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I talk a lot about segment-by-segment searching. The idea is that just typing where you live and where you want to go into an airline’s award search engine may not reveal Saver award space even when there is a legal, possible award.
Searching segment-by-segment, starting with the hardest segment can yield itineraries that the search engine missed.
In the comments of yesterday’s post–Route from the US to Europe via Canada for Better Award Space–UA Phil gave a great example of an extremely simple segment-by-segment search he ran that yielded award space from San Francisco to London for only 30k United miles one way.
I’ve recreated the steps he followed to show you exactly what segment-by-segment searching entails.
Here are the five steps:
- Simple search
- Wikipedia
- Transatlantic search
- Home-to-gateway search
- Call in to book
1. Simple Search
There’s no need to start by searching segment-by segment. Maybe a simple home-to-destination search will bring up award space. UA Phil was searching San Francisco to London in July.
A two-passenger search yields some economy award space.
If you prefer to fly in early July, it superficially appears that there is no Saver award space. This is when the segment-by-segment search begins.
2. Using Wikipedia
I use wikipedia to research possible routings. In this case, I would pull up the London-Heathrow page and look for Star Alliance flights between Heathrow and North America.
Here are some flights to consider:
3. Transatlantic Search
As I said yesterday, the Canadian flights have a ton of award availability and are a convenient place for a layover between San Francisco and London.
It turns out that both Vancouver and Calgary both have award space almost every day this summer in economy for two passengers to London.
The Calgary flight leaves at 6:30 PM.
4. Home-to-Gateway Search
In this case, the home-to-gateway search is very easy. The flight leaves Calgary every day in July at 6:30 PM with award space, so we just need to find a day with a flight from San Francisco to Calgary that lands before 6:30 PM and has economy award space.
Here’s the award calendar for direct flights from San Francisco to Calgary.
There’s economy award space on July 10 that lands in Calgary at 11:53 AM, six and a half hours before the transatlantic flight.
That layover is not ideal, but if it is the only way to get from San Francisco to Calgary for 30k United miles, it might be something to consider. (I am not saying it is the only way. Test out some other segment-by-segment searches and share your results with us in the comments.)
5. Call United to Book
The last step is to put the transatlantic segment on hold using this trick, and to call United at 800-UNITED-1 to add the SFO to Calgary flight, and ticket the award.
Getting the Miles
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There are a lot of options to get United miles. There are United co-branded credit cards. There are also cards that earn Ultimate Rewards like the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus, and Ink Bold that allow 1:1 transfers of their Ultimate Rewards to United miles.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
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Step 3 – When you’re searching transatlantic legs, are you searching on United’s site or the partner’s?
I search on united.com because it has a very easy to view two month calendar.
[…] Link – MileValue […]
Hi Scott, whenever I put segments on hold and call United to book the segments as one trip, the agent tells me by putting it on hold (and having three confirmation numbers) makes it impossible for her to put it together in one award. I’ve always had to cancel the hold, and then she would quickly search the flight number and time, and try to manually add it. This is very risky and when I was booking my Newark to Berlin flight, she couldn’t find the segment that I “released” to her and said it doesnt show up on the system after I cancelled the hold.
How do you convince United agents to put multiple confirmation numbers in one award? Are they able to combine the confirmation numbers but you have to request this in a different way I’m not aware of?
In this example, there are two flights San Fran to Calgary and Calgary to London.
ONLY PUT ONE ON HOLD. I’d suggest Calgary to London. Immediately call in and have the other one added.
Hi Suz, the reason the agent couldn’t find the Newark to Berlin segment you released is because United’s system takes roughly 10-15 minutes(in my experience) to display seats that were previously held and then cancelled. This is obviously very risky so don’t use this method often.
Scott is right that the safest thing to do is hold the hardest to find flight, and then add whatever intra-region connections you want over the phone.
Thanks, Scott!!
One additional note: The “award availability calendar” shown in Step 1 is not always accurate. I’ve found that selecting “Number of flights to display: 50”, then scrolling down through the options looking for Saver availability, often turns up options even if the calendar shows nothing available.
For example, at this moment, the calendar shows no Saver availability for July 16, but there are two economy Saver award options offered under “partner flights with stops” – one connecting through Vancouver, the other through Toronto.
All very true.
[…] always start with a simple search of exactly what the client wants, moving on to more complicated segment-by-segment searching only if […]
Hello Scott,
I read your very intriguing “how to” and sounds very good! I have a ton of United miles but hardly can find routes to Europe (from the US), in the summer, with discounted upgrades. My question is, let’s say I find an itinerary Montreal – Frankfurt, business class at 70,000 miles each way. So it’s a total of 140,000 miles so far. I put this on hold then call United to find me a connection Denver – Montreal. Do I need additional miles for the Denver – Montreal or United agent can tag this Denver – Montreal to the itinerary I placed on hold?
Thanks!!
It is the same number of miles from Denver to Frankfurt as Montreal to Frankfurt, so putting the latter on hold and changing it to the former over the phone adds zero extra miles.
[…] Here is a post on Segment-by-Segment searching with a full example. […]
[…] may need to search segment-by-segment and book these connections by phone. If you find Saver award space (12,500 miles one way or less), you can add it to the Aerolineas […]
[…] always start with a simple search of exactly what the client wants, moving on to more complicated segment-by-segment searching only if […]
[…] Aeroplan’s search engine has also been programmed better than United’s to find itineraries with multiple connections. I frequently find award space on aeroplan.com for two or three layover itineraries that I did not find on united.com. That’s why I always search aeroplan.com before moving on to more complicated segment-by-segment searching. […]
[…] How to do a segment-by-segment award search […]
[…] Here is a complete example of a segment-by-segment search that routes from the United States to Europe via Can…. […]
I must be dumb but when I follow your instructions to go to Wikipedia to London-Heathrow, I don’t see where I get to the Star Alliance flights between Heathrow and North America. Is there another step (on Wiki) that is so obvious that you didn’t see the need to cover it and I am missing it?
Click the “Airlines and destinations”shortcut link and you’ll be brought to the list of all airlines that fly out LHR (and where they fly). It doesn’t categorize by alliances, you just need to know which airlines are part of Star Alliance and which aren’t. You can see that info here.