From reading some other posts, and from talking to an agent, it seems that a one-way award of no more than 8-9 segments is possible in order to get it to price.

That said, what would be the best tool to create a multi-segment itinerary with valid connections?

United.com does not work when I start adding in international connections.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

it is either united.com or a phone agent. No other choices.
Many have been successful doing a multi-city OW international award bookings (maybe not 8-9 segments) on united.com, so perhaps with a bit info on the problem someone can help.

 

Well,

What I want to do--while slightly crazy--is maximize the number of 23h59min stops (crazy because I'll be flying coach) en route from the eastern US/Canada to Asia.

By playing around with individual segment searches, and only looking at flights that leave within the 23h59min window, I see lots of possibilities--and ones that have award availability.

However, when I input the actual flights in conjunction, I get errors.

So say I wanted to go JFK-CPH-OSL-VIE-CAI-DXB-BKK, maximizing the time at each destination based on schedule/availability, if possible. How might I go about constructing such an award.

Basically, is there any way to see if--even while available as a one-way flight--the award segments will price together when connected?

 

So, for example, I've been playing around with the booking tonight.

I can add one or two flights, and even once or twice three flights, but then it goes to the "cannot find flights page".

What a horrible booking engine.

 

Book a framework online incl origin and destination and maybe one connecting city, in your case probably VIE or CAI will work best - call in immediately after ticketing to change to flights you really want including your 23hr overnights.

 

I've convinced the website to ticket 9 segment one-way itins that span 6 days...

 

Nice!! I could get 6 segments, and had to call in to get 9 segments, including three 22-23 hour layovers on the way from PUJ to DPS. Long layovers are in PTY, YYZ and WAW.

 

A horrible booking engine cuz it won't let you stop in 5 countries in 6 days for the price of a o/w award

Although UA is more liberal (better) then any other program out there, even UA wint price something like what your asking. At some point, there is a limit and you've gone way over that

 

Online, yes. By phone I've done 12 segments (ua eTicket max) on a one way award, many places staying >24 hrs. Friend did more and they had to give him 2 etix.

YMMV but w UA today NOTHING is impossible.

 

Sorry, but you didn't read my second post very fully, given your response.

When adding three very basic flights

YYZ-CPH-OSL

I was getting an error saying that no flights could be found, when in fact there were available connections.

I understand that what I'm looking to do is extreme and might not even be entirely possible. My comment about the horrible booking engine was not based on performance relative to this extreme booking, but relative to a simple 3 or 4 segment itinerary. Your snark, therefore, is perhaps premature.

 

based on your previous posts in this thread, I would suspect you are looking from next day (nearly 24 hours connections). This is not what most folks want out of a booking engine and might lead to mistaken bookings for many. So the site may be biased to not offering such long connections in many circumstances. May just have to use the phone for this one.

Booking / flight search system are fairly complex and are programmed with a number of biases -- biased to certain providers, bias based on certain pricing guidelines (lowest fare, refunded fare, a particular fare class), minimizing layovers but still meeting MCT, ... Those biases may not fit your needs hence the suggest to use the phone agents -- their search system is more flexible -- plus if you have known flights, they can plug the specific flights directly. The online public system is a dumbed down system to prevent the public from making "poor choices", and is not really the best for an expert trying to push the limits.

 

United.com award booking engine is by far the best in the industry. It has plenty of issues but NO AIRLINE will properly issue a multi segment partner award without calling.

 

That would be reasonable as far as UX design goes. I just found it weird, as sometimes a segment would work, and other times it would go to the error screen--and there was no apparent regularity to what was going on.

Fair enough. I guess I was just finding it a bit glitchy, but obviously my single data point doesn't invalidate its reputation. I need to learn to better use it, for sure.

Can I safely assume, then, that so long as there is availability in a given booking class, and the segment is part of a valid connection, then I can concatenate segments to the maximum that the system/pnr can handle (and more importantly, what a given agent will handle)?

 

Does anybody know how many legal connections (less than 24 hours) I am allowed to book on a one way award ticket. I am trying to fly to as many places as I can in Europe and stopping for less than 24 hours each time. If I can find the connecting flights, How many will the system allow me. For instance I want to fly from evn to london and I can find flights stopping in vienna, then warsaw, then, stockholm. Each stop is under 24 hours. Is this legal?

Thanks for your help
Bevan

 

This seems to be similar to a recent discussion http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...way-award.html

There is a limit to the number of "coupons" allowed in a ticket -- beleive this is 8 or 9. Other than that, there is no extra limit on the number of near 24 hour connections.

You will not be allowed to backtrack in your travel direction.