Different Award Availability for Same Flight Depending on Destination
May 20, 2009, 12:55 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: 1P, AA EXP, SPG Gold
Posts: 1,491
Different Award Availability for Same Flight Depending on Destination
Looking to redeem MP for SFO-IAD-EZE in C. There is C availability on the return, but not yet available for outbound IAD-EZE. I want to book a confirmed XY seat and waitlist for C on the IAD-EZE portion, and confirm F on SFO-IAD. When doing a dummy booking, by just looking for a SFO-IAD as part of a *domestic* award, .bomb is showing plenty of XF availability for several SFO-IAD a.m. flights (XF9 on at least one flight). But when I check the exact same flights on .bomb as part of int'l itinerary SFO-EZE, the SFO-IAD portion shows lots of NF availability but XF is 0. 
Is this normal/correct? Would I really be able to snag the same F seat for a domestic award but not snag the same seat if the flight is part of an int'l award itinerary? Shouldn't they be able to search each flight indepedently regardless of what the final destination is?
Is this normal/correct? Would I really be able to snag the same F seat for a domestic award but not snag the same seat if the flight is part of an int'l award itinerary? Shouldn't they be able to search each flight indepedently regardless of what the final destination is?
May 20, 2009, 1:38 am
#2
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Boulder, CO
Programs: UA, AA, WN; HH, MR, IHG
Posts: 7,054
For "direct" flights (flights with layovers but marketed as a single flight number), this is normal; UA offers different NF/NC and XF/XC inventory for the individual segments and for the through-flight. Search for "married segment award" and you'll find other threads on this issue.
If you were to purchase this flight for money, I doubt that your SFO-IAD-EZE fare would cost the same as SFO-IAD + IAD-EZE, because most UA fares are based on the O&D markets, not the individual segments. UA has presumably applied that same philosophy to awards. That way, a high demand for awards on (e.g.) SFO-IAD won't make it impossible to book awards for SFO-IAD-EZE, which is what could happen if award inventory were entirely based on individual segments.
If you were to purchase this flight for money, I doubt that your SFO-IAD-EZE fare would cost the same as SFO-IAD + IAD-EZE, because most UA fares are based on the O&D markets, not the individual segments. UA has presumably applied that same philosophy to awards. That way, a high demand for awards on (e.g.) SFO-IAD won't make it impossible to book awards for SFO-IAD-EZE, which is what could happen if award inventory were entirely based on individual segments.
May 20, 2009, 8:48 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: 1P, AA EXP, SPG Gold
Posts: 1,491
For "direct" flights (flights with layovers but marketed as a single flight number), this is normal; UA offers different NF/NC and XF/XC inventory for the individual segments and for the through-flight. Search for "married segment award" and you'll find other threads on this issue.
May 20, 2009, 9:55 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Bay Area, CA
Programs: UA Plat 2MM; AS MVP Gold 75K
Posts: 35,068
Have you called on this one?
May 20, 2009, 10:03 am
#5
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: DEN
Programs: UA Plat, 1MM
Posts: 2,182
Confusion over married segments happens fairly frequently. Like, for example, yesterday (admittedly this one's about NC space, but same idea): 
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...onnection.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...onnection.html