William S

At least there is now some official notice on F redemptions. Not much good news.Maybe in our dreams LX F would be more available...

LondonMiles

Good spot. Like you say, probably for the best that they have made it formal, even though it is unfortunate that those awards are no more. I hope other *A partners continue to have access so at least are ways of obtaining LH F using miles.

Captain Flush

Routings from the west coast of the US/Canada to Africa via the Pacific used to be possible, but some/all may no longer be depending on MPM enforcement, and I've been wondering about these routings myself lately. It's also possible that the IST connection may be your issue. I've previously ticketed SFO-JNB in J (SFO-YVR-NRT (stop) NRT-HKG-JNB/JNB-SIN-NRT-SFO, which sounds very similar to what you want) but I'm not sure whether this would violate the new MPM as I don't have the kinds of subscriptions one needs to find out.

(Incidentally--if a kind soul who can check would be so kind as to look up the MPM for SFO-JNB, it would be much appreciated by more than one person, it seems.)

I'd try HUACA in the meantime.

Captain Flush

Thanks--I thought about that on the call and I specifically asked the agent to try both SQ and TG for the SIN-BKK segment for that reason. I have no idea whether she did in fact try both--she may have only sent SQ to the rate desk. Either way, what she said was that "BKK is not a valid stopover point on awards to DPS," which still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

bevoinva

Here you go.


[KVS Availability Tool 7.1.2 - Reference: Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]: SFO-JNB]

Captain Flush

Thanks! As promised, much appreciated. ^

bkafrick

OK. I've done a ton of research both by using united.com and KVS and I thought I had a really good solid booking. Its as follows:

4/23 US2281 SYR-CLT F
4/23 US1439 CLT-LAX F ( <24 hr stop over)
4/24 OZ201 LAX-ICN F ( <24 hr stop over)
4/25 OZ106 ICN-NRT C (real stopover)
5/1 NH1171 HND-HKG C (destination)
**alternatively 5/1 NH/NQ 909 NRT-HKG C - though i wasnt sure if I could get a code share ANA with Air Japan to book
5/6 CA118 HKG-PEK F
5/6 CA987 PEK-LAX F (<24 hr stop over)
5/8 US708 LAX-PHL F
5/8 US4016 PHL-SYR Y

I can book everything up to the NH (ANA) flight fine when calling an agent. I cannot get any availability on NH1171 or NH909 at all. Though they show available (saver award) on united.com in C class, and show available on KVS Awards/Upgrades too. I asked the agent for any flights from HND or NRT to HKG and she said there was no availability on anything she could see.

Whats my best course of action here? Try to find something indirect from Tokyo to Hong Kong on 5/1 with F or C availability? I was worried that another indirect flight would put me over MPM?

Thanks in advance.

shaggy_mutt

Are those both Air Japan flights? US generally can't book Air Japan. I don't believe it's formally defined as impossible (as LH F apparently just was) but it's not really a HUACA thing.

What it will put you over is maximum number of flights. Many agents won't give you the itin you listed because it's 9 flights, but occasionally one will let you get away with it. 10 flights, pretty darn unlikely.

Unfortunately, Japan/HK is a toughie. We had this exact question last June when we wanted to go HKG-KIX but this would have meant 27hrs in HKG (and US thus considered this a 2nd stopover) - I know you're talking about NRT but IIRC the situation was similar there. We ended up going HKG-BKK-KIX on TG, which was a lovely ride even if 1000mi in the wrong direction. Even this was tense, since it meant we had 9 flights instead of 8, and that required some HUACA'ing.

If all else fails, you could remove one or two domestic segments, buy them separately, and then use your remaining segments to add NRT-BKK-HKG or NRT-ICN-HKG...

I assume you've already tried rearranging your stops, or that your schedule requires this specific order of them? I.e. perhaps LAX-PEK-HKG (destination) -NRT (stopover) in that order.

JBHighRoller

I thought the limit was 10 segments?

travelkid

As LH is not blocking for starnet/partners in general it would still be interesting to know whether this was a decision by LH or US. In any case it seems unique in the whole alliance.

bkafrick

NH909 is code shared with Air Japan. NH1171 is a regular ANA flight. She couldnt even see 909 in her system (ok, fair enough), and NH1171 shows avail on KVS and united.com, but not in the agent's screen.

Yeah, its the HKG-NRT that I have the same problem with. No availability, or only on the ANA flight(s).

FIGWSJ11

OK so I'm looking for some insight or any help on this reward booking problem.

Booked business class award: North America to North Asia (Korea) 90,000 miles

1/15 ICN-NRT UA 882
NRT-YYZ AC 02
YYZ-ATL AC 8627 (This flight booked in coach as there was no availability in business)

2/12 LAX-SFO UA 800
SFO-ICN OZ 213

Call in today to make a change, there is business and FC availability, the agent confirmed it, but refuses to book it claiming..see below after the changes I want to make.

1/13 ICN-LAX TG 692 (Business)
LAX-PHX US 016 (FC)
PHX-ATL US 614 (FC)

Return:

2/8 ATL-PHX US 088 (FC)
PHX-LAX US 027 (FC)

LAYOVER

2/12 LAX-SFO UA 800
SFO-ICN OZ 213

Again, she refused to book it, claiming

1. According to her chart Korea to Atlanta is (North America to South Asia) and it will cost 120,000 miles not 90,000.
2. I can't layover at LAX because I transited through there on the outbound.

Any insight? Thanks so much!

User Name

Having previously had a problem with a UA award booking (traveling on LH) that had not been ticketed properly (cue heart palpitations at airport) I am now a little paranoid in checking award bookings.

On 12/29 I called US and booked EWR-FRA-BKK-HND/NRT-JFK for July. The US Airways agent could give me confirmation numbers for UA (EWR-FRA) and TG (FRA-BKK-HND) but not for NH (NRT-JFK). I called again today (about something different) but asked again if they had a confirmation number for this segment, and they said no. I asked for the ticket numbers, and they gave me one for EWR-HND and another for NRT-JFK. The ANA site allows you to search for a reservation by ticket number, but the site wants a 13-digit number whereas US have me a 14-digit one.

Does anyone have any ideas as to whether I should be doing anything more to check this is all ok? I don't do this very often at all, so don't know how concerned to be (if at all).

Thanks.

Air Rarotonga

HUACA!
If not successful - or stupid Rep made remarks in your PNR about this change - ask for Supervisor!


US usually can't see NH PNR, a known problem.
Skip the last number, that's the control number. Enter the first 13 numbers, like this: 037 xxxx xxx xxx .

geo1005

If concerned, call each airline directly and confirm your flights/seats for each flight. And (again for each airline) ask them to add your email address to the record and send you a copy of the itinerary.