The Best Value Domestic US Award Redemptions

Will I still get the benefits of my United status if I book an award through a partner (and thus the partner ff# is in the system and not my United one)?

I am a TK Gold member. I have NEVER been able to book an award ticket on United despite trying several times, with the old system of emailing a form or the phone reservations. They NEVER had award availability at any mileage level. I'd love to hear success stories.

I predict this will not last very long.

@Matt: Lots of recent success stories. In the FM post Ben links to at the top of this post, I note an itinerary I booked yesterday (which was 3 passengers to Hawaii in economy class for 7500 each on a 2-stop itinerary, which is what we chose over a 1-stop that didn't fit our schedule as well). We had a reader book 6 lie-flat seats on one flight from LAX-OGG yesterday over the phone. Back when I first wrote about this on July 5th, I had booked via email -- but we've had so many success reports from readers booking over the phone since then that I booked over the phone yesterday. Took ~30 minutes.

The key is to search for the space yourself and feed the segments to the agents. Don't give them a start and end point and expect them to connect the dots: they won't. You need to place the dots for them, but that's super easy to do by looking for saver space at United.

Now my years of best kept secret is gone. Yes it works on HI AK on business (not easy but doable). Phone probably will dry up inventory in weeks and change will come. The old email has its delays and unsuccessful booking, phone just made it much easier.
There are still few others NOT BLOGGED sweet spots out there, but very rare. Hint: It's not Southwest 😛

Hey Lucky, I am long time reader but this should be credited to Nick from frequent miler. This is a massive sweet spot that was found in a world of never ending devaluations.

now all the sweet spots I knew have been blogged, and the others subsequently disappeared ... including the very useful trick for booking BA and avoiding their hefty add-on fees

Ok Ben, but who wants to redeem miles for an archaic 737-800 to Hawaii? You will never find saver availability for partners on the EWR and HNL nonstops operated by widebody aircraft.

Nooo, I'd like this sweet spot to remain secret. But this is really the best way to fly United domestic. Turkish used to stop people using this by charging outrageous fee by applying the 7.5% excise tax to full fare price. They then stepped to charging $32.50 flat, and now it's just the Sep 11 $5.60 like everyone else.

Note also that up until recently, Honolulu was considered Oceania, making the Island Hopper bookable at 15000 mi one way. Sadly that sweet spot has gone as Hawaii is now in North America for Turkish.

Would this pricing work on a flight from the East Coast to Hawaii (ex: Newark to Honolulu), and if so, would the nonstop on a 777 be bookable?

Also, would it work on UA's polaris 787 from EWR to LAX/SFO?

Is this for west coast non stops only? Turkish reps say no availability from CMH-HNL even though United clearly shows saver award availability at the 22.5k pricepoint for my dates (Mar31 to Apr06, 2020). I’m not logged into my united account so it’s not special availability’ for cardholders. Very frustrating.

Same experience for different routes Andrew.

@LM Yes, this works on premium transcon flights, but good luck finding availability!

@Andrew R. I believe this pricing is for direct flights only.

What the F***. Just ruined a great travel secret! Can’t you use some discretion. Bloggers suck now

@Monopod: Not nostops only. I booked a 3-segment flight to Hawaii on Monday.

@LM: Yes, the nonstop from Newark is bookable. A reader asked about it on Monday and on Monday, the nonstop from EWR to HNL was available for 2 passengers in economy class on 26 of the 31 days in January, for example. I haven't seen business class available on that in a long time though.

Question- Can i use United Miles to book this ticket, or do I have to transfer miles via Citi (which I don't have right now) to Turkish Smiles and Miles?

Thanks,

I'm extremely frustrated with this. I called various times and each person I talked to couldn't understand what I was trying to do and kept saying there was no availability. Finally I was able to speak to someone at TK that understood what I was trying to do and knew how to book on UA, they were able to see the same X fare code available as me and confirmed the number of miles required to travel. Then I transferred the miles and now I can't find anyone that is able to book the itinerary. Plenty of availability shows up on United Saver, Lifemiles, Aeroplan, Expertflyer, etc... but I can't find anyone that can find it at Turkish to book. I've talked to maybe 6 different reps. Any suggestions here?