Consolidated "ANA Booking Tool and UA MP Awards" Thread [Merged]
 

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I know a lot of people here use the ANA search tool so I thought it best to post this here. Apologies if this is an obvious question but I tried searching for a posting about this but couldn't find an answer.

For some dates the tool is displaying a very light tan box with an "O" but the box isn't active the way the slightly darker box where you can click through. Since I know the darker box with "O" means there are seats available I assume the lighter box means something else, but what?

If there are no seats for a day with the lighter box then how is it different from a gray box? And why would it have the "O"?

The web site key makes no distinction between a gray box and a light tan one calling both "not applicable" yet the same key says the "O" means seats available.

Anyway I'm confused so if someone could help it would be most appreciated.

Again apologies for such a dumb question.

I usually find the lighter box on the return segment. Once I have selected the outbound flight, the return is clickable.

Ah, yes that fixed it. I never would have figured that out. Much appreciate the help.

LH very slow loading inventory this week. Nothing showing up to the west coast in Business for June 20 to end of schedule for some reason. I wonder why since they were loading 4 B seats like clockwork up until then. At least into PDX.

Oh well. Maybe the guy is on vacation.

Thanks again for the help.

Using the ANA booking tool....
 

I did some research using the ANA booking tool to find flights to Asia. After looking I found a few flights that were available but when I called United, they didn't see them. Why?

Put simply, the ANA tool doesn't reflect UA's availability, which differs from other *A member's.

when and where are you trying to go?

I tried a bunch of city combos, Osaka, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore. All from Newark or JFK. I can get to Asia and travel around Asia, but I can't get home! It is easy to get tickets to, or from Osaka. I am looking at Biz class. Coach is available but that scares me.

How about Singapore Airlines in coach from SIN to EWR, the worlds longest flight. How bad would that be?

Last half of November.

If you're gonna fly coach it doesn't get any better than that. It is Executive Economy, which means the seat is basically the size of a domestic F seat here in the UA, and the catering, service, entertainment, etc, are all great.

Ahh spoken like a UA citizen ;).
That aside, he's absolutely right. SQ's Executive Economy is the best there is....

United very actively controls inventory of *A carriers (Starnet) that they make available to MP members, and IMHO it really sucks. (Do a search on "Starnet" and you can read more about it.)

I'd bring a rope.

Yes, it's Exec Economy...but that is L-O-N-G.

ANA Tool and UA MP Awards
 

:confused::confused:I've been trying to use the ANA tool and I am a little confused about about some of the symbols. There are flights that have the "circle" symbol (for both connecting flights) yet the graph on top shows the light orange, which I think stands for "non-applicable." If there are seats available for both flights, can I still call UA and ask if they have availability? Why would it be non-applicable if there are award seats available? THANKS!

novaguy30, takes a little bit of time to get used to ANA.

If you see a faded orange block with a circle in it, it means this segment will be available, but the ANA tool is waiting for you to choose from the previous segment first.

e.g. Segment 1 MEL-AKL, Segment 2 AKL-LAX

At the start:
You see solid orange blocks with circles in them for Segment 1, and faded orange blocks with circles in them for Segment 2.

>>> Choose your segment 1 (by clicking the solid orange block of choice). Then the page will reload and your Segment 2 faded blocks will now be solid orange blocks.

Ta da. :)

Awesome! Thanks for clearing up the "enigma."