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Hot off the heels of FTU LAX, I’m writing a post to show people how to construct an awesome, yet rare aspirational trip. It’s a trip with United, ANA, and Thai First!
For the past few months, I’ve been super busy with our Award Booking Service and haven’t had time to post here. I was amazed at how many people actually came to me this weekend and told me to write more! Everyone also asked me to write about my upcoming trip that I booked.
For many, the question is simple. “How do I get the most value out of my points?” Well, there are two types of people in the award booking world–one who wants to get from Point A to Point B and one who’s more interested in the line between Point A and Point B than either end point. This is for the latter.
I have to go with my family to Bangladesh for Winter Break, so that was the impetus for this trip, but I wanted to do more than just get there.
I used 60,000 United Miles for the outbound with the hopes that a few days before I travel, I can upgrade the award. This is a common technique I use.
Here is what I did:
I logged into United’s site, which I think is the best way to search for Star Alliance availability. I then proceeded to just do a generic Los Angeles to Dhaka (DAC) booking. Of course, the calendar showed NOTHING.
The trick is to book everything in segments. The biggest “trick” I use is to look for the hardest segment first. Scott calls this searching method “searching the bottleneck first.” See Book Awards Like a Pro: Routing Ideas.
For instance, for my trip the hardest segment to book was anything going into Bangkok. Tip for my Bengali readers and anyone who wants to go to Bangladesh in general: Business availability is wide open from Bangkok.
You can also check Istanbul-DAC in business with Turkish, which opens a decent number of seats.
If you are going to India, go into Bangladesh first and then buy a $100 ticket to India. I say this because if you’re flying in economy, you can save 15,000 miles roundtrip. India is 40K one way. Bangladesh is 32,500 oneway.
I knew that I would like to take my time going to Bangladesh so I wanted to fly east instead of west. That means instead of going over the Pacific from Los Angeles, I wanted to go over the Atlantic. This enables me to test out a few different airlines!
So with that, I started searching Europe-Asia availability. Particularly FRA-BKK or ZRH-BKK. There was nothing available on the dates I wanted so I did some more searching. I used some “secret” routes. I say secret because they always seem to be open in premium cabins.
“Secret” Routes include:
BRU-BKK
MXP-BKK
FRA-BKK
MUC-BKK
FCO-BKK
CPH-BKK
OSL-BKK
ARN-BKK
BCN-BKK
MAD-BKK
My Favorite ZRH-BKK
Also, there is a very weird once a week flight from CPH-HKT (Phuket) that runs on Saturdays. That also seems to be open. (Benefits of using my award booking service 😉 )
I searched for the direct flight availability the way that Scott outlined in Tricking United.com’s Award Calendar.
Anyways, I found nothing going into Bangkok in First Class. Luckily there was a flight from IST-DAC open on the EXACT day I wanted to travel. I put that on Phone Order hold (Scott outlined this trick here) and continued my search to patch together my trip.
When patching together a trip, you need to take into account some things. One of which is how long you want to stay in your layover cities. In my case, I wanted a day in each layover city so I then looked for the right times. This is where it got fun. My flight from IST-DAC left a 9:45PM. That meant that I would have to get into Istanbul the day before after 9:45 PM because United and US Air allow 23 Hours and 59 Minutes to stop in a city before it is considered a stopover!
I then found a flight that got into Istanbul at 10PM from Frankfurt! That was awesome so I then looked for a flight that got into Frankfurt the day before as well.
There was space coming into Frankfurt from all over the U.S. It was pretty much Chicago, Houston, and Washington D.C. However, there was nothing from Los Angeles. I did find some flight that connected from LAX-ORD and then onto Frankfurt, but I didn’t want that because it got into Frankfurt at 9 AM, and that would create a layover more than 24 hours.
I then tried going to other airports in Europe and I really lucked out because I found LAX-LHR in United Business! I called United and added that to my previous phone order hold. It was now a breeze. I landed into London at 2:05 PM but I didn’t want to stay there, so I was going to catch the 4:30PM flight the same day into Frankfurt that arrived at 6:45PM, which meant that I could have one whole day in Frankfurt and then catch the flight the next day into IST at 6PM.
I built my itinerary and it priced out at 60,000 United miles. I was happy with what I got but I had to go back an check what was available a few days ago. I was sort of blown away.
LAX-LHR was now available in First
LHR-DAC was now available like this: LHR-MUC-BKK-DAC in Thai First.
I called United and changed the ticket immediately. The taxes were an additional $6. The agent put me on hold for 45 minutes and because of that she waived the taxes. She also forgot that by waiving the taxes, she waived the additional 10,000 miles needed to go from Business to First! United has a weird rule where if they waive the taxes/points once, it will continuously get waived on the same itinerary! I didn’t believe it, so I made some more changes and they completely waived the taxes and close in booking fee!
Anyways, I was now booked like this
LAX-LHR United Global First
LHR-MUC Lufthansa Business
MUC-BKK-DAC Thai First
Pretty aspirational, huh? I didn’t think so.
A little known fact about United is that as soon as you get to 10+ segments on a roundtrip, the agents have to price the ticket manually. They aren’t as bad as US Airways, but this manual pricing also helps waive any future fees. This is important to note because when the agents change the itinerary, the taxes don’t change since they manually calculated it!
Yesterday, I looked to see how I could make this trip better. I found a really really cool route by working backwards. Here it is:
LAX-LHR United First
LHR-FRA Lufthansa Business
FRA-NRT ANA First in their new 777-300ER Product
NRT-BKK Thai First on their leased 777-300ER that is configured with suites and a closing door!
The United agent quickly put it together and my price was still 60K and taxes stayed the same. He said that the computer asked for a $75 close-in fee. I knew it wouldn’t charge the fee so I gave the info anyways. Sure enough, he came back and said that the itinerary is booked and that my credit card was charged $0.
I’m super ecstatic to go on this trip and can’t wait to write a trip report about this! MileValue is lacking some anyways. 😉
UPDATE: I’m now switched into Lufthansa Business Class from LAX-FRA direct on the new 747-8!
-BMG
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Very nicely done. So I only see 8 segments in your round-trip ticket. How did you trick the system with 10+ segment requirement? It appears you lucked out with the extended phone call leading to the tax waiver. Is that very rare or common to achieve?
I have 5 segments on the outbound and 5 on the return. I didnt talk about the return because it’s uneventful.
Can you please elaborate why you knew the $75 will be waved? Thanks
I knew it would be waived because I tried to make a change previously within 21 days and when I went to pay for that, the agent told me it was waived because a prior agent had waived all fees.
I just paid $300 for 2 RT tickets 🙁
Do they often waive it for people that ask or was it a result of the 45 minute wait that you mentioned.
Make sure you ask in the future because some agents will “one time courtesy waive” 😉
I’m a newbie. Can you explain exactly what a “layover” is? I thought it was: arrive at ABC airport at 10:00pm on Jan 1st…then you must leave ABC airport before 10:00pm Jan 2nd. Is that how it works?
That’s exactly what it is!
Great post, Tahsir
Lots of interesting ideas for our future trips.
Have a good visit – look forward to your trip reports.
Thanks!
Absolutely awesome. Can you clarify your return itinerary, i.e. is this RT with the same carriers for a total of 120k UA miles?
Thanks.
My return is uneventful but I am doing new years in Europe! It’s in economy as of now until I find something worth upgrading to.
DAC-BKK-MUC-LHR-NYC-LAX
Great post, and timely for me as I was planning a trip to Asia.
Did you search for all these flights using just the united site? I find it very hit and miss as far as showing availability. I was looking for ewr-mnl on Singapore or Thai airways. When I searched directly from ewr, I didn’t see any availability (didn’t show the flight all at actually). But if I added a connecting flight before to ewr from say ATL or POP, the flight showed. So I could get it with a connector flight to ewr, but not directly from ewr. Is this a glitch in the system where I have to call in
or can I really not get the direct flight? Is there a better way to search than united site that shows availabity better?
Thanks!
I love the United system and have never had that issue. My suggestion is to put what you’re finding on phone order hold and call in to cancel that beginning segment.
I am sooo jealous but this is how life works, so congratulations. I suppose this was for a single person only. I almost always travel with family so for me getting business class is the maximum I try (that also if I am lucky). Any way I have a couple of questions.
1) United allows 15% above the maximum permitted mileage (MPM). Right? How do you calculate that exactly using your example?
2) Do any star alliance airlines completely block the award availability during X-mas and new year time? What is your experience?
3) United/US Air mileage requirement for award travel from US is the same for DEL or DXB unlike DEL and DAC.
It’s funny because it is a single person trip. However, my parents are going in Business class all the way LAX-LHR then LHR-FRA-ICN-BKK-DAC. Talk about crazy routings! I have it easy 😉
United isn’t checking MPM right now so you can pretty much do anything except backtrack.
No star alliance doesn’t block anything. US Air is known to block flights but it’s easy to get around that if you find availability and as to long-sell the flight.
I believe that the Business Class fare to all these places is 60K. I know it changes for Australia. to 67.5K
“The agent put me on hold for 45 minutes and because of that she waived the taxes. She also forgot that by waiving the taxes, she waived the additional 10,000 miles needed to go from Business to First! United has a weird rule where if they waive the taxes/points once, it will continuously get waived on the same itinerary! ”
I never herd of waiving taxes i only herd of Booking fees did u ask for the waiver of taxes and fees or only for fees ?
I didn’t ask for anything but I think that because the taxes were so little, she decided to waive them
1)Was it more then 21 days that she didn’t charge a $75 close in fee the first time u changed to First
2)(The United agent quickly put it together and my price was still 60K and taxes stayed the same. He said that the computer asked for a $75 close-in fee. I knew it wouldn’t charge the fee so I gave the info anyways. Sure enough, he came back and said that the itinerary is booked and that my credit card was charged $0.)
how did u know it would be $0
Tahsir, I was trying to book BKK-BRU-EWR on TG F/UA BF using UA miles but the agent on the phone said this cannot be booked as it is against their “global routing rules”. Does UA only permit North Asia – USA routing via the Pacific?
That’s just small talk for “we don’t know what we’re doing” place bru-bkk on phone order hold and then call in to patch bru-nyc
“If you are going to India, go into Bangladesh first and then buy a $100 ticket to India.”
Does Bangladesh allow TWOV? Looks like it costs $160 if they don’t, making this much more expensive than just going straight into India (or via a visa-less country for most people, like Thailand or Singapore).
You know, it’s kind of hit and miss with this one. My uncle works at the airport there but I’m not really sure. I do know that people I’ve done it for have had no issues with it though
I assume you are an elite with UA? If you aren’t an elite, what kind of fees are normally charged to change your ticket like you did?
It doesn’t matter if you’re Elite or not. You have to get to Platinum before they start waiving change fees. Fees like this are waived for everyone 21 days before travel. The problem is ost airlines release availability 14 days out. The fee is $75
great post, thanks BMG
UN—effin-believable heheh..not only inspirational, but fun to read. Thanks for some useful tips…btw..it was fun walking with you to the In n Out in the rain during FTU weekend.
Here is another idea, how about booking economy award and upgrade to first class? If they waive the tax(therefore miles) from going business to first, then it makes logical sense that the system will do the same for economy upgrades, anyone would like to try it?
An interesting post, but could you PLEASE refrain from the use of “anyways”, rather than the correct form “anyway”? That, and the use of “towards” by some others, is really a distraction for me. But I did find the meat of the post to be of great interest, and I thank you for it.
I’ll try but anyways, thanks 😉 Just kidding!
You are the wind beneath my wings! Love to fly in on CPH-HKT from the US to go diving in Koh Lanta, can’t find it in ITA – any more info about it, or is it a trade secret? : )
(I was also there at In&Out @ FTULAX, fun times! )
Wow amazing I learned so much from this post — I’m not a noob but no expert either, but could you give me one bit of advice. I am trying to use 360k united miles for 3 people for biz class going from Houston to Asia with a free stopover in Europe. I don’t care where I stop in Europe but my goal is to get to Bangkok and then male. What are some best routes that I can experience the best planes and biz class. Thanks so much
ANA 777-300ER CDG-NRT, LHR-NRT, FRA-NRT OR The Dreamliner FRA-HND
BMG,
I recently booked a o/w where the UA agent messed up by not reserving the more direct flight. In any case, the supervisor put a notation on the account stating that that part of the segment can be changed at any time without any fee (I’m guessing change fee). Got any advice on how I can use this to my advantage? Ideally I’d like to change more than just this segment and upgrade to an F class. Thanks in advance and for posting this awesomely insightful trick!!!!!
Truly amazing. Great post. For me the value is seeing that something like this can even be done. For only 60K miles it is really amazing. Ill drop 100-125K just on a roundtrip on AA to LHR or NRT. Really good way to see all those First Class product.
I thought one way business to South Asia from North America is 65000 miles, how did you do it with just 60000?
It’s 60,000 One way not 65,000
Isn’t the upgrade from business to first on this route 20K for 1 way? If so, you just doubled your savings!
US-ASIA First Class is 70K. Europe-Asia First Class is 80K
Awesome redemption! I have a flight from CDG-FRA-DFW booked on UA miles in May. What alternative routes can I take to get on lie-flat Business class?
BMG, I found your blog a few days ago, and am excited to see another Bengali writing about miles and points! I grew up in DAC and am yet to do an award travel there, but just came back from am amazing award trip to Asia-Pacific on United Global First, Thai First, and Asiana Business. Hope you have a great trip.
[…] few days ago, I wrote about how to book an aspirational trip. In that post, I wrote about how I was going on 3 different First Class products; United, All […]
when u changed to first did they told u its will cost more miles and u ignored it or they didnt tell anythink
i have booked this FRA-RZE less then 24hr RZE-WAW-ORD (LOT 787 Drimliner)-LGA its priced 70K FOR Business i was 45 minutes to price it at 50k for a one way now i changed it to FRA-RZE 25 hr RZE-FRA-JFK they didn’t deduct more miles but on the recipe its says 70k my question is if i change to first if they say they will deduct more miles should i ignore it its will for sure not deduct more
Thank you for the post! I’m pretty new to the layover so I wonder do you need to take your luggage with you inlcuding the checked in ones since the next flight schedule in the next day?