The Mileage Millionaire

How about SEA-FRA-BKK-SYD-BKK-FRA-SEA with a stopover in FRA on the outbound?

gleff

Minimum connection time domestic->international is 60 minutes. Nothing wrong with 90 minutes. If you want to start over or fly in the night before you could argue that schedule change > hour should get you that flexibility. But I'd take what you've got.

gleff

I'd bet that'd work just fine.

US to Asia via the Atlantic, even from the West Coast, is fine.

Adding on Australia from Asia is fine.

We've certainly seen US to Australia via Europe and Asia ticketed on this thread...

The Mileage Millionaire

Excellent. I'll give it a try and report back here.

katz

Is there a way to get around this problem?

I'm trying to book a leg of a trip from NY-GIG. It seemed as if nothing was available on the day I want to travel. But I found something on CO's website that gave me hope.

CO shows award availability (for 2 pax in business) EWR-CLT-GIG. It offers several options on US or CO from EWR-CLT then connects to the daily US CLT-GIG flight.

US website does not show availability on any of those flights, nor does it show availability on the CLT-GIG flight alone.

I went back to check CO, and while it does show EWR-GIG available on US, it does not show CLT-GIG available if I search just for that pair.

ANA tool agrees with US website.

US agent said nothing was available.

But CO lets me take it all the way to the make reservation screen. Is there any way to still be able to book this through US? Can CO really have award access to US Envoy seats that US doesnt offer to its own members?

freakazoid

For anybody else searching for the official info, you get it by clicking on the airline logos on the right hand side when you load staralliance.com. One interesting/confusing thing I noticed is that HKG is only mentioned as hub in the english version.

nyc6035

Had a painful 2.5hr booking and ticketing experience the other night.

I had been holding 3 seats as follows:

EWR-NRT (I) CO
NRT-AKL (I) NZ
AKL-BNE (I) NZ
openjaw
SYD-AKL (I) NZ
AKL-YVR (I) NZ
YVR-LAX (X) UA
LAX-JFK (O) UA

This was from the original reservation agent 110K per ticket.

wanted to modify it to the following:

JFK-LAX (O) UA
LAX-AKL (I) NZ
AKL-SYD (I) NZ
openjaw
BNE-AKL (I) NZ
AKL-YVR (I) NZ
YVR-LAX (X) UA
LAX-JFK (O) UA

They first insisted I couldn't do it because the time between JFK-LAX; LAX-AKL was over 4 hours. Since it's an international gateway the rule is 24 hours.
I Challenged that and won.

Then they came back and said couldn't do the JFK-LAX//LAX-JFK segments in O for the business class rate of 110K. I pointed out to them that this is a domestic segment and that if it was on their metal they would also book in O.
No budge.

Since I was at the end of my 72 hour hold period and the AKL-YVR flight no longer had I seats for sale (and I didn't want to risk having no availability back as I saw no alternative routings), I felt stuck.
So I had them book this:

EWR-NRT (I) CO
NRT-AKL (I) NZ
AKL-SYD (I) NZ
openjaw
BNE-AKL (I) NZ
AKL-YVR (I) NZ
YVR-PHX (O) US
PHX-CLT (O) US
CLT-LGA (O) US

She then tried to get that approved and said she'd been told that I couldn't do an overnight in YVR - that I needed to connect in 4 hours. I reminded her that YVR is an international gateway and as a result the rule is less than 24 hours for a connect.
Got past that one.

She then came back and said I had to book YVR-PHX in I class. I said you don't sell C on that segment it's just not possible.
She finally went to ticketing as shown above.

This was complicated since there were 3 PNRs as the miles were coming out of multiple accounts.

My learnings here (for those of you who don't want to endure this pain) were as follows:

1) If you book it and you like it - ticket it on the same call if possible - less opportunity for reinterpretation of the rules later (we've heard that before I know)

2) Calling near the end of the 3 day hold gives you limited options if you get a challenging rep on the phone

3) Even with a good call rep, they seem powerless to do much. Every segment requested seemed to require a place on hold and a discussion with an unseen supervisor. I think it's not so much a bad rep as it is the supervisor in the background that makes a difference. My call was late (started at 10pm est)...perhaps things would have gone smoother with the day shift.

4) Know the rules...be willing to challenge.

5) Have alternatives at the ready! Or at least KVS or Expertflyer available on your screen.

Not sure if this O class on the 3 class UA flights is a new thing or a one off. I would say it warrants some monitoring to see if this is a new trend. Those PS flights are great positioning flights from JFK to the pacific. O class space is 'relatively' easy to come by - particularly inside of 30 days prior to departure. It would be a shame if you can't use those seats to construct business class awards moving forward.

SuperFlyBoy

PS has biz seating, so I gather you should be able to get I-class for those segments, and would therefore not be entitled to O (first) seats, since it is not a 2-class config.

That's just my opinion, but others might wish to chime in...

AZ Travels the World

It's an old thing. On a 3-class domestic flight, if you are on a business class international ticket, you book into business class. If it's a 2-class aircraft, you book into first. Been this way on US all along.

That's not to say agents may have booked people into F by mistake, but they shouldn't have.

tfjim

To add an interesting routing booking to this thread:

I helped a friend book two business class award tickets. There was not much first class availability for their desired routing in September but plenty of business class seats. They are flying:

STL-ORD UA first
ORD-PEK UA business
open jaw for cruise to Bangkok
BKK-ZRH LX business
ZRH-ORD LX business
ORD-STL UA first

They were charged 120,000 miles for this which I consider quite good considering the RTW aspect and South Asia return. The cost of the purchased miles was about 1/3rd the cost of the business class quote from the cruise line so they're very happy.

kopflyer

I've got an upcoming (travel has NOT started) *A award booked with NZ. We were confirmed into C on all 4 segments at booking, but now there's been a equipment AND schedule change. In fact, one of the flight numbers I'm confirmed on NO LONGER EXISTS! I've read horror stories about what happens to people once they let US change a reservation, so I'm nervous about calling and risking someone screwing it up. Would I be better off acting like I didn't know about the change and letting NZ sort me out at check-in? I've never flown NZ before, so I don't know what their customer service is like. I don't think I'd try to pull that move with TK or MS...

UA Fan

I really don't know what to advise you, but if you do call US make sure you have a lot of time to spend on the phone. Hate it when this happens. Wish * would make a rule that whichever airlines screws up, should take over the resv and reaccomodate the pax regardless of award availability.

AZ Travels the World

I don't know about the horror stories, but I've been in this situation before and the US agents have never screwed up my reservation.

Personally, I would call and get it squared away. I imagine showing up at NZ and them saying, "Sorry, that flight no longer exists. You need to call US, as they booked this ticket."

If there is no award availability, ask that they call NZ and explain the situation and see if they won't accommodate you, given that they made the change that impacted your confirmed reservation. Sometimes US will do this, and with success.

Now, if you had already started travel, that would change things. In that case, I'd let NZ sort it. (Speaking of which, this thread is about award changes during travel, so I'm going to put my moderator hat on for a moment and move this post over to a thread where you're likely to get more exposure and input.)

kopflyer

Thanks for the advice - I'll probably call, but I do have one more question: the changed flight is now on an A320, which as you know, is going (has gone?) all Y. The C booking I have confirmed, assuming the flight still existed, should have gotten me E+ & "The Works" under the new structure, right? According to ANA there is availability in Y for the new flight # & time, but only in Y, which would probably mean no E+. Does that change your recommendation? If I wait till check-in and NZ tells me "sorry, call US", what are the implications? I assume US wouldn't leave me stranded in Fiji (although I could think of worse places to be stranded!), but if I'm going to get stuck in Y- under that outcome anyways, I might as well get it taken care of now.

The Mileage Millionaire

I just booked two tickets SEA-FRA-BKK-SYD-BKK-FRA-SFO in LH/TG first class with no problems! I deleted the stopover in FRA in order to book the open jaw.