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Joose Caboose
Apr 17, 2013
Is there a general rule of thumb for how far in advance to buy tickets for general locations? For example if origin is in the US, are there certain timetables for how long in advance to book flights for domestic/Europe/South America/Oceania, etc. to get optimal prices?

Also assuming not factoring in specific times of year where prices may be especially high or low.

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PicklesMcGillicuddy
May 28, 2010

I DO NOT EAT HUMAN FOOD; I ONLY EAT
PINE CONES
My girlfriend in Berlin is planning on visiting me in San Francisco in mid-February (around the 18th), and then we want to fly back together in early April (probably the 1st). Is there any way for her to get a round-trip ticket, and for me to get a one-way that puts us on the same return flight without me having to buy the whole round-trip? Or should we just suck it up and buy two round-trip tickets?

LaserWash
Jun 28, 2006
Mackieman or someone else who plays the "Miles game,"

To me it appears that US Airways is going to merge their Dividend Miles program into American's AAdvantage program (by next year sometime?). I have a "0" balance in both programs, but would like to game the credit card system to get the US Air miles before Barclays is shown the door. Does it make sense for me and my wife to sign up for their 30-35K mile offer now and then EXPECT to be able to sign up for the 40-60K offers that AA has through Citi later on, say in late 2014?

As a side note, I think we need a mileage nerd thread, who's with me? I'm young to the game and have discovered this is a brilliant way of traveling. We travel to Europe every year, but last summer was our first year flying for "free." We've already got the miles to go again for "free" next summer. Trying to get it to where we can "bank" a bunch of them and go whenever the hell we want.

LaserWash fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Dec 14, 2013

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

BabyRyoga posted:

Hmm, SAN might be a problem, but LGB is an acceptable option. I would probably have to work my week around being in San Diego for New Years and hanging out with area friends in order for that to work. I don't know anything about the transit systems in DC, but anything that is doable by bus sounds cheap and would work. I would want to avoid Taxis, and Amtrak sounds like it would bump costs up quite a bit.

Is the general opinion that I should try to resolve this ASAP, or is it worth waiting till the last minute to try and scoop up cheaper flights?

Amtrak isn't terribly expensive if you buy tickets way in advance, usually. Last time I went to DC I flew into BWI and took the train down; I think it was $9 each one-way for my wife and I. And the shuttle from the airport to the train station is really not a big deal in my opinion. But it's all about your personal valuation of the options; only you can determine what makes the most sense for you.

And I would book as soon as you found a fare you were willing to pay for. As I noted in the first post, the idea of last minute cheap plane tickets is pretty much a myth.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

Joose Caboose posted:

Is there a general rule of thumb for how far in advance to buy tickets for general locations? For example if origin is in the US, are there certain timetables for how long in advance to book flights for domestic/Europe/South America/Oceania, etc. to get optimal prices?

Also assuming not factoring in specific times of year where prices may be especially high or low.

Not really, no. As noted in the first post of the thread, prices vary widely from market to market. Generally buying in advance nets lower fares, but sometimes things change, and not always in your favor. It's the nature of the system in that airlines are constantly trying to maximize their yields. The only thing you can do is try to stay away from known peak travel seasons (Chinese New Year in Asia, summer in Europe, etc). I often go to Europe during the winter or very early Spring for this purpose. I'm going to BRU and VNO in a couple of weeks, SNN on a mileage run the week after that, and then to LHR, VIE, SZG, EDI, and DUB in March. I wouldn't be doing any of those things during summer because it's hot and full of people then, and I dislike both of those things.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

PicklesMcGillicuddy posted:

My girlfriend in Berlin is planning on visiting me in San Francisco in mid-February (around the 18th), and then we want to fly back together in early April (probably the 1st). Is there any way for her to get a round-trip ticket, and for me to get a one-way that puts us on the same return flight without me having to buy the whole round-trip? Or should we just suck it up and buy two round-trip tickets?

So she's in TXL and you're in SFO, and she's coming to visit you and then you want to leave together so you can visit TXL and stay there on some sort of permanent basis? I just want to make sure I understand what you're trying to accomplish.

Assuming my understanding is correct, there is nothing prohibiting you from buying a one-way ticket on the same flight that she returns to Germany on. Do be aware that in most cases, one-way international tickets are charged at full fare, so they are significantly more expensive than the same flight as part of a round trip. Depending on the dates and the airline, you'd have to search and compare the fares and see what makes the most sense as there are cases where the round trip price does not equal the price of two one-ways.

Also consider than unless you're an EU citizen, a one-way ticket into the EU without proof of egress may cause them to not let you into the country.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

LaserWash posted:

Mackieman or someone else who plays the "Miles game,"

To me it appears that US Airways is going to merge their Dividend Miles program into American's AAdvantage program (by next year sometime?). I have a "0" balance in both programs, but would like to game the credit card system to get the US Air miles before Barclays is shown the door. Does it make sense for me and my wife to sign up for their 30-35K mile offer now and then EXPECT to be able to sign up for the 40-60K offers that AA has through Citi later on, say in late 2014?

As a side note, I think we need a mileage nerd thread, who's with me? I'm young to the game and have discovered this is a brilliant way of traveling. We travel to Europe every year, but last summer was our first year flying for "free." We've already got the miles to go again for "free" next summer. Trying to get it to where we can "bank" a bunch of them and go whenever the hell we want.

There's a lot of people doing something similar to what you're planning on with the expectation that all your US miles will translate into AA miles at some point in 2014 (I'm betting April as that is when US reciprocity with Star Alliance and UA ends). If you can churn and bank miles, go for it. Aggressive churning is a bit too much work for me so I don't tend to be as involved with that side of things as others are. Just be very aware about what you're doing: AA has not announced very many details about what the combined program will look like. I think it's a safe bet that US miles will become AA miles on a 1:1 basis, but that's not written in stone anywhere. Also consider the power of the AA network to get you where you want to go. If you like Europe, be wary of the fuel surcharges on awards, especially in premium cabins. There's lots more info out there on this sort of thing over at MilePoint; I don't patronize AA very often so I'm not as familiar with the intricacies of that particular program, though I know people who are.

And feel free to ask mileage nerd questions and have those discussions in this thread. The topic is a little to niche to survive as its own thread, I think. We can talk about those topics as much as you like in here, including the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the devaluations roll in as they did over the last couple of weeks for pretty much everyone except AS and AA, mostly because AA hasn't announced anything yet due the merger. And I suppose DL flyers got a slight improvement in their global diamond upgrade certs can now be used on fares lower than Y/B/M.

LaserWash
Jun 28, 2006

Mackieman posted:

If you like Europe, be wary of the fuel surcharges on awards, especially in premium cabins.

I'm totally invested in united mileage plus. So the thing with fuel and environmental surcharges that AA/BA have going on is totally foreign to me. The best I understand, it's best to skip stops and layovers in the UK and there is a lawsuit going over those charges. Most of our travel is into and out of Germany, which on American means leaving from College Station or San Antonio is a stop in Dallas, then on to Frankfurt, the best I can tell.

LaserWash fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Dec 14, 2013

Varkas
Apr 16, 2003

If I post before 5pm PST, PM my boss and tell him I'm fired.
Is there a good resource for finding last minute cheap flights to nowhere in particular? (well, English speaking areas) Most services seem to revolve around having a particular destination in mind. I'm basically wanting to do some spontaneous weekend travel after work on a Friday night. Of course I'll do a quick bit of research before committing to any destination.

I'd be flying out of San Francisco.

Edit: Sounds good. Thanks :)

Varkas fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Dec 14, 2013

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

LaserWash posted:

I'm totally invested in united mileage plus. So the thing with fuel and environmental surcharges that AA/BA have going on is totally foreign to me. The best I understand, it's best to skip stops and layovers in the UK and there is a lawsuit going over those charges. Most of our travel is into and out of Germany, which on American means leaving from College Station or San Antonio is a stop in Dallas, then on to Frankfurt, the best I can tell.

The fuel surcharges are for BA-operated itineraries. So if you can stay on AA metal, my understanding is that you can avoid those. It's less about traversing the UK and more about BA-operated flights where those charges kick in. The downside (for me, anyway) to using AA is that they have one flight a day to FRA; so if there is no award space, you're hosed unless you can get award space to LHR on AA metal and then connect on from there. Since Germany is your goal, it may be more advantageous to look at the Chase cards (Ink and Sapphire) that allow you to transfer points to MileagePlus on a 1:1 ratio. Otherwise you'll be banking heavily on availability on AA.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

Varkas posted:

Is there a good resource for finding last minute cheap flights to nowhere in particular? (well, English speaking areas) Most services seem to revolve around having a particular destination in mind. I'm basically wanting to do some spontaneous weekend travel after work on a Friday night. Of course I'll do a quick bit of research before committing to any destination.

I'd be flying out of San Francisco.

Not really. There is no reliable way to get that kind of data (airlines like to own or control as many booking channels as possible) and even if there was, there's so much of it and it changes so frequently that it would be difficult to present anything reliable. If you're limiting your search to English-speaking areas, pick out the major gateways in those areas and start watching fares between your local gateway and those other locations. When you find a fare you're comfortable with, jump on it.

PicklesMcGillicuddy
May 28, 2010

I DO NOT EAT HUMAN FOOD; I ONLY EAT
PINE CONES

Mackieman posted:

So she's in TXL and you're in SFO, and she's coming to visit you and then you want to leave together so you can visit TXL and stay there on some sort of permanent basis? I just want to make sure I understand what you're trying to accomplish.

Assuming my understanding is correct, there is nothing prohibiting you from buying a one-way ticket on the same flight that she returns to Germany on. Do be aware that in most cases, one-way international tickets are charged at full fare, so they are significantly more expensive than the same flight as part of a round trip. Depending on the dates and the airline, you'd have to search and compare the fares and see what makes the most sense as there are cases where the round trip price does not equal the price of two one-ways.

Also consider than unless you're an EU citizen, a one-way ticket into the EU without proof of egress may cause them to not let you into the country.

You got it, sorry my explanation was so jumbled. I've been looking on several sites to try and buy the one-way, and the only one I found that matches her flight costs about $3,000, so I'll probably just buy the round-trip ticket after all. Thanks for the help.

sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

For mileage threads -- someone can feel free to start one but honestly there's too much information constantly changing. I'd brave MilePoint or Flyertalk for your program of choice. Those people have it down to pathetic levels.

Also for AAdvantage people, I'm sure a massive devaluation is coming. Look at United with their split partner award charts and now SQ premium availability basically being reduced to flat 0's across the board with only phone booking available. I'm not going to say it's too late but the return on the time/energy invested is likely to be greatly reduced very soon. Keep in mind this as you decide to invest your time and energy.

For avoiding UK on award travel, it's correct that BA is the one who charges fuel surcharges. Iberia does it as well but it's far less. I would avoid the UK for anything but a stopover on any ticket (unless you are really wanting to stop in London) because the APD is charged after 24 hours. And it is more if you travel in a premium cabin. This caused my 12 flight award itinerary to almost double in cost because of that APD.

EDIT:

That being said, redeeming miles is pretty cool when it works. I highly recommend any of the round the world tickets available.




sellouts fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Dec 15, 2013

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
Yeah, my husband and I flew business class from Australia to Japan to Canada in 2011 thanks to points, the whole thing cost me like $300 for two people or something equally ridiculous.

Stupid Aeroplan charge fuel surcharges on most of their partner airlines which makes it way harder to redeem them, but oh well.

Fruity Tree
Aug 14, 2010

Mackieman posted:

So she's in TXL and you're in SFO, and she's coming to visit you and then you want to leave together so you can visit TXL and stay there on some sort of permanent basis? I just want to make sure I understand what you're trying to accomplish.

Assuming my understanding is correct, there is nothing prohibiting you from buying a one-way ticket on the same flight that she returns to Germany on. Do be aware that in most cases, one-way international tickets are charged at full fare, so they are significantly more expensive than the same flight as part of a round trip. Depending on the dates and the airline, you'd have to search and compare the fares and see what makes the most sense as there are cases where the round trip price does not equal the price of two one-ways.

Also consider than unless you're an EU citizen, a one-way ticket into the EU without proof of egress may cause them to not let you into the country.

I'm the girlfriend in this.
We're considering getting a round-trip now, which means he would get the same tickets as me (TXL -> SFO in February and SFO -> TXL in April). Since he's in San Francisco he obviously can't board the first flight. Will not boarding the outward flight in February (TXL -> SFO) cause the ticket for the inward flight in April (SFO -> TXL) to expire automatically or something? And would it be better if we just ignore the first flight or can we safely cancel it to get back part of the money and still keep the second ticket?

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

Fruity Tree posted:

I'm the girlfriend in this.
We're considering getting a round-trip now, which means he would get the same tickets as me (TXL -> SFO in February and SFO -> TXL in April). Since he's in San Francisco he obviously can't board the first flight. Will not boarding the outward flight in February (TXL -> SFO) cause the ticket for the inward flight in April (SFO -> TXL) to expire automatically or something? And would it be better if we just ignore the first flight or can we safely cancel it to get back part of the money and still keep the second ticket?

With very few exceptions, none of the options you mention will work. If you book a round trip ticket and miss any part of it, the rest of the ticket will be canceled and its value voided. Moreover, unless you're booking a refundable fare (which is really expensive and likely the price being quoted for a one-way ticket), you can't get a refund of half of it and have an intact ticket. Even if you could make the change, it would trigger a re-fare and you'd have to pay the difference between the fare you bought and the one-way price at that time. There is no real safe way to do this except to pony up the cash.

Another option might be to find someone who collects miles and see if you can acquire a one-way award ticket for PicklesMcGillicuddy in exchange for remuneration of an amount and type to be discussed between interested parties...or something. I'm cryptic because selling award miles is verboten according to the ToS of most mileage programs. That said, I've booked many award tickets for other people, so take that for what you will.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
If you're not able/willing to do what Mackieman suggests, which I also think is the best move, I would book it like this:

Girlfriend: TXL to SFO in Feb, SFO to TXL in April

Boyfriend: SFO to TXL in April (on the same flight as you), TXL to SFO in May/June/Whenever

That way your boyfriend will miss the return flight but it doesn't matter because he'll be in Berlin, and you've both ignored the stuff Mackieman has said about the problems you might face at immigration without a return ticket but this way you will have a return ticket if Pickles isn't a European citizen/resident so he's more likely to be allowed into the country.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

HookShot posted:

If you're not able/willing to do what Mackieman suggests, which I also think is the best move, I would book it like this:

Girlfriend: TXL to SFO in Feb, SFO to TXL in April

Boyfriend: SFO to TXL in April (on the same flight as you), TXL to SFO in May/June/Whenever

That way your boyfriend will miss the return flight but it doesn't matter because he'll be in Berlin, and you've both ignored the stuff Mackieman has said about the problems you might face at immigration without a return ticket but this way you will have a return ticket if Pickles isn't a European citizen/resident so he's more likely to be allowed into the country.

Indeed, this may work. Unless you do something really stupid the chances of getting caught are pretty remote, I would think.

Kobayashi
Aug 13, 2004

by Nyc_Tattoo

Mackieman posted:

And feel free to ask mileage nerd questions and have those discussions in this thread. The topic is a little to niche to survive as its own thread, I think. We can talk about those topics as much as you like in here, including the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the devaluations roll in as they did over the last couple of weeks for pretty much everyone except AS and AA, mostly because AA hasn't announced anything yet due the merger. And I suppose DL flyers got a slight improvement in their global diamond upgrade certs can now be used on fares lower than Y/B/M.

I have some questions I'd like to ask here before I try one of the more popular Internet travel forums. Let me know if any of these are beyond the scope of this thread, or if there are better threads to ask in.

1. What's the deal with boarding zones? I'm inevitably in Zone 5 and last to board. I like to board as soon as possible because I travel light. I don't like the anticipation of sitting around waiting to board, and I always get a twinge of anxiety as I watch people use up all the overhead bin space with their enormous baggage. I'll pay the "board sooner and not get my luggage gate checked" fee if need be, but maybe there's something else I can do to get a different zone.

For reference, in case one of these is an automatic Zone 5: sometimes I buy tickets directly through the airline, sometimes through an aggregator. I usually book pretty far in advance. I never check in until I get to the airport. I always use self checkin. I never check any bags. I always go for aisle seats. I try to get get seats near the front of the aircraft. I almost always fly economy.

2. What's the deal with upgrades? At a high level, how do they work? Are they like the normal upsell process, just at the time of departure? Or are the upgrade rates different at the checkin counter? Oooor is it just a matter of asking nicely for a better seat? Just for miles programs members? I literally have no idea what an upgrade is, how much it would cost, or whether I should be trying to get one.

3. What's the deal with mileage programs? The other day I realized I'd randomly purchased about 60,000 miles worth of air travel with United over the last few months. That's definitely an abnormal amount of travel, but someone told me I should sign up with their mileage program. I did enroll, but I have no goddamn idea what, if any, benefits this affords me. United's website is an abomination, and the program description doesn't make any sense at all. From what I can tell, even 60k miles isn't all that much in the scheme of things, and I'd have to sustain that level of travel every year to maintain my status. It all seems like more trouble than it is worth.

Again, for reference, I'd rather spend money (within reason) on a smoother air travel experience than my time. $50 fee to board early? Sure. $1000 extra for a first class ticket? No. $8 for an in-flight drink or Internet service? Sure, I guess. Hours of research and/or reimbursed expenses for the same perks via a mileage program? Eh, not worth the effort.

Basically, I'd like to know if I'm missing any low hanging fruit as far as the actual airline experience goes.

Kobayashi fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Dec 16, 2013

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

Kobayashi posted:

I have some questions I'd like to ask here before I try one of the more popular Internet travel forums. Let me know if any of these are beyond the scope of this thread, or if there are better threads to ask in.

All good questions and pertinent to this thread. :)

Kobayashi posted:

1. What's the deal with boarding zones? I'm inevitably in Zone 5 and last to board. I like to board as soon as possible because I travel light. I don't like the anticipation of sitting around waiting to board, and I always get a twinge of anxiety as I watch people use up all the overhead bin space with their enormous baggage. I'll pay the "board sooner and not get my luggage gate checked" fee if need be, but maybe there's something else I can do to get a different zone.

The boarding process varies by carrier. Generally speaking, for US-based airlines, there are either groups or zones (which are just groups with another name). The goal here is to get people on the plane as quickly and efficiently as possible given that Americans are generally lovely at queuing. For example, most US-based airlines will take 45 to 50 minutes to board a widebody aircraft. Japanese carriers will load the same aircraft type in less than 20 because queuing effectively is part of the Japanese culture. Such is life.

Boarding either takes place from the back to the front, from the window to the middle to the aisle, or some combination of the two. The particular sequence in use at a particular airline varies from one to another but is highly studied by those companies as it is a source of potential delays and anywhere they can create efficiencies is generally a good thing for their operation. If you're finding yourself in Group 5, chances are high you're picking an aisle seat and/or as close to the front as you can get.

As far as boarding earlier, there are a number of ways to do it. If you fly often enough to earn elite status, that generally gets you the ability to board earlier. Some airlines, like United, offer that benefit as part of carrying one of their branded credit cards and using it to buy your ticket. And, as you noted, most airlines will sell the capability to you on a per-trip basis.

Kobayashi posted:

For reference, in case one of these is an automatic Zone 5: sometimes I buy tickets directly through the airline, sometimes through an aggregator. I usually book pretty far in advance. I never check in until I get to the airport. I always use self checkin. I never check any bags. I always go for aisle seats. I try to get get seats near the front of the aircraft. I almost always fly economy.

I guessed well. ;)

Kobayashi posted:

2. What's the deal with upgrades? At a high level, how do they work? Are they like the normal upsell process, just at the time of departure? Or are the upgrade rates different at the checkin counter? Oooor is it just a matter of asking nicely for a better seat? Just for miles programs members? I literally have no idea what an upgrade is, how much it would cost, or whether I should be trying to get one.

Much like boarding, upgrades and the process to acquire them varies from one airline to another. If you have questions about a specific airline, I'm happy to go into more detail. From a general standpoint, upgrades are given to elites on a space-available basis. Again, the rules and process for that vary from one carrier to another. Some offer them for sale, but they're generally not so much a paid upgrade as a buy-up to a fare that provides automatic upgrades to first class, regardless of status. Lots of detail and nuance here so, like I said, if you have questions about a specific airline I can go into the details.

Kobayashi posted:

3. What's the deal with mileage programs? The other day I realized I'd randomly purchased about 60,000 miles worth of air travel with United over the last few months. That's definitely an abnormal amount of travel, but someone told me I should sign up with their mileage program. I did enroll, but I have no goddamn idea what, if any, benefits this affords me. United's website is an abomination, and the program description doesn't make any sense at all. From what I can tell, even 60k miles isn't all that much in the scheme of things, and I'd have to sustain that level of travel every year to maintain my status. It all seems like more trouble than it is worth.

I have Platinum status with United as they are my primary carrier so I can go into some detail here. With 60,000 miles of travel, which should equate to roughly 60,000PQM (Premier Qualifying Miles), you'd have Gold status in MileagePlus. This affords boarding in Group 2, access to Economy Plus at booking, space available upgrades starting at 48 hours prior to departure, discounted fees on award bookings, free Same Day Change, a 50% bonus on redeemable mileage earned, and a number of other things. I find United's website to be pretty well laid out in their explanation of the details of the program, so feel free to ask additional detailed questions and I'll go through them for you.

You're correct in that status must be renewed every year. I normally hold Gold status but a work-paid trip to China last month pushed me over the Platinum threshold thanks to the 150% PQM rates for business class fares. If you're traveling enough to warrant that, you should absolutely sign up for MileagePlus and provide your previous tickets to see if they'll credit you for them. There's no real loss for you to try, and if they'll do it, you'll have enough miles to go to Europe (in coach) for free, or any of a number of other redemption options. Though they did devalue the program recently (as several airlines did) but all is not lost.

Kobayashi posted:

Again, for reference, I'd rather spend money (within reason) on a smoother air travel experience than my time. $50 fee to board early? Sure. $1000 extra for a first class ticket? No. $8 for an in-flight drink or Internet service? Sure, I guess. Hours of research and/or reimbursed expenses for the same perks via a mileage program? Eh, not worth the effort.

Basically, I'd like to know if I'm missing any low hanging fruit as far as the actual airline experience goes.

I think you can accomplish the vast majority of the goals you outline here with sticking to a single airline when possible and dumping everything into their loyalty program while carrying one of their branded cards. If UA works for you, it's not a terrible program, even with the recent devaluations. Do keep in mind that the 2015 qualification year (which is next year) also includes the Premier Qualifying Dollar component wherein you must meet spend thresholds in addition to the mileage in order to qualify for elite status unless you have an address outside the US or carry the high-end credit card which has lounge access and a bunch of other poo poo with it. PQD requirements for Gold is $5,000 in revenue with United, taxes not included.

Between a basic level of status and a credit card, you can earn a decent amount of miles with little effort based on the travel you're already doing. If, though, you find yourself in a situation where it is either not cost or schedule effective to dump everything into a single airline, don't worry about the miles or anything else and just buy the cheapest ticket. The line between worth it and not is really up to your personal value judgement.

Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Dec 17, 2013

sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

Mackieman posted:

Another option might be to find someone who collects miles and see if you can acquire a one-way award ticket for PicklesMcGillicuddy in exchange for remuneration of an amount and type to be discussed between interested parties...or something. I'm cryptic because selling award miles is verboten according to the ToS of most mileage programs. That said, I've booked many award tickets for other people, so take that for what you will.

This is a good idea. Please be aware that airlines employ people to specifically look out for violations of their milage program ToS, of which this is the leading violation.

Several years ago I needed 2 additional upgrades and bought them from someone selling. I had to go to on Craigslist as none of the sites at the time allowed these discussions. Flyertalk unofficially does now but you have to have been signed up for 6+months and have 200+ posts, and even then it's a trade based thing for elite travelers and newbies or people signing up just to join that part of the forum will be banned from the site. They're quite militant about it.

Anyways, purchasing these was more difficult than I imagine using silk road was. I had to use different email addresses and google voice numbers as I didn't want anything attached to my frequent flyer account. The person I bought from did something similar, had their mother leave a very cryptic voicemail to see if the number I gave was a real number or had any indication of it being a number tied to someone at corporate. It ended up working out and we both laughed at the misdirection we had to give to make the transaction. I had a friends mother forfeit over 90k miles because she bought an upgrade certificate (when they were actual certificates) on eBay. They almost didn't let her back into the program and she is a paying F type of customer.

Also, be aware that if you do complete the transaction, the owner of the miles can refund the miles at any moment and redeposit them back into their account without any notice to you. So it's an easy way to issue you a ticket, send it to you, get the money, and then refund the miles back and run away with your money. You'll have no recourse with the airline as calling them and saying that you bought the miles from the person (who's real name and contact information you won't have anyway) won't get you anywhere. Odds are the person you've contact illegally accessed the frequent flyer account in the first place.

Mackieman posted:

Much like boarding, upgrades and the process to acquire them varies from one airline to another. If you have questions about a specific airline, I'm happy to go into more detail. From a general standpoint, upgrades are given to elites on a space-available basis. Again, the rules and process for that vary from one carrier to another. Some offer them for sale, but they're generally not so much a paid upgrade as a buy-up to a fare that provides automatic upgrades to first class, regardless of status. Lots of detail and nuance here so, like I said, if you have questions about a specific airline I can go into the details.

Mackieman has it covered as usual but one thing that I think is worth pointing out is that it specifically is a upgrade space available basis, not just space. A lot of new elites are upset when they want to upgrade, are told there is no space, and see open business class seats at departure as they're boarding. Most airlines have some sort of algorithm that determines how many upgrade award seats are acceptable and won't free up more even if on your flight there are open seats.

Giving upgrades away to anyone is almost always a uniquely USA based legacy airline thing. Most international airlines will happily leave with open seats. And almost all international airlines won't "give" you anything, they'll be taking them in exchange for (usually only their, not alliance) miles. Your alliance elite status will almost always come second (if at all) to the carrier's specific elite status.

Just 2 things worth mentioning as people I've introduced to this game have almost always gotten a taste of nice treatment from airlines and then come back with those 2 questions.

sellouts fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Dec 17, 2013

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

sellouts posted:

This is a good idea. Please be aware that airlines employ people to specifically look out for violations of their milage program ToS, of which this is the leading violation.

Several years ago I needed 2 additional upgrades and bought them from someone selling. I had to go to on Craigslist as none of the sites at the time allowed these discussions. Flyertalk unofficially does now but you have to have been signed up for 6+months and have 200+ posts, and even then it's a trade based thing for elite travelers and newbies or people signing up just to join that part of the forum will be banned from the site. They're quite militant about it.

Anyways, purchasing these was more difficult than I imagine using silk road was. I had to use different email addresses and google voice numbers as I didn't want anything attached to my frequent flyer account. The person I bought from did something similar, had their mother leave a very cryptic voicemail to see if the number I gave was a real number or had any indication of it being a number tied to someone at corporate. It ended up working out and we both laughed at the misdirection we had to give to make the transaction. I had a friends mother forfeit over 90k miles because she bought an upgrade certificate (when they were actual certificates) on eBay. They almost didn't let her back into the program and she is a paying F type of customer.

Also, be aware that if you do complete the transaction, the owner of the miles can refund the miles at any moment and redeposit them back into their account without any notice to you. So it's an easy way to issue you a ticket, send it to you, get the money, and then refund the miles back and run away with your money. You'll have no recourse with the airline as calling them and saying that you bought the miles from the person (who's real name and contact information you won't have anyway) won't get you anywhere. Odds are the person you've contact illegally accessed the frequent flyer account in the first place.

Yes indeed, it can be a cautionary tale. This is why I generally won't do deals with people I don't actually know or at least have met in some meaningful capacity. I go to events once in a while (and organize a big one here in AUS every year) with the frequent traveling communities so I've been fortunate to make some contacts to facilitate this sort of thing on the rare occasion that I need to. No way in hell would I do this via Craigslist.

sellouts posted:

Mackieman has it covered as usual but one thing that I think is worth pointing out is that it specifically is a upgrade space available basis, not just space. A lot of new elites are upset when they want to upgrade, are told there is no space, and see open business class seats at departure as they're boarding. Most airlines have some sort of algorithm that determines how many upgrade award seats are acceptable and won't free up more even if on your flight there are open seats.

Giving upgrades away to anyone is almost always a uniquely USA based legacy airline thing. Most international airlines will happily leave with open seats. And almost all international airlines won't "give" you anything, they'll be taking them in exchange for (usually only their, not alliance) miles. Your alliance elite status will almost always come second (if at all) to the carrier's specific elite status.

Just 2 things worth mentioning as people I've introduced to this game have almost always gotten a taste of nice treatment from airlines and then come back with those 2 questions.

That is a very good distinction to point out. Upgrade space does not equal the number of open premium cabin seats just as the seat map does not indicate the number of seats for sale on a given flight. The Revenue Management department maintains those buckets and as I've noted many times, no mere mortal knows the dark art of revenue management. I know a couple of folks who either work or have worked in revenue management and it often doesn't make sense to them either, heh.

Kobayashi
Aug 13, 2004

by Nyc_Tattoo
Thanks for the information. I'll keep an eye on my United mileage program, but it doesn't sound like programs in general are really my thing. My goal is to reduce flying to a known, consistent quantity as much as possible. I'd rather know that I can get on the plane, get my seat, and stow my carryon without a gate check than hope for and be disappointed when I don't get an upgrade.

sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

Kobayashi posted:

Thanks for the information. I'll keep an eye on my United mileage program, but it doesn't sound like programs in general are really my thing. My goal is to reduce flying to a known, consistent quantity as much as possible. I'd rather know that I can get on the plane, get my seat, and stow my carryon without a gate check than hope for and be disappointed when I don't get an upgrade.

I don't think I'm following you. I cannot fathom forfeiting something that you've paid for and earned, especially when in a few years that something can turn into what would cost you tens of thousands of dollars or enable you to do something you wouldn't otherwise be able to do. I'm in the middle of a RTW trip in Business with my wife that has made all of the earned flights and credit card usage worthwhile. Upgrades really aren't worth the fuss. The free ones suck and the paid for ones you almost always know well in advance if you're getting it or not. They don't define any sort of mileage program, they're just a small perk that some people take way too seriously.

If you go in expecting nothing and just watch that number grow, it's a completely worthwhile thing. Or just sell your miles to the person in the thread who wants a one way trip :>

EDIT: Getting a good bag has changed the way I fly now. I used to take a roller board and the biggest perk of being elite was the early boarding with guaranteed overhead space. But even then when there were 60+ elites onboard some flights it was dicey. Now, with proper folding and packing techniques I can get 3-4 day work trips out of a bag that will fit under the seat in front of me, including a laptop. The bag wasn't cheap and my work is often more casual than most but now I don't need a roller board. And it's the best thing ever.

sellouts fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Dec 17, 2013

Fruity Tree
Aug 14, 2010

HookShot posted:

If you're not able/willing to do what Mackieman suggests, which I also think is the best move, I would book it like this:

Girlfriend: TXL to SFO in Feb, SFO to TXL in April

Boyfriend: SFO to TXL in April (on the same flight as you), TXL to SFO in May/June/Whenever

That way your boyfriend will miss the return flight but it doesn't matter because he'll be in Berlin, and you've both ignored the stuff Mackieman has said about the problems you might face at immigration without a return ticket but this way you will have a return ticket if Pickles isn't a European citizen/resident so he's more likely to be allowed into the country.

Yeah, the problem is just that that's really expensive because the return flight is in the summer months and we wanted to avoid that.
Also, not having a return ticket as a US citizen going to the EU is usually not a problem. Germany rarely asks you any questions, they just scan your passport and let you through. Of course if it was the other way around, it would suck - Americans are much more harsh when it comes to one-way tickets. But Germany isn't. At least not with Americans.

And thanks for the answer OP, I'd like to avoid complicated half-legal stuff because it seems a little scary. Especially because we're not experienced in this stuff. It's good to know that just booking the same roundtrip for him as for me won't work.

Cock Democracy
Jan 1, 2003

Now that is the finest piece of chilean sea bass I have ever smelled
Bought PHL-LAX in August on delta for $262 RT. Not bad at all.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

Cock Democracy posted:

Bought PHL-LAX in August on delta for $262 RT. Not bad at all.

Except when it was $120 a couple of months ago. ;) Easy come, easy go.

Given that I bought a ticket for $8000 today (work-paid, thankfully), nothing is phasing me at the moment, heh.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
I hope that's a transpac business class flight at that price.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

HookShot posted:

I hope that's a transpac business class flight at that price.

It is business class, at least. My parents are taking my sister to Europe as a graduation present when she gets her master's degree next year; I get to tag along because I play family travel agent. This trip is in March during her spring break which is also my wife's spring break (she works in education). We were scheduled to leave March 6 and fly IAH-IAD-LHR, spending time in LHR then over to VIE, BTS, SZG, EDI, and then an overnight in DUB to avoid the UK APD.

Then I got a call on Monday saying that my presence is requested in CAN (Guangzhou, China) the week of March 3 - March 7. The only other options I had were in the middle of Chinese New Year which is clearly not an option at all. So I set about figuring out how to get to China and then back to London to meet up with my family for our vacation.

I wound up splitting myself off the reservation I was on with my wife and my sister so that their flights (and upgrades) stayed intact and I could change mine. I moved my flights to a week earlier, so now I leave February 28 and do AUS-IAH-IAD-LHR, getting to LHR on March 1. This allows me to leave from AUS instead of having to get to IAH on my own, and all three new segments had upgrade space so the previous upgrade that I had was reapplied and now I'm in premium cabins all the way to LHR. That's a win in my book.

Once I get to LHR, I have a four hour unprotected connection to a series of Lufthansa flights, LHR-FRA-HKG in business, and then HKG-CAN on China Southern (who's website sucks dick in the worst way) using yet another separate ticket with an unprotected connection. On the way out I have CAN-HKG as the return portion of the round-trip China Southern ticket, then back over to Lufthansa to do HKG-MUC-LHR, which gets me to LHR about 24 hours after my family gets there. I have some friends who are converting their United SWUs to paper SWUs so I can potentially upgrade to international first class on the LH flights since it's a full J fare.

All in all, it's not a bad deal, but I'm going to cross 75% of the earth by going to China the, "wrong" way. :D

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

Mackieman posted:

It is business class, at least. My parents are taking my sister to Europe as a graduation present when she gets her master's degree next year; I get to tag along because I play family travel agent. This trip is in March during her spring break which is also my wife's spring break (she works in education). We were scheduled to leave March 6 and fly IAH-IAD-LHR, spending time in LHR then over to VIE, BTS, SZG, EDI, and then an overnight in DUB to avoid the UK APD.

Then I got a call on Monday saying that my presence is requested in CAN (Guangzhou, China) the week of March 3 - March 7. The only other options I had were in the middle of Chinese New Year which is clearly not an option at all. So I set about figuring out how to get to China and then back to London to meet up with my family for our vacation.

I wound up splitting myself off the reservation I was on with my wife and my sister so that their flights (and upgrades) stayed intact and I could change mine. I moved my flights to a week earlier, so now I leave February 28 and do AUS-IAH-IAD-LHR, getting to LHR on March 1. This allows me to leave from AUS instead of having to get to IAH on my own, and all three new segments had upgrade space so the previous upgrade that I had was reapplied and now I'm in premium cabins all the way to LHR. That's a win in my book.

Once I get to LHR, I have a four hour unprotected connection to a series of Lufthansa flights, LHR-FRA-HKG in business, and then HKG-CAN on China Southern (who's website sucks dick in the worst way) using yet another separate ticket with an unprotected connection. On the way out I have CAN-HKG as the return portion of the round-trip China Southern ticket, then back over to Lufthansa to do HKG-MUC-LHR, which gets me to LHR about 24 hours after my family gets there. I have some friends who are converting their United SWUs to paper SWUs so I can potentially upgrade to international first class on the LH flights since it's a full J fare.

All in all, it's not a bad deal, but I'm going to cross 75% of the earth by going to China the, "wrong" way. :D

Hahahaa that is one hell of an itinerary, but it definitely does explain the price, for sure!

sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

I got out of Male back to KL and onto SIN with an unprotected connection by the skin of my teeth. Would have seriously botched my RTW ticket. Thank god for transit desks.

Scary stuff. May you have an easier time.

Btw Malaysia airlines is pretty bad and also hilarious. Never seen an airline literally shove someone on, basically hit them with the aircraft door and push back the aircraft with them still making their way down the aisle ( I have not spent too much time in china )

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

sellouts posted:

I got out of Male back to KL and onto SIN with an unprotected connection by the skin of my teeth. Would have seriously botched my RTW ticket. Thank god for transit desks.

Scary stuff. May you have an easier time.

Btw Malaysia airlines is pretty bad and also hilarious. Never seen an airline literally shove someone on, basically hit them with the aircraft door and push back the aircraft with them still making their way down the aisle ( I have not spent too much time in china )

Yeah, I know a guy who flew from MSY to ARN on something like a series of five different tickets with six unprotected connections. He made it, and it included a one-off flag stop in HAJ. But glad you made it to SIN in one peice; transit desks are handy when staffed with good agents. I'm hoping the largest issue I run into is getting the UA agent in AUS to check my bag through to CAN, interlining on LH and CZ. It shouldn't be a huge issue, but one never knows. Thankfully the ladies in the lounge are pretty good at stuff like that so they can call up for help if needed.

I didn't see any of that pushing/shoving stuff while I was in China, but I wasn't flying any Chinese airlines either. I came over on UA the first time and left on OZ; the OZ crew was too busy making sure they bowed appropriately to worry about pushing anyone else. ;)

Bgwin
Apr 23, 2004
Looking to travel from MHT (Manchester, NH) to PHX (Phoenix, Arizona) Thursday Jan 30 to Monday Feb 3 and was wondering if flights could go down or should I just bite the bullet and buy one now? As it is all the flights are extremely expensive.

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

Bgwin posted:

Looking to travel from MHT (Manchester, NH) to PHX (Phoenix, Arizona) Thursday Jan 30 to Monday Feb 3 and was wondering if flights could go down or should I just bite the bullet and buy one now? As it is all the flights are extremely expensive.

I see $253, out on US and back on UA. That's a pretty good fare considering you're crossing nearly all of the country.

Kobayashi
Aug 13, 2004

by Nyc_Tattoo

sellouts posted:

I don't think I'm following you. I cannot fathom forfeiting something that you've paid for and earned, especially when in a few years that something can turn into what would cost you tens of thousands of dollars or enable you to do something you wouldn't otherwise be able to do. I'm in the middle of a RTW trip in Business with my wife that has made all of the earned flights and credit card usage worthwhile. Upgrades really aren't worth the fuss. The free ones suck and the paid for ones you almost always know well in advance if you're getting it or not. They don't define any sort of mileage program, they're just a small perk that some people take way too seriously.

Let me try to explain. Thanks to the advice I got earlier in this thread, I decided to look more closely at United's mileage program. I have a lot of complaints and questions. Before I call United support, I'd like to get a sense of what to expect from them. Over the past three months, I've flown United three times internationally. The first was "United operated by Lufthansa" on some dilapidated old 747s, with a ticket that someone else put on their card. Does this one qualify for miles if I didn't pay for it directly? If it wasn't operated by United proper?

The second was an absolute disaster, but operated by United and paid for directly by me. My plane broke mid-way over the Atlantic, necessitating an emergency, middle-of-the-night landing at LHR. First/business-class customers were quickly assigned to other flights, while I was immediately bussed to an incredibly lovely hotel and given the runaround for 36 hours. The make-up flight taxied for nearly an hour awaiting clearance to pull into a gate. From the time I left my apartment to the time I arrived at my hotel was nearly 52 hours. I missed the first half of an Indian wedding thanks to that flight. To top it off, both legs of the my return flight were delayed. The entire experience was enough to sour me on United forever.

The third was just this week to Mexico. The flight there went smoothly enough, but the return trip this morning was a pain-in-the-rear end. I know the storm on the east coast is affecting air traffic all over, but United didn't have any goddamn self-service kiosks at the airport. I had to wait in line for nearly an hour just to declare no bags with hundreds of pissed off passengers from other, canceled flights. The plane boarded on time, but remained at the gate with the door open for an hour because of other passengers stuck in the checkin line. During this time, my DirecTV system was stuck at a loading screen. Minor inconveniences in the scheme of things, but definitely did not do anything to soothe my growing disdain for United.

I know this probably sounds dumb, but my natural inclination is to chalk it up to bad experience and leave it at that. Unfortunately, I have another trip to Europe in less than a month. I need to decide whether to use United or another carrier. I've worked with enough bureaucratic companies to know that "customer service" is an empty buzzword and that support organizations are considered cost centers. So it comes down to whether I should expect United's support to give a poo poo about the bad experiences I've had so far. I'd define "giving a poo poo" as any of the following:

  • Make all three trips (including that Lufthansa one I didn't pay for directly) show up on my mileage account ASAP. Currently 0.0 of them show up on my account.
  • Flat-out refund my trip to India. That sucked so much rear end.
  • Bribe me. Give me a free economy ticket for my upcoming trip to Europe or a domestic business class ticket somewhere.

That's the difference right now between giving United my loyalty in the future, even if they're not the cheapest option, and continuing to troll for the the lowest fares, hoping for the best. I'd like to think United wants my business, but everything I've seen leads me to believe I don't spend nearly enough money for them to offer anything other than empty platitudes.

LaserWash
Jun 28, 2006
My limited experience, flying United and Lufthansa enough to know what to expect:

United is poo poo internationally, okay domestically, and the united contracted flights (Skywest, United express, etc) tend to be good experiences despite the cramped planes. Lufthansa is good internationally (at least the iah to fra a380 route) and within Europe is so-so.

United internationally: I've seen a fa actually lose her poo poo on a flight from Germany because the customer on board didn't speak English, French, or German (he was middle eastern or something). To me it was understandable for the customer not to speak any of those languages given that the flight was from Frankfurt.

My attitude is that they will get you there, contractually. Enjoy the ride and just take the experiences (even the bad ones) for what they are.

Also, avoid Chicago and Newark crews. They both tend to suck butt.

LaserWash fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Jan 6, 2014

sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

Short answers : the person who files get the miles. Not the one that pays. So you should be good.

Codeshares are usually eligible for miles depending on fare class and in your case it looks like you should get 100% of miles due

General:

You should be able to claim the miles if you have the ticket numbers to the flights. united looks like they require scanned boarding passes but you may be able to call them and see if you can get the credit without them if you just have the ticket numbers. They are usually on receipts or confirmation emails.

Longer answers:

Getting the credit is most likely. I am sorry that you've had a bad time and your post is a mix of bullshit on united's part (no kiosks and the handling of emergency landing) and part just the poo poo of traveling. I'm not a united flyer or defender so take what I say with a grain of salt. My advice:

On your next flight try a new carrier. I don't know if it'll be better but give it a shot. Not like you are too heavily entrenched. See what happens. It may surprise you.

When something non weather related happens (plane maintenance usually) and you are so heavily delayed that you are going to be missing the reason for your flight, you are looking for something called trip-in-vain. Basically the airline will refund the ticket in the full amount as it's their fault that your trip would make no sense. However you usually need to request this ASAP and not after the fact. It depends on how long you stayed afterwards, etc. and entirely on a case by case basis. I don't see this working out in your case unfortunately b

You are due some sort of compensation for the delay though. Legally I'm not sure what that is. I would write united airlines customer service with a short description of what happened, all of the proof and information, and what you want. Key: request what you want specifically and keep the note short and direct to the point. See what they give you. It's been a while but still recent enough that they'll likely take action. Likely they will give you some money in the form of a travel voucher and some miles. It's pretty bad this was not done proactively. Last time I had an emergency landing on AA I was given 5k miles automatically and I called and got my next days flight refunded before I had walked out of the terminal. It was due to take off 3 hours from then and I was supposed to arrive 9 hours previous.

Last, grab the airline app. Check in there if you have no bags and can. It can help you avoid lines but not sure if flights to/from Mexico are eligible. I am guessing its a USA govt requirement that the flights from Mexico each have every passengers flight documents / passports verified by a human.

You've had a terrible string of bad luck. I can't imagine it'll continue no matter who you fly but if not please stay off of my flights in the future!

sellouts fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Jan 6, 2014

Beef Of Ages
Jan 11, 2003

Your dumb is leaking.

Kobayashi posted:

Let me try to explain. Thanks to the advice I got earlier in this thread, I decided to look more closely at United's mileage program. I have a lot of complaints and questions. Before I call United support, I'd like to get a sense of what to expect from them. Over the past three months, I've flown United three times internationally. The first was "United operated by Lufthansa" on some dilapidated old 747s, with a ticket that someone else put on their card. Does this one qualify for miles if I didn't pay for it directly? If it wasn't operated by United proper?

Miles are earned by the person flying, not the person paying (if they're different), so yes, you can absolutely earn miles for LH-operated flights in most cases. The only caveat there is that super cheap fares on LH don't earn miles in Mileage Plus. You can check the fare bucket listings on UA's website to see if you can get credit. And coach on an LH 744 is among the worst experiences in the sky, so I pity you on that front and advise you to book away from that in the future.

Kobayashi posted:

The second was an absolute disaster, but operated by United and paid for directly by me. My plane broke mid-way over the Atlantic, necessitating an emergency, middle-of-the-night landing at LHR. First/business-class customers were quickly assigned to other flights, while I was immediately bussed to an incredibly lovely hotel and given the runaround for 36 hours. The make-up flight taxied for nearly an hour awaiting clearance to pull into a gate. From the time I left my apartment to the time I arrived at my hotel was nearly 52 hours. I missed the first half of an Indian wedding thanks to that flight. To top it off, both legs of the my return flight were delayed. The entire experience was enough to sour me on United forever.

That sucks, and I hate it when stuff like that happens to me, but here's the reality: it happens to every airline all over the world from time to time. The number of flights where that happens is staggeringly low when you compare that number to the number of flights in a given day. It sucks that it happened to you, but swearing off UA isn't going to help. It could've just as easily happened if you were flying DL, AA, LH, BA, or any other carrier. I think it's analogous to the hard drive wars of the late 90s where everyone swore that Western Digital was poo poo, or Maxtor was poo poo, or whatever. The reality is that hard drives, like airplanes, are mechanical devices and there are some that will fail from time to time. It sucks when it happens to you, but that doesn't mean that everything is always lovely every time. This issue is all about perspective.

Kobayashi posted:

The third was just this week to Mexico. The flight there went smoothly enough, but the return trip this morning was a pain-in-the-rear end. I know the storm on the east coast is affecting air traffic all over, but United didn't have any goddamn self-service kiosks at the airport. I had to wait in line for nearly an hour just to declare no bags with hundreds of pissed off passengers from other, canceled flights. The plane boarded on time, but remained at the gate with the door open for an hour because of other passengers stuck in the checkin line. During this time, my DirecTV system was stuck at a loading screen. Minor inconveniences in the scheme of things, but definitely did not do anything to soothe my growing disdain for United.

No US-based airline will have kiosks for check in for an international inbound flight. This is because of the passport and security check that must be performed based on FAA, TSA, and CBP regulations. It has nothing to do with UA and everything to do with what UA is required to do by the federal government. Moreover, the weather has been poo poo everywhere lately so flights are hosed all over the country, including some of the aircraft that service routes to Mexico out of Houston. ExpressJet has been asked to cancel all their flights to ORD for the next two days. It's going to take a while to sort that mess out and get crews and aircraft where they need to be once they can start flying again. Like I said above, it sucks when it happens to you, but it's not really UA's issue in this case, and UA is not the only airline having these issues.


Kobayashi posted:

I know this probably sounds dumb, but my natural inclination is to chalk it up to bad experience and leave it at that. Unfortunately, I have another trip to Europe in less than a month. I need to decide whether to use United or another carrier. I've worked with enough bureaucratic companies to know that "customer service" is an empty buzzword and that support organizations are considered cost centers. So it comes down to whether I should expect United's support to give a poo poo about the bad experiences I've had so far. I'd define "giving a poo poo" as any of the following:

  • Make all three trips (including that Lufthansa one I didn't pay for directly) show up on my mileage account ASAP. Currently 0.0 of them show up on my account.
  • Flat-out refund my trip to India. That sucked so much rear end.
  • Bribe me. Give me a free economy ticket for my upcoming trip to Europe or a domestic business class ticket somewhere.

That's the difference right now between giving United my loyalty in the future, even if they're not the cheapest option, and continuing to troll for the the lowest fares, hoping for the best. I'd like to think United wants my business, but everything I've seen leads me to believe I don't spend nearly enough money for them to offer anything other than empty platitudes.

You should absolutely chalk it up to, "poo poo that happens when you travel" and not worry about it. You're unlikely to get anything meaningful from UA in terms of compensation as there was very little of what happened to you under their control. The maintenance issue that forced the diversion to LHR might net you something, a few thousand miles or a $150 cert, but they're not going to issue you a refund and they're not giving you a free ticket anywhere. It simply doesn't happen, and speaking as a guy who endured an unplanned forced overnight due to ExpressJet's inability to find its rear end in the dark with both hands, there isn't much that happened to you to warrant that sort of thing.

It seems to me that you've got your expectations out of whack with regard to how this industry operates today. United is certainly not the end all be all of airlines, and their service is still rather crappy coming out of the merger. Delta's service is doing fairly well these days, but it can be quite tough to use SkyMiles SkyPesos to actually go somewhere. From a loyalty perspective, it's all about where you can realize the most value of what you're able to put in. But your expectations have to be grounded no matter what airline you choose. If you search the Internet, you can find thousands upon thousands of people who have angrily sworn off United. And many more thousands swearing off Delta, American, Southwest, and everybody else out there. I believe the vast majority of those complaints stem from ignorance of how this stuff works (which is part of what I like to rectify with this thread).

And yeah, you're not really offering the kind of revenue that gets United to sit up and take notice. I have friends that are dumping north of $60,000 a year into United and they have top tier status, but that's it. The service level is higher, sure, but do you have any idea how many delays those guys encounter? It's just the way it is right now, and the grass is far from greener elsewhere.

Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Jan 6, 2014

Kobayashi
Aug 13, 2004

by Nyc_Tattoo



Thanks for the quick and detailed feedback, this is exactly what I was looking for. The combination of bad experiences and byzantine policies made it tough to know what to focus on. I'm going to try to get United to acknowledge my previous flights onto my account -- I save all my travel documents in lieu of souvenirs so it shouldn't be hard to prove -- and let the rest slide. Adjusted for inflation, I know I'm paying like a tenth of what people used to pay when actual customer service mattered. Plus there's so much other bullshit with airport security, finding usable WiFi, other passengers, customs, terrible food, and weather that flying will never be something I look forward to.

Mackieman posted:

No US-based airline will have kiosks for check in for an international inbound flight. This is because of the passport and security check that must be performed based on FAA, TSA, and CBP regulations. It has nothing to do with UA and everything to do with what UA is required to do by the federal government.

Are you sure you about that? Because I'm almost positive I've self-checked in myself (using the built-in passport scanner) every other time I've flown back to the US. In fact, I specifically remember seeing US Airways as one of the touch screen option. I think all the other US majors were on there too, but I could be mistaken. Regardless, no one else was backed up. It was just United. And yeah, I know it was the storm, so I don't blame for that.

Actually, now that I think about it, I was hoping to eliminate the airport checkin altogether. Every other goddamn passenger around me seems to have figured out how to get their boarding pass on their smartphone, or print it out at home, so what am I doing wrong?

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sellouts
Apr 23, 2003

Pretty sure selected airports have US based airline check in kiosks. ICN allows it for flights to the US I believe. But generally it isn't approved.

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