ffdom

I can't locate the original post, but someone had suggested using ANA's website for checking *A award availability. Just used that tip and wanted to recommend that course to others as well as THANK the original poster.

I have been going around with both UA and LH websites, as well as the UGS desk (could there be worse service for premium customers?) and SEN desks to get a decent vacation trip to Asia or Europe for my partner and I this year; two seats in F or C. Just as I was despairing of using my 300k+ miles or my 400k LH miles and going to AA, which seems to have far greater award availability AND accomodates top flyers, I read about using ANA's website. Signed up and got my number and did a segment by segment search for May LAX-NRT and BKK. The site gives F, C and Y award availability on *A, and is quite user friendly allowing for fast and comprehensive searches. Why UA can't do the same is very strange given how many hours of phone agent time it would save.

Having identified when 2 seats were available in business (almost all on SQ as well!) I called UA and, voila, exact availaibility on the same flights using UA miles. The UGS agent was stunned - she said she'd spent the past several hours with several callers in vain searching for award reservations. Anyhow I know this doesn't always work but it worked great for me and highly recommend it as a short cut for those of you frustrated by trying to use your miles. Needless to say not a single UA saver award on any flight - shameful.

Karter

I've been using the ANA site for the past week and have been loving it but I haven't yet called UA to check whether the *A award seats on ANA are available to UA. I am so ecstatic that you had luck with this. I'll be booking my Asia trip this and will be trying for loads of SQ too. ^

My tip though is to definitely search segment by segment. If you search for BKK - LAX then you will only get a few options, but if you search BKK - NRT and NRT - LAX separately you will get many more which can then be added together to make a valid connection.

UA_Flyer

I have posted in this forum before that I have done it using the NH and SQ sites to check availiabilities. I have also done it using the UA site to check availability before transferring my Amex points to US to redeem UA awards.

It is amazing that the Airlines themselves can't see what awards availabilities are out there while some of us (by surfing the webs) can.

I have never complained about lack of awards seats during peak seasons, because I seldom rely on UA award agents' words on awards availability and routing rules. UA do have some very experienced and good agents working at international awards desk and 1K desk, but it would be a hit or miss depends on who answers your call.

Do your own research and get familiar with the routing rules, especially *A awards, you will be a happier flyer and a M+ customer.

csakamoto

Original link in the ANA forum

Original post in Star forum

roberto99

I've been using this feature of the ANA site for a few weeks now and I LOVE it!!!

ffdom

Thanks for posting the original threads again.

As another poster noted, the trick is definately to split by segment. In some cases, for example if you wanted to do LAX-BKK, the timing is such that there are a lot more options if you're willing to split by segment and do a stopover. There was very occasional available in business on the new TG nonstop BKK-LAX but not very common.

FInally, as another poster noted, because there are so many possible combinations of *A airlines through Asia don't rely on phone agents without knowing the schedules. I could easily have ended up being routed through SIN on the return, adding 8 hours of flight time to the trip. Or I could have ended up in OZ business class, God forbid. By knowing the schedules and options by segment, and figuring when to break a journey with a stopover, you can look for NH and SQ inventory (given that UA almost never has availability).

cicsman

I've also just discovered the ANA site for * awards thanks to FT .

Probably more suited to the ANA forum, but has anyone managed to work out what the difference is between seats available ("O" designation) and "applicable" (shown by a dark orange bar) and seats available and not applicable (light orange bar) ?.

Can't find the answer in the ANA forum.

Karter

From what I can tell, if seats are available ("O") on all legs of the outbound flight, then it will be "applicable" and be coded in dark orange. Once you select the flights for your outbound by clicking on the "o", the light orange of the return flights will change to dark orange, becoming "applicable".

cicsman

Now why didn't I think of that ^ .

Thanks Karter.

Karter

I just found the seats that I want which show available on ANA's website and called UA to book them. UA said that they couldn't see any award availability. UA said they have to book TG and SQ in 'I' class for business saver award seats... So, I called ANA and asked them what booking class they use to book business class saver award seats for TG and SQ. They said they use 'I'. So why can't UA do this for me? Does anyone have an even better understanding of how this works and what it is that UA is looking at when they try to book award seats?

TerryK

All Star Business Class awards are booked in I. However, the availability differs depending on what "currency" you use. What you see on ANA website is the availability using ANA miles. Availability using UA miles may be different, it could be the same or less as UA miles are worth less. There is nothing wrong with the infomation provided. The flight you want is available using ANA miles, but not available using UA miles.

izzik

What you might see in terms of availability via ANA Skyweb is not a reliable indication of availability with United miles.

legionnaire

Case in point, a co-worker was looking for BKK-BLR availability on TG using UA miles. ANA SkyWeb shows plenty of availability on TG326 and TG325, but United International Awards desk can't even pull up the TG flight to check availability. The Intl awards desk said either TG hasn't released seats or there is no BKK-BLR flight!

Savage25

After checking quite a few flights, I've come to the conclusion for business awards on SQ, the ANA website shows the same availability as M&M, but not MP (which seems to be more limited). As for business awards on AC, MP seems to have the same availability as the ANA website. Has anyone experienced otherwise?

ual744777sta

IMO, I think since it costs less UA miles to book awards, UA does not have the same availablilty as LH, SQ, or NH.

It's the price we don't pay to use less miles on award tickets.