rickus

My family and I recently acquired 3 books of $200 UA travel vouchers when we agreed to be moved from a UA flight to Virgin. The reason we did so was to provide my eldest daughter with something towards her planned trip to the US. The vouchers are made up of separate $50 parts but you cannot use more than one $200 voucher on any one flight booking. I also believe that you need to book direct with UA.

I telephoned UA yesterday and could not believe the high prices they quoted, even though my daughter is quite flexible on her dates. This is where she would like to travel by airline:

Late May, early June - UK to Miami
Early to mid July - Los Angeles to UK

UA usually seem to quote higher prices for single than return fares. They do not fly direct to Miami from the UK.

The best suggestion the, very helpful, assistant offered was:

1 Heathrow to Washington return - c$470
2 Washington to Miami single - c$140
3 LA to Washington - c$1,100!

She said that these were on the least booked flights, hence the cheapest, and the prices would not go down from now on.

I think that the best way my daughter could exploit the vouchers is:
1 - save $200
2 - get it for free
3 - use another operator.

I am thinking that she might be better off doing the whole thing thru another operator, perhaps using UA if she needs an internal connection and can get it at a good price.

We would appreciate any thoughts on what best to do.

Many thanks
Rick

wpcx2

Think you are trying to book her an open-jaw ticket (into one city but out of another) from the UK to the USA - correct? Present it to United as such and apply the $200 to total cost of ticket. You do not want to be buying one way tickets! Also, not sure how she is getting from Miami to LA, but there are air-passes out there - the folks at United ought to be able to help. Call back and talk to someone about the open-jaw routing.

mrwunrfl

You have three vouchers each worth $200? You could book three roundtrips:
LHR <-> IAD
WAS <-> MIA or FLL
WAS <-> LAX or LGB or other area airports

Jet Blue (jetblue.com) is a discount carrier that you could use for all or parts of her trip.

mrwunrfl

Ok, I checked it out, using May 28, June 25, and July 8 as the travel days. Three roundtrips on UA (United): LHR <-> IAD $650, IAD <-> MIA $282, and IAD <-> LAX $338.
May 28, United, from LHR, arrive IAD at 3:10 PM
May 28, dep IAD 5:35, arrive MIA
June 25, dep MIA, arr IAD at 11:19A
June 25, dep IAD in PM, arrive LAX
July 7, Dep LAX arrive IAD, spend one night
July 8, dep 9:40A IAD -> LHR
UA does have a redeye flight that arrives at IAD at 5:55A that you might use

Your cost, minus $200 per ticket, would be 450+32+138= $620. Plus $120 overnite at IAD. But, you might find routing that would cost $70 less (figuring $278 for the LAX roundrip) and not require an overnight.

Here are Jet Blue one-way prices on the same dates that make a circle trip:
May 28, IAD -> FLL, $69
Jun 25, FLL -> LGB, $99
Jul 8, LGB -> IAD, $154
Return on Jul 15 and LGB->IAD is $119.

You have some open jaw options:
LHR to WAS, returning from LAX
LHR to MIA or FLL, returning from LAX
or
LHR <-> MIA roundtrip plus MIA <-> LAX

I'd search ual.com and travelocity for the best UA fares and then call UA to book the tix.

Happy hunting!

rickus

Thank you very much for the replies - it does seem strange that you can book returns for cheaper than singles. I have looked at mrwunrfl's idea but I think that the multi-trip option works out cheapest as you do not seem to able to book LA to London cheaply as a single or return.

The ideal is to go out late May and return early July. There are a number of date options with the same fare of y464 (c$750) on which only 1 $200 vouher could be used.
Going out late May and returning late June reduces this to y320 (c$510) less $200.

The above are for multi-trip tickets, guaranteeing a connection at Washington on the way to Miami.

It would be slightly cheaper, about y30 or $50 depending on the dates, to book the multi-trip out to Washington only and back from LA. The Washington to Miami leg could then be done for free using another voucher. However this would not guarantee the connection if the flight from London were delayed.

There are some special advanced purchase options at cheaper prices but I do not think any are currently available for return dates after May.

My daughter will be finding out whether travel agents can beat these prices with other operators.

But if any of you guys have better ideas...

Rick

rickus

Sorry mrwunrfl - had not seen your second reply before posting my reply that follows it.
Thank you very much for doing the research. I have been looking at Expedia so far but will also have a look at Travelocity.
Thanks again
Rick

rickus

All sorted
Virgin flight direct to Miami and back from LA - y240 ($380) inclusive.
Thanks for your help
Rick