Questions and Answers

Hey Lucky,

I had a reward ticket booked with United to Africa this summer and just got notice that one of my return flights had changed times and now I will miss the final connection.

Here’s my current itinerary:

LAX-ADD economy on Ethiopian airlines
ADD-KGL also Ethiopian(excursionist perk)
KGL-LAX via IST and WAW in Business on TKs new MAX and LOT 787 back to LAX

The connections for the return flight were both short at 2 hours, the flight from IST-WAW changed times so I will now miss the WAW-LAX flight. I called united and the only options they are giving me is going back thru ADD and going on Ethiopian in biz but they don’t even have lie flat seats on their 787.

I had 50k miles in my acct and used the United 70% bonus on buying miles so I paid roughly $1100 for the whole itinerary. I would cancel but I going with other people who have already bought revenue tickets based on what I already confirmed.

Do I keep waiting and hope new reward space will open up? Do I suck it up and say yes to a product and routes I don’t prefer?

There’s a lot of time between now and next summer. I’d age this issue with the strategy of constantly monitoring for better options on award space. It’s painful to constantly check but I’ve worked through similar issues on other airline award availability. I don’t fly UA much anymore but I’ve noticed that award space often opens up five to six months in advance of travel on many carriers.

In the worst case, I’d just run out the clock and suck it up and stay with your friends.

You mentioned the people you are traveling with already bought revenue tickets? What routing has United offered them?