OregonMaiden

Greetings,
I am feeling a little bummed out at the moment and wanted to ask if anyone has thoughts on how we can use our 350K carefully saved United miles to find an upgrade to get from the U.S. to Johannesburg.

I have attempted to find Star Alliance help but keep getting stuck and have never had good luck with that avenue in the past.

I'm not sure how to best research a circuitous itinerary, e.g., U.S. > Europe > Johannesburg

Any advice would be welcome.
Thanks!
[cross-posted to air travel]

sparkchaser

Have you posted this request at Flyer Talk? Those people are the kings of working the FF system.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...solidated-681/
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-alliance-413/

This post is in the US Dividend Miles forum but it applies equally to other Star Alliance carriers: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12842614-post1.html

Good luck!

Southam

Telephone United and talk to a real live agent in its points department. That person should be able to handle an intricate itinerary with at least as much skill as you can deal with the Internet pages. Among other things, you may not need to fly through Europe.

OregonMaiden

Thanks...I'll check Flyer Talk. Frequent flyer info was the reason I joined eons ago, but have never really used them. I will talk to United. Thanks. My intention was to upgrade but I do have enough miles to explore freebies. I know that zillions of prospective safari-ites bombard FF desks as soon as the window opens. Fortunately, we have date flexibility and can join the queue.

Side question, any referral to an Internet resource for "backtracking" the 330-day (331?) maximum booking time?

sparkchaser

I don't know what that means.

TC

We used miles (Delta) to get our JNB tix in FC. I watched for months...checking every single day. We are going in the green season, so should have been able to get tix at minimum number of miles. They never showed up. I finally settled for "mid-priced" tickets. Purchased in June for a November trip. The mileage requirements have never dropped to the "low" selection, so I am happy that we grabbed what we did. I'm not a UA member, but there is usually a very high price tag in $$$ for a ticket that is "upgradable". We find its easier on the wallet to use all miles.

I don't understand your backtracking question either. Do you mean a date calculator? Like this:

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

OregonMaiden

Yes...date calculator is what I meant...thanks...I shall go check now