mrwunrfl

I just noticed the Add Travel Options in My Itineraries.

The award accelerator offer for LAX-PIT-LAX is 25,643 miles for $769. That is 3 cents per mile and 6 times the roundtrip miles. That looks like the only offer is the 25,643 miles or nothing. So the accelerator would not be good if you just needed a few hundred miles (unless you were on a short trip, since the accelerator miles appear to be a multiple of your trip length).

I suppose that is not too horrible. If you had an upgradeable ticket to Bangkok and wanted an upgrade but only had 5,000 miles, then it might be worthwhile to you to buy those 25,000 miles if it would get you a confirmed upgrade.

yestravel

mrwunrfl -- thanks for your explanation. I'm working on getting enough miles for 2 biz class seats to SE Asia, using every means I can to get the needed miles. I never thought about having someone transfer the miles to me. Come Winter I'll have a better idea of what avenue I may need to pursue. Of course I could always get a credit card with a bonus when u sign up and use it. This was helpful though.

mrwunrfl

That is what my brother did to get 30,000 miles for an upgrade. Got a cc for 20,000 miles and then I transferred 10,000 miles to his account.

A straight purchase of 25,000 miles costs $841, btw. More expensive than the accelerator miles. But quicker.

yestravel

$841 dollars, wow! I may just be short a few thousand, hopefully that would cost considerably less.

directions

Hi, this just happened to me on an international trip which I booked in December '08 for travel in March '09 well my companion became ill so trip was canceled, In December the fare was 1,700 and by March it was 1,000 to book the same flight, there is no refund on the difference you're stuck with it. So the lost was about $600 from the ticket and an additional $250 for penalty. Had trip insurance but not the full cost of trip big mistake. On the advise at Fodors and Trip Advisor bought insurance from the Travel Store Steve the owner tried to take me into full coverage on the trip but oh no I didn't need it, eating my words, lol.

mrwunrfl

2000 miles for a hundred bucks. See here:
http://www.ualmiles.com/PersonalMiles.jsp

If you had rebooked your ticket in March when you were still well, then you would have paid a $250 fee and you would get a voucher for the difference of $450. Later, you would get ill and pay another $250. You would pay $1000 + $250*2= $1500 vs the $1700 + $250. Or something like that. Good that you can l about it. How much was the insurance?

directions

Well I insured the trip for a $1,000 because I thought nothing would happen as it did and that covered me for any troubles Iwould have on the trip, boy live and learn.
I'm going to Vietnam next and of course I now have full coverage BUT am using the old unused ticket and that part can not be insured because it wasn't booked for this trip, gosh they get you coming and going.Geez I'm hoping nothing goes wrong this time but if it does oh well life is like that.