had interesting award ticket story was trying to get an economy priced award 1 way tkt originating NYC>TLV on ua or partners last week in august for the economy lowest award 42,500 points
it showed available and when i tried to book showing 5 seats left at the end before going thru always received error message
when i called UA they said the connecting flt out of europe to TLV wasnt avalable in X cls and the system will eventually update to show its not available
after trying for 2 weeks myself
i callled today and said i can go any airport jfk,ewr,phl any day bet 25-28 aug guy puts me on hold for 10 minutes comes back with a NON STOP UA FLT AND EVEN OFFERED ME A CHOICE of afternoon or evening flt i asked him what he did and he said he passed it to seat allotment or revenue management
and they came back with the non stop option on UA
so moral of the story never give up keep trying and everything and i mean EVERYTHING IS CONTROLLED FROM ABOVE!
Very nice!
United seems to give reward ticket passengers the same level of service as paying passengers as opposed to some airlines that treat you with contempt for utilizing a "free" ticket.
I just put my brother on a United business class award tickket booked with Aegean miles (45k one way LAX-TLV + 5 euro) and by mistake only entered his middle and last name.
I called Aegean to add the first name but they said they can't touch the ticket. I called United who also said they can't add the name but promised that if Aegean add a note to the reservation with the first name, they would let it go through.
Sure enough, my brother had no problem at the airport.