Please advise: United wants to send me to hell and back, with 2 overnight layovers to get to the USVI in May. (Using my Mileage plus miles). I am single and traveling alone, do not have the time or inclination to spend the night in an airport, and looking at their website I know for a fact they have better itineraries. Can I do anything? Any way to work around this? Thanks for your input!

Their schedule might indicate better connections, but they probably don't have frequent flyer seats available.

Why not ask United if one of their partner airlines that fly to the USVI might have FF seats available.

Bye the way, what is the price of a paid ticket versus using 30K miles. If the ticket price is less than $600 (which at 2-cents a miles is the value of the miles) then buy a ticket.

Unfortunately, it's rare to get FF seats this close to departure date. Most people book 11-months ahead as soon as FF seats become available.

Does UA allow waitlisting for award reservations? If so, you could try that (also find out if there's a service charge for any changes). I find that the waitlist usually clears as it gets closer to departure.

Thanks for the replies. I just find it hard to understand. From a customer service perspective I would think that a loyal customer would get preference over someone who just surfs around and finds the fares on its website. May is not high season; I can't believe these flights would be full. Comments?

The airlines only allocate a small number of seats on each flight for mileage redemption. When they are gone, they are gone. If you're have elite status with Mileage Plus, then there are more stuff they can do. But if you're a non-elite member, like so many other people, you're out-of-luck.

While you may think you're a loyal customer to UA, in their eyes, your business may not seem important to them.

The flight most likely isn't full, but rather the limited allocation of award seats have already been reserved. In their eyes, a paying customer at any fare is better than giving away a seat for free.

There's a possibility (but no guarantee) that UA will release additional award seats as it gets closer to departure and/or other passengers will make changes/cancellations to their award reservations, freeing up more seats. Otherwise, your only choices are paying for a ticket or redeem 2x the miles to waive capacity controls (usually not worth it).