blahter

So up until recently I've noticed that whenever you select your outbound flight the lighter orange box with the "O" would turn bright orange and be selectable. Up until recently the outbound flight would always be selectable but now I'm noticing that for flights < 7 days out, the outbound flight is not selectable.

After reading the ANA conditions for awards it seems that when you're using NH miles you need to book at least 7 days in advance so it makes sense that the seats are "Not Applicable". I tried calling UA to see if I could change an award reservation I have and the agents say they don't see the "Seat Available" but "Not Applicable" that is displayed on the NH tool.

Anyone have experience with this? Are those seats available? I realize that it may be Starnet blocking but usually the NH tool is pretty good for displaying SQ seats available to UA.

ordogg

sorry if I missed it, but does the ANA tool show standard or saver inventory? Also, even though I live near ORD, it shows ton of availiability in LH DTW-FRA-XXX and on LO flights all next summer - is this too good to be true?

UAX_Brasilia

There is no such thing as a standard Star Alliance award. Same redemption level as saver.

Also, good luck with the awards. Hopefully UA has not blocked the ones you want.

WineCountryUA

Standard awards are available if a seat is available for sale and are only available on UA metal. So the ANA tool shows saver awards.

While the ANA tool may show availability, not all of that availability may be available (bad grammar?) via United / Mileage Plus. See "Starnet Blocking"

ordogg

thanks - called ua and they gave me some FRA-DTW and ORD-WAW options but on ANA it seemed like every LO and FRA-DTW had avail - thanks! Seems like what other people have said - find flight nos. you want and then call UA

JohnWM

I am trying to put together a reward flight using United frequent flyer miles. To this end, I have signed up for ANA club membership and am successfully using the ANA tool to identify possible availabilities.

I do have a question, though; perhaps some of the more experienced posters here on this board might know the answer.

If a reward flight is not listed in the ANA tool as being available, is it at all possible that United might still have that flight available to MP members?

Thanks kindly in advance.

Rambuster

doubt it! More like the other way round: if ANA has availability, UA won't !

gleff

There are reports of anomalies where UA books an award that the NH website doesn't show as available, and that's usually a data issue /glitch/timing issue (NH website having errors, returning @ isn't of availability... or the award wasn't available when checking NH but subsequently became available, etc).

rjque

I have had UA flights show up when I called an agent that don't show on either ANA or united.com.

mahasamatman

There are several *A airlines that do not appear on ANA (LX, CA, FM and maybe others), so it's very possible.

stevenshev

I have definitely seen a few (not many) LH TATL seats in the past few weeks that were available through UA but not NH. Weird, I know, but that was the case.

mahasamatman

Verrrrry interesting (apologies to Arte Johnson). This could be due to UA and LH's "special" relationship, but is still surprising.

stevenshev

I was shocked. But not terribly pleased as I had actually wanted the day before they showed this availability, when NH showed plenty of LH F, and, of course, UA showed none.

JohnWM

Thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences. If I learn anything new, or odd, during my next call to United I will surely post it here.

joejones

Another thing about the ANA tool is that it won't show you all connection possibilities, just the easiest and most obvious ones. A UA agent may spot combinations which ANA's online system ignores.