filmwill

Please note that if you're flying from SFO (which I think you are), ANA uses their 777-300ER aircraft which has fully lie flat seats (not angled lie flat)

ANA is tops in my opinion. I've flown them 3 times so far and each time the service and the food are better and better. Their seats are extraordinarily comfortable and private as well.

If you can get a flight on ANA, to me that's a no-brainer.

filmwill

For reference:
http://www.ana.co.jp/wws/us/e/asw_co...ess_staggered/

cmstraf

Thanks and yes we are flying from SFO.

mrwunrfl

cmstraf, thanks for reading. ANA flight NH7 would be the one I would want from SFO.

Ok, so DH has enough miles to get a roundtrip in biz class and if you got/bought 25K miles then you could get a one-way in biz class. How would you get home.

cmstraf

Hi Mr W,
I've been checking United every day for 2 weeks and almost every day they have 2 flights on Asiana for 80,000 miles and 2 times in the past 2 weeks they have had the ANA flight, although one of those flights is now mixed (Business to Japan, Economy to Thailand). ANA is my first choice if we can get Business all the way through. If not, I'll go with Asiana and the tight connection.

So this is my plan. We want to fly on October 31, 2015. When that date comes open later this month, I hope to get two 1 way business class tickets to BKK for the departure.

We hope to come home the day after Thanksgiving, November 27, spending Thanksgiving in Bangkok (I will be asking for suggestions). Those flights should open up around Christmas time.
DH actually turns 186,000 miles (i.e. could give 25,000 to me). I have 54,000 miles and will get 12,000-15,000 more by December 4 (major household expense). So, as you said, the 80,000 for one way back is pretty much taken care of. United is having a sale 50% for me, 40% for DH until end of November. I will buy us each miles (would love suggestions on how many), then save miles like crazy (and my best friend needs a new heating system). My idea is to start looking for 2 one way tickets back as soon as we amass another 80,000 miles, looking daily. Fall back plan is to fly back economy class 40,000x2 (seems to be much easier to get than business) and pay the $ for economy plus or see if we can afford to pay for a one way business class ticket.
(ugh)

This could involve daily checking for months, but I'm willing to do that.

Thoughts and comments?? I feel a bit like it is tempting the gods to assume that nothing will happen (we have both had Health Events, though now are fine), and I don't know where travel insurance fits in--will check that later this month with TA.

Thanks, Mr W...and all of you who have helped in this.

cmstraf

Does anyone think it is too risky to get flights one way at a time?

mrwunrfl

You would be risking $200 per ticket - the cost of cancelling the ticket and redepositing the miles.

So, for two round-trips your risking $400 if you cancel.

If you get the two one-way outbound tickets then you are risking $400. You could lose that if you never find two award flights on an acceptable date, or if you cancel the trip.

If you also get two one-way return tix on an acceptable date then that would risk another $400 if you cancel the trip.

There is/was an advantage to booking two one-ways instead of a round-trip. That comes in if you want to make a change to the trip.

Maybe the rules have changed (I doubt it) and somebody will correct the following:

If you get a round-trip award ticket and want to make a change, like change the date of your return trip, then the whole ticket including the outbound trip will be booked using award availability at the time of the re-booking. The reservations you had for the outbound trip don't immediately become available for the rebooking.

If you book the outbound and return (inbound) trips on separate tix, as one-ways, then you can make a date change on the return ticket without affecting your outbound trip. The outbound trip is secure.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...ticketing.aspx

mrwunrfl

Which means that you are planning to book four tickets and your risk after booking all four would be $800.

To answer your question: no, I don't think it is too risky.

I think that some travel insurance covers redeposit fees.

yestravel

i book one ways all the time for a variety of reasons. two years ago i needed to cancel our trip and UA was going to charge me the $800. somehow i managed to plead my cas and they waived the fee. i was stunned.

simpsonc510

We have booked three one-way tickets TO Bangkok, and three one-way tickets coming home. I do this one-way booking all the time, also for a variety of reasons, just as yestravel does. So far so good!

cmstraf

Thanks all!

cmstraf

Does this mean if I don't find a Saturday flight and select a less desirable (for us) Friday one, if the Saturday flight opens up, I can change my Friday reservation to Saturday without penalty?

filmwill

I'm pretty sure there's no penalty or rebooking need that occurs when you have round-trip award ticket and you change the date or carrier (so long as the origin and destination cities stay the same)--the only requirement is that you make the change, I believe 21 days out. After that there's a financial penalty for a change.

You also don't "lose" you original flight.

For instance, I had an award ticket on Asiana last year to Tokyo and decided I'd rather fly on ANA when it became available. It left a day earlier than my original Asiana flight. UA changed me to ANA and kept my original return flight without any issue or penalty.

yestravel

I just changed a return ff tixs on UA. I was charged $50 for the change. The origin and final destination remained the same, but the date changed.

cmstraf

What I hoped to hear. It looks like I will sign up for Asiana flight, but I would prefer the 2+hour buffer that goes with ANA (which may open late) to the 55 minutes with Asiana. Seems definite that flights open up at 12:01 am Chicago time.

filmwill

yestravel, was it within 21 days of travel? Also, do you have Premiere status with UA? You don't get charged if you do -- and it sounds like the OP has status (or her husband does).

filmwill

I should clarify: with status, the ONLY potential changes are for airline/airport taxes. So you may be charged a difference of a few dollars to account for ANA's carrier taxes vs. Asiana's -- again, a trivial amount of money.

ms_go

mrwunrfl posted the link to the page with the fees above. Fees are based on the Mileage Plus status of the member whose miles were used to book the ticket--although the OP does say "Sadly we do not have Premier status." According to the chart, the change fee (21+ days) for a general member is $75.

This is all top of mind, as I just had a discussion on this last night with United Reservations while in the process of booking award tickets from three different accounts with three different status levels.

To the OP: it's hard work, but there is hope! I just booked business class awards to Asia for two people last night for travel in May/June.

yestravel

I am a premier Silver. And yes, it was changed within 21 days. Are you saying that as someone with Premier silver status there is no charge? i need to go back and review all this. The change was an emergency so i paid little attention to all the details. There was a change for me and my husband. I think the miles were from my husband's account. He has no status.

cmstraf

Hi guys,
Yes, that's us. No status. I hate not having status. What if I tell US I do have stature?

Seats for Oct 16 next year available in business Asiana last night were gone this morning and at this moment there are no others. They may of course come back. What this means to me is that I need to make reservations immediately (phone better maybe?) at 12:01 central time when they become available and can't afford to wait for better timed ANA flight. The two that came open in these last weeks did so in middle of day.

Thanks again for help. I do have hope but think I will have to be quick. And keep tracking.