I am flyinng to HKG from IAD next week, and my travel agent told me I have a 2-segment flight. On United.com, the following shows:


However, on www.ua2go.com, the following shows:

It seems the ua2go site is showing a one-segment flight from IAD to HKG, while United.com is showing a two-segment flight.

Which one is it? Over 1,300 BIS are at stake here...

If it is on a single PNR, it is the one segment equivalent. i.e. you get the lesser amount of miles, since it is the same flight number for both segments.

direct. Mileage is IAD-HKG only.

Even with a change of aircraft in LA as the flight number is the same you will be given the miles IAD-HKG. Additionally if you choose to upgrade both flights need to clear as it is tied to the direct flight.

How were you able to upgrade to F on a Z fare?

Go to united.com, under my itineraries, if you see your flight as one segment, then you will receive miles for the non-stop flight distance; IAD-HKG. If you see it as two segments, even though it has the same flight number, you will receive miles for IAD-LAX and LAX-HKG.

Upgrade will be determined by the number of segments ticketed.

There is a thread of this topic; http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ferrerid=22732 UA will not book IAD-HKG as two separate segments with one flight number. You and/or your travel agent can book it as two separate segments with one flight number.

Indeed... I am curious as well.

2 cabin first leg?

I did not pay attention about the Z fare designation until you guys pointed out. I was told by corporate travel agent the ticket is fully refundable and did not ask any more question, especially the ticket is well over $10K.

I went back and looked at the entire itinerary and noted the LAX-HKG has C fare code. My return to IAD is from PEK. There is an open jaw in my itinerary. The whole itinerary looks like this:

LGA-IAD A fare (stopover at IAD for a day)
IAD-LAX Z fare
LAX-HKG C fare
open jaw
PEK-IAD C fare (stopover at IAD for a day)
IAD-LGA Y fare (on UX)

This may explain when I asked the TA to book me on the later IAD-LAX flight to minimize my connection time at LAX, but was told the price would increase by $800. Now I realized the increase is due to IAD-LAX has a lower fare code in Z. (I did not make the switch due to cost.... hard to justify to client)

I see two segments in my itinearies for IAD-LAX-HKG. I hope this confirms the miles will be credited separately over 2 segments instead of 1.

Thanks for the link to the other thread, however, I got more confused by reading that thread. It seemed it has not been consistent in practice.

If only that were true. My (bad) experience on direct flights that have an international and domestic segment is that if you apply for an upgrade on the flight, you can be upgraded on one segment and not the other. Which is bad if the domestic segment upgrades and the international segment does not (bad because using SWU or 30K miles for a domestic segment is poor value).

FT taught me to (1) avoid such direct flights, and (2) if they cannot be avoided, fare them as a multi-city trip so that upgrades can be applied independently.

Update:

Yes, I did get credited as two separate segments and the full mileage credits for IAD-LAX-HKG instead of IAD-HKG.

Thanks!

Thank you for getting back to us UA_Flyer.