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#1 Ralph writes in to ask whether he should cancel his previously booked United award to take advantage of a 2,500 mile oneway to Hawaii:
Just wanted to say what an awesome post on United Award flights and the ability to add flights from the East Coast to HNL for only 2,500 miles! I personally think that is one of the best examples you’ve highlighted.
I wish I saw this about two weeks ago when I booked a JFK-LIS, stopover, LIS-MAD, openjaw, BCN-JFK award flight. I would have not burned my stopover from LIS-MAD and instead added on a JFK or EWR to HNL segment. Looking it up, the LIS-MAD segment is going for $48.
Do you think it’s worth it to cancel the ticket and rebook assuming availability is there?
Thanks again for posting about this and bringing it to my attention.
Ralph has this trip booked:
JFK-LIS//LIS-MAD
BCN-JFK
He wants to know whether he should change it to:
JFK-LIS
BCN-JFK
JFK-HNL
Do you see the difference? He’d be deleting Lisbon to Madrid from his itinerary and adding JFK to Honolulu.
First, is this a good deal? Second, can it be done?
Cancelling and rebooking is a great deal in this case. Cancelling the award and redepositing the miles will cost $150. The taxes and fees on his new award will be about the same as his old, so that’s a wash. He still wants to fly LIS-MAD, and his new award doesn’t have that flight, but he found one for $48. And adding the flights to Hawaii will add 2,500 miles to the award price. I value 2,500 miles at $45.25 (2,500 times 1.81 cents per United mile.)
Cancelling and rebooking nets a oneway from JFK-HNL for $243.25 ($150 + $48 + $45.25 worth of miles). This is a fantastic deal. The question becomes, can the rebooking be done?
Cancelling your flights does not mean that the award space you just released is now available. In some cases the award space may disappear. So it is imperative to know that you can book a better itinerary before you cancel your old one. If you have the miles, you can go online and book your new award, then call up to cancel your old one.
If you don’t have extra miles to do that, call up and explain that you want to cancel your old award to book a slightly different one, but you want to make sure that your old one is not cancelled unless your new one is reserved.
I suggest everyone look at any roundtrip itineraries you’ve booked but not flown to see if they are worth cancelling and rebooking with a free oneway.
#2 Several people noted that I didn’t put up any examples of trips to Asia with a free oneway tacked on. Some people also noted I hadn’t shown an itinerary in first class. Here is an example of a first class itinerary to Asia from Los Angeles with a free oneway added at the end:
Transpacific flights are in United Global First in this example, which is United’s name for first class on three cabin planes. Global First from the continental US to Japan is 67,500 miles each way. From the continental US to China, Global First is 70,000 miles each way. Adding those up, the itinerary is pricing at 137,500 miles plus $57.
I’ve added a free oneway in first class from LAX to JFK on United’s three cabin p.s. service, and the miles price is unchanged at 137,500 miles.
This is just a further example that free oneways are possible on all roundtrip international United awards and in all classes of service.
I want to thank my readers for the great questions; keep them coming. Where will you take your free oneway?
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I can’t do it. I am trying to do IAD-syd then Auckland to IAD and the free one way is sju (San Juan I hope) to IAD. After I do the first (IAD-SYD) I select it and then an error message pops up. What do I do????? I’m doing this itinerary because I just booked it 2 weeks ago except for the San Juan part.
I’m confused by your order. If you want the free oneway SJU-IAD, it needs to be the first flight. Remember that we’re constructing these free oneways with a stopover and an open jaw, and the stopover is at your home airport, IAD in this case. Since IAD is an enroute stopover, it needs to be en route from SJU to SYD in this case. So your itinerary needs to be:
SJU-IAD
IAD-SYD
AKL-IAD
alternatively it could be
IAD-SYD
AKL-IAD
IAD-SJU
If I’ve misunderstood, and you have chosen one of those orders, here are my tips. While coming up with these I encountered a ton of error screens, more than usual on united.com. One things I suggest if you’re getting an error is searching each segment oneway and noting the date of the availability you want. Then do the multicity search with those exact dates. The reason is that I got more errors when I selected a date without availability. If that doesn’t work, and you really want to book this (ie not just practice), I would just call. You will incur a $25 phone fee (that you can possibly get waived if you say you called because of errors), but it’s worth $25 to add a oneway to SJU!
Thanks for your help. I have already booked the IAD-Syd and also the AKL to IAD. I am thinking like the other poster whether I should safely cancel and rebook adding in a free stopover, like San Juan. I’ll keep trying. Appreciate you getting back to me.
Jane
Thank you for the great post! I did have a couple of questions…
Is this possible using Star Alliance partners for international segments? I couldn’t tell from your screen shots if every segment was flown on United or if you can mix and match.
My other question deviates from the theme of your post, but was hoping you may have the answer. I was hoping to book a United award flight from the continental U.S. to Australia with a stopover in Africa, the ideal itinerary would look something like this (although I understand that finding these exact flights as noted may be a challenge).
Detroit-New York-Frankfurt-Cairo//Munich-Singapore-Sydney (any routing home would work)
or
Detroit-Washington DC-Doha-Johannesburg//Perth (any routing home would work)
In a nutshell, I’m curious if there are any valid routings through Africa en route to Australia originating form the US. I’ve been able to dummy book to Australia through Europe, but every time I try via Africa I get an error message from United. Thanks and keep up the great work!
1. Yes it is possible to use partners and not United on any of the legs. The free oneway in no way relies on flying United planes. So that’s good news.
2. The routing rule that US-Africa-Aus runs up against is that United will let you exceed the Maximum Permitted Mileage of a route by 15% on an award. United has a Maximum Permitted Mileage that a paid ticket between your origin and destination may fly. You can call up United and ask what the MPM between Detoit and Sydney is. Then you can go to gcmap.com and see how far DTW-JFK-FRA-Cairo-MUC-SIN-SYD is. If it exceeds the MPM by less than 15%, you’re OK. Otherwise, you can’t take that route. Hope that helps.
MPM for DTW-SYD over the Pacific is 11376mi, so adding 15% makes it a max of 13082mi. Your first routing is 17920mi, so that’s a no-go.
MPM for DTW-PER over the Pacific is 13674mi, so adding 15% makes it a max of 15725mi. Your second routing is 16344mi, so that doesn’t work either unfortunately.
As a side note, I’ve noticed that LH publishes fares from US to SYD via the Atlantic, at often a much higher mileage (ie, DTW-SYD MPM is 17740mi via AT vs 11276mi via PA). When booking UA awards, is it possible to use this MPM and make the routing valid, or can you only use UA published MPMs?
some airlines have both “AT” and “PA” (via Atlantic and via Pacific) MPM’s. United only seem to have PA for DTW-SYD thus the Atlantic routings likely won’t work. DTW-SYD is capped out at 13,082 miles.
the fees in UA’s fee chart (for cancelling ticket) are per person or per reservation? for example i have a group of 4 persons in a reservation.. thanks.
Per person, so multiply by four.
I tried to duplicate your lax-pek,nrt-lax,lax-JFK without success. I used the exact dates. All was fine til the lax-JFK leg, then it only gave me standard award choices. No saver awards for multiple dates in Feb, March and Apr.
I then tried ord-nrt. 2/14, nrt-ord. 2/19, ord-JFK 3/14/13. First class United. Again, the “free” leg ord-JFK does not show any saver awards for the entire month of March, and April.
I am not having any luck picking up a free trip on my trans pacific flights. What am I doing wrong
?
One thing I’ve noticed is that when you do a multicity search, they give you many fewer options than when you do a oneway or roundtrip search. I assume it’s a computer glitch. Search each segment oneway, and note your desired flights.
Then if you do the mutlicity search, and the space you know exists doesn’t show up, call up to book. Explain that the space wasn’t showing up to see if they’ll waive the $25 fee.
i heard some people bought travel insurance on the reservation (like on AA or UA website) before they cancelled.. it may not be ethical, but will it work? thanks
I am not sure what you mean. Can you give more details?
sure it is here:
http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/products/travelproducts/Pages/TripInsurance.aspx?SID=C4AC10044EAB46F2B63784FD3F9C382D
I have bought travel insurance from http://www.insuremytrip.com and it does not insure award tickets since you do not have any out of pocket except for the taxes.
Are you able to get trip insurance for award tickets? Would love to know since I have a big trip coming up and haven’t bought insurance yet.
http://www.etravelprotection.com/unitedairlines/Product/?psId=001001210
Thanks for the link. Just bought some travel insurance for our reward international tickets.
[…] check out milevalue’s writeups on: Free oneways on United to Hawaii, Oneways on United, and differences between United’s and AA’s […]
Is it possible to start and finish an RT award in different regions? Like LHR-DOH-JNB/JNB-DOH-FRA stopover FRA-SFO-HNL?
So it ist a RT with start in London, Destination in JNB and the return is to HNL with a stopover in FRA. Possible?
The post about free oneway awards included an award to Europe from North America, then continuing to South America. Your award should be OK, and it should price at 80,000 in coach: oneway Europe to Africa (30k) + oneway Africa to Hawaii (50k).
whoa this is blowing my mind! So I talked to some other bloggers…one said I could add a hawaii leg and another said I couldn’t. What do you say? My flight is a mix of 1st and business:
BOS-Frankfurt-ZRH-PEK-TPE
TPE-BKK-MUC-BOS
I have a stopover in Munich but can change that….so yeah? is it possible to add another leg to even LAX or SFO?
thanks!
I assume you are using United miles for the award. If so, you can definitely add a free oneway to California if you eliminate any other stopovers..
If you’ve already booked the award, though, you may be forced to cancel and rebook for a $150 fee.
yes i am…awesome…but not to Hawaii? or even Alaska?…and ur saying you can’t have a stopover during the trip bc I want to save it at the end….but in ur examples it looks like you can do a open jaw still? (but i’m guessing for less than 24hrs) THANKS MAN!!
United gives two open jaws and one stopover per roundtrip. You need one open jaw and one stopover to construct a free oneway. That means you cannot use any stopover on the main body of the trip, but you can use an open jaw. That means you need to eliminate your stopover in Munich to preserve your ability to have a free oneway. Your free oneway can be anywhere in the continental US, Alaska, or Canada. To add the oneway to Hawaii would be 2,500 miles extra if your return was coach from Europe, 7,500 miles extra if your return is biz from Europe, and free if your return was first from Europe.
wow! tha’ts awesome…i totally don’t get the pricing of the extra miles esp with 1st class not having to pay anything! 😛
do you think it be smarter to just add the stopover to New Orleans (which is where I wanted to go to in Feb) for two weeks laters or book something in FEb 2013..or will they be like…um no.
Hey MileValue, any thought about adding a leg in terms of dates? is it better to do it two weeks after or can I book it all the way till Feb 2013?
Are you asking how long you should put between the main award and the free oneway? As much time as you want. Feel free to book a roundtrip award that leaves next week and a free oneway for April 2013 or vice versa; that’s well within the rules!
dang! sweet you are the man! hey is there a way to support this site via credit card sign up or anything like that?
Hopefully soon because I also want to start doing some in depth valuations of sign up bonuses that I haven’t seen on other sites that are more willing to push cards blindly.
First and foremost, thanks for this awesome tip!
I’m having difficulty adding on a free one-way from HNL to EWR to an Asian RT. For example, I’m trying to book:
HNL-EWR
EWR-NRT
NRT-EWR
I’ve been able to do an identical trip to Europe for 62.5K, which is effectively giving me the one-way from HNL for 2.5K.
HNL-EWR
EWR-LHR
LHR-EWR
Any idea why it isn’t working with an Asian destination? Thanks so much for your help!
You can only exceed the posted Maximum Permitted Mileage for the route by 15% on a United award. The MPM of HNL to NRT is probably being exceeded by far more than 15% when routing through Newark. On an east coast to Asia roundtrip, you can probably tack on as far away as the west coast, but Hawaii might be just out of range.
Ahhh, makes sense. Thanks for the fast response!
Thanks for this post. Would appreciate your thoughts on flying to one of the islands in the Indian Ocean such as Madagascar or Maldives as a stopover before visiting East or Central Africa such as Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, or Ethiopia? Start trip could be EWR or IAD then one-way out to SLC, PDX, or SFO.
You can’t get a free oneway on Untied awards if you also take an en route stopover. It’s one or the other.
Thanks for the reply. Any suggestions on reconfiguring the flights mentioned above to have two open jaws and a OW with award tickets?
I’m I getting a “free” trip with this combo of flights on United? 40k economy and 60k if I choose return business
Roc-Sfo – stopover for 3 days
Sfo to Ogg- 10 days
Ito to Roc-7 days returning home
Inter island flight additional miles.
Also how do I know if the plane has reclining seats in their business class ?