srodr

I've been a very frequent flyer most of my life, so as the family 'expert' on travel matters, I am always consulted for advice on getting airline tickets. But contrary to many of you on this site, most of my travel has always been personal and I very rarely buy anything other than cheap economy tickets, so when it comes to paying for or burning miles on anything other than the cheapest coach seat, I have almost no experience. So I really need some help for the following situation:

A family member that lives in Portugal is dealing with a very serious disease that has left her with a back condition that requires morphine every day. Consequently, she has not been on a plane in 3 years as sitting upright for any extended time would be excrutiating for her. Unfortunately now her brother that lives in New Mexico is very ill and likely won't make it more than another month or two, so she really wants to go see him in the very near future. So for this, she will need to fly in first class in a seat that lies flat or almost. Is this the type of seats that United now has up front? And if so, are they on par with whatever Delta or American offers?

Having just one stop on the way would be preferable, and spending a night or two at that stop to rest would also be helpful, so United is their 1st choice as they could spend a short time seeing the grandkids that live in New York. But they also have family in Miami, so stopping there with AA would be the 2nd choice.

So all that said, I priced a few flights and can say that paying outright is definitely not an option. She'll be flying with her husband, so it looks like $12k minimum for the two of them, which they certainly can't afford. I suppose he could sit back in coach to save 5k, but as they're both close to 80, splitting them up would be a very hard sell to them. Mileage tickets look to be at least 150k each, which is way beyond their account balances of about 130k total. So I suppose my real question is about buying a coach seat that can be upgraded for miles, or purchasing the additional miles they would need for the 150k award seats. Again, I have no experience in this sort of thing, so would one of these be a viable way to go?


Or are there any other options that I'm not thinking of? Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
srod-



Thanks.
srod-

MADPhil

Most if not all business class seats on AA are lie-flat and quite comfortable so you aren't limited to first. Someone should be able to comment on UA equivalents.

Aussienarelle

UA had saver awards yesterday for Cyber Monday but not sure if it is available today. I am uncertain with which airline they have miles with the mileage balance. I think it will take two stops to get to New Mexico from Portugal. You can look on seatguru for the seat maps but for example: United LIS-EWR is on a 757 that has lie flat seats but the two domestic flights EWR-DEN-ABQ on a 737 are not lie flat seats.

Miles Ahead

Purchasing miles outright runs about 0.04, so you're not saving any money. There is a way to get them for less through something called award accelerator, but 300,000 probably requires doing this ten straight times - or maybe fifty.

Upgrades may or may not be available. I wouldn't book a flight unless they were available at booking. Tuesdays are perhaps the most likely days.

Have you thought about how you are going to get her to New Mexico? Domestic seats are not lie-flat and NM is a long way from NY.

tarheelnj

Or what is sometimes known as Hobo First Class. Purchase four seats in Economy (3 for her, 1 for husband across the aisle). There is an "Extra Seat" process but you'll want to call to order them. January economy fares look to be around $1000+/- for a 6 day trip, so $4,000 all-in, assuming they head straight to ABQ through EWR and DEN. She'll be able to raise the seat rests and lay down. Stay out of the bulkhead, as those arms are fixed. Also bring your own pillows/blankets.

You could play the "buy aisle & window and hope the middle stays open" lottery, but with her condition I wouldn't risk it.

threeoh

You didn't mention what airports are best, but I don't see LIS-ABQ flights with one stop on any airline. Everything is two. There are one-stops on AA from MAD if that's a possibility.

United's Business / Polaris class is 100% lie-flat so for the TATL leg you'll be lie-flat. I think it's the same on AA Business, but you can double check by looking at the seating chart of any flight you're considering. Getting lie-flat on the domestic leg is probably not going to be possible (no lie-flats to ABQ that I know of), though if your relative flew through SFO, LAX, DEN, DFW, or IAH then the last non-lie-flat leg would be shorter.

I'm seeing cash r/t tickets on various airlines for around $4,500 so that would be $9,000 for both, not $12,000. Still a lot of cash. And maybe more like $12,000 to get your routing and dates you want.

Mileage tickets on UA are 155k for their "everyday" tier, and 60k-70k for their "saver" tier. So probably you could get two r/t tickets if you can find availability in the "saver" tier. Try looking at unpopular dates, or very close-in dates (sometimes saver availability opens up just a few days ahead when they don't think they can sell the seats).

Since you're looking for a layover of several days anyway, it wouldn't be crazy to book two tickets: one r/t from Portugal to NYC/MIA and then a second domestic r/t from NYC/MIA to New Mexico a few days later. That might give you some flexibility to find the exact TATL and domestic flights you want.

Finally, for upgrades, there's tons of advice on other threads but the three main ways to upgrade are:

(1) Click a buy-up offer, either at ticketing, sometime later, or at check-in. Minimum $800 for TATL but usually more like $2k, and might not be offered.
(2) Use ~30k miles plus ~$600 "mileage plus copay", requires upgrade space to be available
(3) Use a GPU which you probably don't have.

The short answer is that it's not easy to fly across the pond lie-flat for cheap.

The above-poster's suggestion to use EXTRASEAT to get 4 seats is not a horrible idea but is kind of an advanced technique and might be hard to navigate for infrequent flyers, and might not be that comfortable.

srodr

How do you know, when purchasing, which coach tickets are upgradable with miles? (Aren't the cheapest tickets unqualified for mileage upgrades?) And how would you know, when booking, that upgrades are available?

And I didn't think about the domestic leg being so long. I'll have to think about another stopover in between EWR and ABQ (or MIA and ABQ).

windhund

If you are upgrading with miles and a co-pay, you'll have to check for PZ availability at booking. There's also an advanced search option to search for MileagePlus Upgrade Awards on united.com; if you use that, it will tell you which ones are waitlisted and which ones are confirmable at booking.

In this case, to look for upgrade availability, you'll want to search only for the long-haul flights. If you search the whole itinerary, you won't find any, because United will generally show you availability of upgrades for the whole leg, and upgrades are rarely available on the domestic legs: see this thread for more information - R / PZ Avail changes depending on how you search flights

From a quick search, one way to break it up (and avoid wintry weather, mostly) would be to go from EWR/MIA to Texas (either IAH on UA or DFW on AA), and from there to ABQ.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Not applicable. OP wants parents in lie-flat seats as much of the journey as possible. And they are originating in Europe.

"Discounted Saver Award is only valid for roundtrip travel in United Economy from the U.S. (excluding Hawaii) or Canada to Europe."

srodr

Thanks for pointing out this feature. I'm seeing reasonable roundtrip fares (<$1000) that are in the 'Business (upgrade-eligible Economy fare)' column for 20k miles +$550 co pay each way. It says underneath '6 tickets left at this price' but I don't see how to tell if there is actually an upgrade available to buy if I were booking it right now. Where is that information? Or does the '6 tickets left at this price' actually mean that it is available to book right now with the upgrade confirmed?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

You need to enable "expert mode". With that done, you can look at the fare classes populated for each segment. If PZ is greater than zero, there is immediate availability for upgrade. PZ2 means there are 2 seats, etc

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...cket-data.html

How to set it up:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19375759-post327.html

jsloan

But, again, you should specifically search for the overwater segment by itself -- LIS-EWR, not LIS-ABQ.

UA runs a few EWR-ORD and EWR-IAH flights with lie-flat seats, and you might find an EWR-DEN flight on some days. There are also lie-flat seats on all EWR-SFO flights, but you're overflying ABQ by so far that I don't think it's worth it. If you're able to find upgrade space on LIS-EWR, you may find that paid first class on EWR-IAH-ABQ makes for a reasonable total price.

skimthetrees

I believe you can search for upgrade space in advanced mode without enabling expert mode and still tell whether upgrades are available for the numbers of travelers you search for (search for 2 adults if you are looking for 2 upgrades). What you have to be careful of is usually many of the upgrade options are waitlisted meaning not confirmable right away. In the advanced search results when searching for upgrades if there is a green circle with an arrow in it that means upgrades are available on all segments and confirmable immediately. A yellow circle with an arrow means the upgrades will be waitlisted (you are not confirmed yet and may never be). A red circle with a question mark by the price means it is a mixed upgrade, some segments are confirmable and some are not and will either be waitlisted or are not eligible for upgrades. If you hover the mouse over the circle you will see more detailed information on the upgrades available for that itinerary.

You can also use expert mode to see exactly how many seats are available for upgrade on each segment but for non-experts you can get the same information in the advanced search results so long as you set the number of passengers you are searching for properly in the search.

mvoight

Can you get more than one EXTRASEAT per person?
Another potential issue could be the morphine. Be aware of any legal requirements for her to have her medication in the US and/or on the plane itself.

srodr

Thanks, I followed the steps to enable 'expert' mode, but the search results page looks the same. I don't see fare classes listed on this page. Where should I be seeing this?