HonestABE

Passed the double-nickel a few weeks ago. ^

Any Silver Wings promos currently going on?

A couple quick questions....

I assume I lose the online booking bonus (and Chase Visa EQMs) if I use Silver Wings to book a flight? Correct?

Does Chase still give the double miles (Choices) for buying a United ticket?

I assume I can apply CR-1s or SWUs to a Silver Wings-booked flight? Correct?

TIA

mahasamatman

For the Platinum card, yes. For the Gold, I think so. For the Signature card, no. The purchase can be through any channel - not just united.com (though the EQM only apply for onilne purchases).

Firewind

Yes, there's a very good promotion, IMO: $165 for the (first) year, $300 in vouchers, 10,000 bonus miles. I believe the usual dues are $240/yr. It was in the quarterly mileage update MP sends in the mail. I recycled it, and can't remember the code, but you could call Silver Wings, describe the promo by the offers, and say you forgot the code. But it ends tomorrow!

Another advantage is that there is no fee for dealing with a reservationist. How it all works out $-wise, buying a ticket for a higher price (usually online-only fares are much cheaper) but not paying a fee, I don't know...

No, you wouldn't get the 1,000 online booking bonus. The $ vouchers won't work for "internet only" fares. Chase will give double "choices". The tickets can be upgraded. I asked.

nor4

and can't remember the code,
The code is SWMP2-2936.

itsme

The $264 offer, however, brought with it 25K bonus miles. And which fares are those that can only be booked online, not through SW? (SW may sell you more expensive tickets if you do not know that there are cheaper UA fares and ask to be booked in them.)

Does UA, in fact, have "internet only" fares? If so, how does one know when they are seeing an "internet only" fare, that is one that you cannot have a reservationist book for you?

itsme

I will respond to myself - I guess those generally useless "E fares" that come out every week are "internet only" fares. But they are so infrequently of interest, because they so infrequently these days offer any savings in return for the very restricted dates, I don't attach much importance to them. (Anyone think E fares hold great potential? And does UA have other "internet only" fares?)

mahasamatman

Not always. Those fares are often (though not always) bookable through the normal channels.

Firewind

itsme: I totally agree re the "E-fares" not being great deals... but many, if not all, S and T fares can only be purchased on the web.

itsme

Interesting. If you should see an S or T fare on united.com but not want to book through united.com, a reservationist might not be able to do it for you? Sometimes one just can't get united.com to show flights options that do exist or get the combination of outbound and return flights one is after. I didn't know that what I was seeing through united.com might only be available through united.com, with the exception of those E-fares.

This brings us back to that question about reservationists vs. united.com - why "internet only" fares and other inducements to book online rather than with a reservationist? Are the $10 or $15 fees for going through a reservationist insufficient to cover UA's costs, so they must do still more to push us away from people and toward the internet? If they are so keen on pushing us toward the internet, why not improve united.com? Would it be out of the question for united.com to allow us to enter the particular flights we are after and see about availability and price rather than showing us what they want to show us, that varying according to whether we go with queries by "schedule," "price" with or without "flexible dates," or "multicity"?

gfowler-ord-1k

I signed up promo in March and the 10K miles posted today.The FAQs stateThat was within the time period they promised, actually a day early.

I have yet to use any of the benefits but I will see what I can do for an upcomming trip.

gfowler-ord-1k

I actually redeemed and used a $100 SW E-Cert today. It had all the "normal" problems of using and E-Cert but I eventually got it to work.

itsme

How exactly did you go about that, through united.com? What problems and how did you finally get it to work?

If you were not concerned about the bonuses that come through united.com (e.g., online booking, "double miles," etc.), you could do it through a SW reservationist without additional charge. That's the way I went about it trice back in January, when I didn't know that one could use those SW credits through united.com. But I would like to learn from your experience how to do it through united.com for future future reference and those additional bonuses.

gfowler-ord-1k

I ran into the usual E-cert problems -
Not showing flights that should be eligible as this cert is good on most any fare
Saying it found a cheaper fare, when it was not, and did not apply the E-cert

It seemed that the best way was to first find the flights without using the E-cert. Then logout, close all browser windows and then log in again. Plug in the E-cert number, flight times and then search by schedule. YMMV

I needed to do the booking online to earn the double miles bonus that expires today.

ChgoBob

I tried to use one a short time ago, and had no luck. I was getting the same errors as listed above. SW said they could not help me, but would connect me to web support and stay on the line to explain the problem. We got disconnected.
I called web support, and they booked the flight, and said $100 would be refunded to Visa in 3-7 days. Never saw it in 2 weeks, so I had to call again.
I got the refund after the 2nd call in 3 days.

RTWFF

I wanted to book SFO-SYD for July and found I could only locate a 'S' class fare on the Web - but wanted to use SWUs to upgrade. Called SWP, booked via an operator, got a W Class fare for $30 more than the online fare. I guess I don't get my double miles promo . However once the e-ticket issued (within a few hours) I went online, requested an e-upgrade using SWUs and got the upgrade confirmed in both directions instantly (which of course has nothing to do with my SWP membership). My one beef is that although the Web site talks about double miles up to a lifetime ceiling, they don't tell you that that applies only to certain classes of membership - and 2-year membership isn't one of them!