Author Topic: United award flights  (Read 804262 times)

Offline AJK

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2180 on: January 28, 2015, 10:09:26 AM »
July 4th is not a random day.
No one travels on July 4th itself. The travelling is done before and after July 4th.

+1
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Offline Matovu

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2181 on: January 28, 2015, 10:16:30 AM »
+1

I just had the same thing happen to me on New Years eve
I flew JFk to TLV
But coming back right after new years was a disaster.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2182 on: January 28, 2015, 11:03:30 AM »
No one travels on July 4th itself. The travelling is done before and after July 4th.
I was actually going to say that, but then realized that July 4th is a Saturday. It's possible people will have to work on Friday and can't leave till Saturday, July 4th, anyway.

NONETHELESS, it still doesn't make sense why of all the routes that offer lie-flat to HNL or OGG, none of them have even Y Saver space for most of June, all of July, and most of August except for this one route on this one day.

Where's the logic??? #frustrating

Offline AJK

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2183 on: January 28, 2015, 11:29:44 AM »
Makes absolutely perfect sense.

Airlines release awards when they think they may not otherwise be able to sell them. The months you're looking at are some of the most peak months of the year--North American summer months--with everyone off of school. So, it's clear UA revenue management/inventory control believe these seats can be sold for $$$, and not your miles.
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Offline @Yehuda

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2184 on: January 28, 2015, 11:40:22 AM »
Makes absolutely perfect sense.

Airlines release awards when they think they may not otherwise be able to sell them. The months you're looking at are some of the most peak months of the year--North American summer months--with everyone off of school. So, it's clear UA revenue management/inventory control believe these seats can be sold for $$$, and not your miles.
I understand the temporary blackout summer months. But why is 7/4 open on that one route to HI? If 7/4 is not a busy day, then all the routes to HI should be open that day.

Offline AJK

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2185 on: January 28, 2015, 11:48:01 AM »
7/4 not ordinarily being a busy day doesn't mean they haven't sold lots of seats, or believe they can sell lots of seats, on the routes not currently available.
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Offline @Yehuda

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2186 on: January 28, 2015, 11:50:12 AM »
7/4 not ordinarily being a busy day doesn't mean they haven't sold lots of seats, or believe they can sell lots of seats, on the routes not currently available.
Thanks.

Would you keep checking every day for summer travel or just wait till closer to the summer (and then start checking every day) when they hopefully release seats that they don't think will sell via cash?

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2187 on: January 28, 2015, 11:51:01 AM »
Thanks.

Would you keep checking every day for summer travel or just wait till closer to the summer (and then start checking every day) when they hopefully release seats that they don't think will sell via cash?
Don't make yourself crazy this far out. Check once in a while, but close in, check ore frequently.
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Offline @Yehuda

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2188 on: January 28, 2015, 11:57:24 AM »
Don't make yourself crazy this far out. Check once in a while, but close in, check ore frequently.
Thanks. I haven't seen anything change for a few days now, and yeah, it was making me a little crazy. Patience...

Offline 12HRS

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2189 on: January 28, 2015, 08:45:56 PM »
Thinking about flying to Israel this summer. trying to understand my options in regards to stopover rules (and maybe an open jaw)
Since I live in NY I would like to do.

1. LAX - EWR (stopover for a couple months)(return trip from pesach in LA)
2. EWR - TLV
3. TLV - EWR (stopover for a couple months)
4. EWR - LAX (likely Dec 25ish)

Couple questions though.

Can I book open jaws/stopovers on partner airlines also

For leg 1 there is no availability as of now since it is the day after peach. I have other flights booked, however I assume if something opens up last minute I can switch and use the united ones. Wait till then to book the entire itinerary? Otherwise its risky that I won't be able to take the first leg from LAX-EWR and that would ruin the rest of the trip?

Assuming I can't do leg 1 is just doing legs 2,3,4 a valid routing? I Can't get it to show on the website so I assume I need to call in.

and finally. Do I need to fly out of the same NY airport every time? i.e. something like. LAX-JFK, EWR-TLV, TLV-EWR, and then JFK-LAX would work or not?

Offline AJK

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2190 on: January 28, 2015, 08:53:36 PM »
Thinking about flying to Israel this summer. trying to understand my options in regards to stopover rules (and maybe an open jaw)
Since I live in NY I would like to do.

1. LAX - EWR (stopover for a couple months)(return trip from pesach in LA)
2. EWR - TLV
3. TLV - EWR (stopover for a couple months)
4. EWR - LAX (likely Dec 25ish)

Couple questions though.

Can I book open jaws/stopovers on partner airlines also

For leg 1 there is no availability as of now since it is the day after peach. I have other flights booked, however I assume if something opens up last minute I can switch and use the united ones. Wait till then to book the entire itinerary? Otherwise its risky that I won't be able to take the first leg from LAX-EWR and that would ruin the rest of the trip?

Assuming I can't do leg 1 is just doing legs 2,3,4 a valid routing? I Can't get it to show on the website so I assume I need to call in.

and finally. Do I need to fly out of the same NY airport every time? i.e. something like. LAX-JFK, EWR-TLV, TLV-EWR, and then JFK-LAX would work or not?


Stopover rules depend on which miles you use. Since you posted in this thread, I'm assuming you're using UA miles.

--Cannot have more than one stopover on a RT award. You have two, so invalid.
--No guarantee leg one opens, so if you book another date now, hoping to switch closer in, and nothing opens, you'd be stuck paying a change fee to delete leg one.
--Waiting to book the entire itin until leg one is open is very risky because (i) it may never open, and (ii) your other legs may be gone at that point.
--Yes, doing 2, 3, and 4 is valid.
--Using UA miles, on this itin, they're co-terminals and interchangable.
2015: 116K bkd | 1.6M brnd | F: OZ,NH,AA,EK | J: UA,CA,TK,DL,TN,AF,VA | LIH,NRT,ROR,PEK,CNS,BOB,MEL,TLV & Pacific Hopper

Offline 12HRS

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2191 on: January 28, 2015, 09:02:31 PM »
Stopover rules depend on which miles you use. Since you posted in this thread, I'm assuming you're using UA miles.

--Cannot have more than one stopover on a RT award. You have two, so invalid.
--No guarantee leg one opens, so if you book another date now, hoping to switch closer in, and nothing opens, you'd be stuck paying a change fee to delete leg one.
--Waiting to book the entire itin until leg one is open is very risky because (i) it may never open, and (ii) your other legs may be gone at that point.
--Yes, doing 2, 3, and 4 is valid.
--Using UA miles, on this itin, they're co-terminals and interchangable.

Perfect thanks so much.

Offline 12HRS

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2192 on: January 28, 2015, 09:28:24 PM »
Ok got everything to show nicely. If the last leg NYC-LAX doesn't have availability for when I need it, I assume I should just book a far out date and then either something opens up that I can use and I switch it or lose the flight worst case scenario. Assuming it would be free to change the final leg just like changing a simple NYC-LAX leg?


Offline Marco Polo

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2193 on: January 28, 2015, 09:59:54 PM »
Ok got everything to show nicely. If the last leg NYC-LAX doesn't have availability for when I need it, I assume I should just book a far out date and then either something opens up that I can use and I switch it or lose the flight worst case scenario. Assuming it would be free to change the final leg just like changing a simple NYC-LAX leg?
Date change they will charge, IME.
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Offline DMYD

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2194 on: January 28, 2015, 10:31:24 PM »
If I take a flight from EWR-FRA on UA and LH from FRA-BUD would it be 57,500 or 70K?

Offline jaywhy

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2195 on: January 28, 2015, 10:36:06 PM »
If I take a flight from EWR-FRA on UA and LH from FRA-BUD would it be 57,500 or 70K?
The former.

Offline DMYD

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2196 on: January 28, 2015, 10:40:45 PM »
The former.
But they never seem to release the seats on UA with UA from EWR-FRA!

Online Geshmak25

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2197 on: January 28, 2015, 11:01:51 PM »
Need to cancel reservations for an award flight on sunday morning - best way to avoid/minimize fees?
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Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2198 on: January 29, 2015, 06:09:49 AM »
Double-checking a few things I want to make sure I understand correctly from upthread:

a) the one SO can also be one of the OJs? i.e. TLV-EWR (stop) YYZ-TLV is good?

b) I've been checking availability the last couple weeks for the summer and it seems that in general there is more TLV-YYZ availability than TLV-EWR both direct and stopover (and in either direction). Do people find that to be true in general (@Ergel?)?

ETA: I was referring to Y availability, btw
« Last Edit: January 29, 2015, 06:26:17 AM by AharonInIsrael »

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: United award flights
« Reply #2199 on: January 29, 2015, 06:25:18 AM »
Stopover rules depend on which miles you use. Since you posted in this thread, I'm assuming you're using UA miles.

--Cannot have more than one stopover on a RT award. You have two, so invalid.
--No guarantee leg one opens, so if you book another date now, hoping to switch closer in, and nothing opens, you'd be stuck paying a change fee to delete leg one.
--Waiting to book the entire itin until leg one is open is very risky because (i) it may never open, and (ii) your other legs may be gone at that point.
--Yes, doing 2, 3, and 4 is valid.
--Using UA miles, on this itin, they're co-terminals and interchangable.
Do you usually book a complex itinerary in steps, and wait to make changes until what you're looking for opens up + there was a change in schedule that allows you to ask them to waive the change fee (based off your TRs)?