ie. San fran, Newark etc to Europe. I am very flexible as I don't work during the summer so I can leave at anytime. Thanks!

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Welcome to flyertalk Fiverowleys.

It sounds like you are on a "buddy pass" for United. You will probably get a better response on the United forum so I will ask the moderators to move it ( you can also alert the moderators by clicking on the red button at the bottom left part of the screen). If you search for " buddy pass " you should also get a lot of information.

Regards

TBS

StartinSanDiego

Moderator Note: Please follow the thread as it moves to the UA forum.

EWR764

Italy is a bad place for nonrevving, especially in the summer. Best advice I can offer is to book a confirmed ticket to a place like FRA, LHR, CDG, etc. with multiple flights on UA metal and try your luck from there. You need to have lots of flexibility.

sinoflyer

June and August are both summer, but there's a big difference in their nonrev opportunities. The chances of getting on any transatlantic flight with BP9C during the 2nd and 3rd weeks of June are somewhere between 0% and 0.1%. By contrast, in August, the business class cabins will be very empty even after the BP8s have cleared. Ask your sponsor friend to check flight loads for you on the UA intranet. For many other reasons than protected information, FT is not the right/helpful/friendly place for that discussion.

HNLbasedFlyer

Your friend should know better than most people on this forum.

Regardless, if it was me - I'd get to Newark on the slowest travel days of the week (midweek) and take any flight with an open seat anywhere to Europe - then buy a cheap ticket once you get to Europe to Italy.

SPLITTERZ

As others have stated, please consult your sponsor. They will have the best information for you and can teach you the rules/guidelines of nonrev travel.

Continited

I’m an airline employee, but not for United... here would be my tips:

-if your benefits allow you to get into first class, find a flight with a first class cabin (if United still has those going to Europe...)
-fly midweek... Tuesdays and Wednesdays
-if you don’t mind economy, look for “business” routes that aren’t necessarily as touristy as flights to Italy would be... for example flights to London, houston-Amsterdam, etc.
-if you have multiple options on the same day, always take the earlier one... leave yourself a backup plan.

Miles Ahead

The best advice is to check with your sponsor.

The second best advice is to do some research on your own. Go to flight status on United.com and look at the seat maps for every flight your are interested in.

For example, yesterday's UA970, ORD-FCO, went out with no empty seats. UA42, IAD-FCO, same deal. UA944 ORD-FRA had one seat. but you'd have to make it to Rome by train. And so on. After a few weeks, you'll have a better idea of airport, day of week, and flight.

Kevin AA

Buddy passes are useless. Buy a ticket if you can afford it.

princeville

I agree with this. It's a kind offer from your friend, but really only useful if you're traveling in the low season. I'm the daughter of a (now retired) UA pilot and once I turned 22 and lost my dependent benefits, I have never even attempted to use a buddy pass. There's just too much uncertainty - you are the absolute lowest priority - and an advance discount economy ticket often doesn't cost much more than the cost of using the buddy pass and you have a guaranteed seat. You might save a little on airfare, but you could spend far more than your savings paying for an airport hotel day after day after not making it onto that day's flights. And buying a last minute ticket for a train or flight between whatever airport you make it to and your actual destination will also cut into your savings.

If you check out websites like secret flying, the flight deal and scott's cheap flights you will see a lot of flights to Europe in the $500 range in mid-late August on full service airlines (ie not Norwegian or Wow). I assume this is because American kids are starting school and demand goes way down, but keep in mind that Italy will still be quite crowded with European families as kids there aren't back in school until September.

Fiverowleys

thanks! I will check there.

That was my plan exactly. I have been checking flight loads but they will change, of course, the close we get to Summer.

I already know the rules and guidelines. And I check loads daily to get a feel for the best travel days. I was just asking if anyone had experience with a particular airport.

exactly the type of advice that is helpful. Thanks! Wish me luck!

BearX220

Not remotely true but buddy travel requires flexibility and a relaxed attitude re: when you're actually going to get... somewhere. It is not for people who absolutely, positively have to land in City X on Date Y. If OP merely wants to get to within a day's train ride of Italy sometime in August, she will do fine.

Miles Ahead

I agree with BearX220. I suspect the real trick is the return. If you're at ORD or EWR and discover that BRU is a better option than FCO, that's just a train ride away. If you're in Rome waiting to return and a seat opens up in Brussels, well, that's too bad.

Fiverowleys

that's exactly right. I can leave when I want and return when I want. I don't even have to fly into Rome. People are so negative about passes. It's not for the faint of heart. If you can't handle the pressure. Don't use it. Some of us have the constitution.