My daughter and I are planning a trip to Taiwan / Beijing, mostly to fly the Hello Kitty plane on EVA Air rom Chicago to Taiwan. We booked our tickets awhile back using 95,000 ANA miles (transferred from American Express) for a roundtrip business class ticket from the US to Asia. Even better, because we flew on United, EVA and Air Canada, there were no (minimal) fuel surcharges!
(SEE ALSO: ANA fuel surcharges on award tickets: a comprehensive guide)
Making those connecting flights
One nice thing about booking award tickets, is that you can often (sometimes? usually?) find availability all the way from your home airport. Contrast that to using bank / flexible points to book a cheap cash (economy) ticket, like I did when I flew Icelandair to Europe.
(SEE ALSO: The folly and fallacy of using miles for economy tickets)
(SEE ALSO: 10 sweet spots for using miles to fly economy)
I booked the Icelandair flight from ORD-KEF-CPH, but then had to make my own accommodations to get from Cincinnati to Chicago (I picked up 2 cheap Southwest flights). And of course you also have to worry about the possibilities of connecting flights on different airlines, including what happens if your connecting flight is delayed / canceled.
Why United is irritating me
When I booked my ticket back a few months ago, there was only economy availability on the first leg from CVG-ORD. And that’s fine since it’s only like an hour flight. But I’ve been checking back periodically as we get closer to the time to see if anything opens up. And here’s where we’re at right now
No Saver First availability on any of the flights on my flight date from CVG-ORD.
But if I go into seat selection, here is what it looks like
11 out of the 12 seats in the “first class” cabin are available! And half of Economy Plus is available and even economy is not really full. But still no award availability…
I am open to suggestions in the comments, but I’m not sure there’s much (anything) that I can do. I have no status with United, and the ticket is owned by ANA since I used their miles to book it. Maybe I can plead my case with a gate agent at the airport?
Like I said, at the end of the day, it’s a 1 hour flight, so sitting in Row 11 where we’re at is fine – it’s just irritating..
Readers – ever had United play award availability games with you like this? Share your experiences in the comments!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Apparently you should never try to book most awards on Alaska or AA these days 🙂 Seems like all they have is mixed cabin. On Alaska it’s like the little lawn chair of death on the award charts. The good news is you’ll get that short haul in F and the long hauls all in the back of the plane. I sound bitter don’t I. Maybe I’ve spend too many dozens of hours searching for AA or AS awards to Europe lately. In AA and AS defense they do have decent availability to Asia all in premium seats much of the time. Not sure if that will change with route cuts.
I bet the seats will open up for you eventually.
For sure – Alaska is the worst at that. I’m hopeful availability will open up but we’re running out of time…
This is really something not worth caring about honestly. On a 1-hour flight in a small plane like that, it really really doesn’t matter.
I know… (I did mention that several times in the post). But it’s still mildly irritating
I’d be angrier with United and their lame $80 close-in booking fee. What are cash prices on this route? They can’t be much, although I’ve heard horror stories in and out of CVG.
For sure – that is annoying. But since this is a Star Alliance (ANA) award, I already have the CVG-ORD leg as part of the award, just in economy. It’s just irritating that there’s no business / domestic first space available, even though there’s 11/12 seats open
You can get around that fee. Simply look for the exact flights you want but on a date farther into the future (past the 21 day window). If you still see those flights you book them, then you can cancel/modify the flights for no charge for 24 hours. United systems won’t charge you the fee when you change the flights from farther into the future to the dates you really want.
Is that still working? I’ve heard that no longer works online and is a big YMMV based on phone agents if you call in
Happens all the time, tons of transcontinental UA & *A business and first class (even saver) seats on award bookings, but never any first class seats on domestic connections — and long layovers at that. I always give up and just pay for the domestic legs and use my upgrade. I guess they know we hate coming back from a Polaris flight to squeeze back into E+ seats.
I know with a United mixed award I was able to call and waitlist for the first class and was put in first not too long after calling.
Yes – I think I could do this if it were a United award but since this is an ANA award I’m not sure that is possible
Technically, since it is an ANA award, if the space were to clear, ANA would then need to reissue the ticket before travel. OA tickets are not eligible for gate standby. Doesn’t mean you might not be able to try, but that’s the fair answer to expect.
the empty seats sometimes do not represent the true availability.
happened to me once when the whole economy plus was showing as available but when i checked with United there were only 2 seats available on the flight
Google Flights / United lets me buy 8 first class seats on that flight, so it looks to me like it truly is available
It is true that the seat map does not represent true availability, but that is more likely to be problematic for Economy than First, as you have noted here.
Well in Feb 2017, wife and I had 1st class award seats 360,000 miles total) on UA nonstop IAH / HNL / IAH. Booked in Sept 2016, at which time we selected seats 1A and 1B for super extra legroom.
But when I checked in 24 hours before departure, they had moved us to 2E and F, no notice. The people put in 1A and B were not disabled, nor were they assisting someone who was. At IAH, first class no longer got us entry to their club. Had to burn 2 of our free Explorer ?Card passes to get in.
Flights are 8.5 hours westbound, 7.5 hours eastbound. Worst part (still is), they use ancient 777-200s that belong in one of the aircraft boneyards in Arizona. Replace the jet engines with props, and these would resemble B-29s flown at the end of WWII. The supposed hydraulic controls on footrests and seatbacks don’t work. You have to physically yank them into place.
Final insult was for 2nd time that week, the IAH to HNL clunker had hydraulic problems. After a 6 hour delay at IAH, they put us on a different 777 clunker to SFO then another 777 clunker to HNL. Ruined our 1st day of vacation. They offered a $200 voucher to ALL passengers including 1st class. I complained vociferously via letter to their CEO and was able to get $400 each for us.
I have the same problem with a DEN-NRT ticket. Plenty of seats were available for DEN-LAX in first, but I will be in coach. This is apparently a way to keep their domestic first class open only for cash customers. Just hoping when I show up in DEN at the first class counter they will check me in.
I hereby rename UA as “We Couldn’t Care Less” Airlines — “we already have your $ (or points), you’re now on your own, so sue us.”
In May 2018 I had a (PAID $) connection SEA-DEN-BWI, reserved specifically to avoid the rotten rush hour traffic in Baltimore. According to UA’s own flight status, the plane on DEN-BWI leg had arrived early. Then they said my connection would be delayed. Checked with agent, and she LIED that “bad weather delayed the aircraft to be used.” Their on-line status said it already had arrived, EARLY.
Once we finally boarded, pilot apologized for the delay and said, “original plane had been re-assigned to a different gate.”
Finally arrived BWI at 5:15 PM, 2 hours late in the middle of massive traffic congestion.
I’m burning the rest of my UA miles for various trips and flying SW or any other carrier from now on.