Thankfully,
Saver Award availability in Economy does exist for Justin's departure date.
Not exact matches
Downgrade to the Chase MileagePlus Card (no Explorer
in the name) and you'll still have [ever so slightly] expanded domestic
saver level Economy
award availability, no fee, and the ability to switch back to the $ 95 annual fee Explorer card if your travel patterns change
in the future.
After confirming
Saver class
availability for each flight segment by searching them as one - way flights, I now stitched them all together
in United's multi-destination
award search tool, making certain to choose the specific flight numbers I'd confirmed
availability on during my one - way searches.
We have been using Ultimate Rewards the last couple of trips, though think we got luck on UAL
in 2015 when there was some 1st
Saver Award availability.
United
saver level
award availability from SFO is the best we've seen so far
in our research.
In the entire month of October, I found one day with
availability on the LAX — JFK non-stop flight at the
saver award level.
In peak season things can be different — if you can find
award availability points can be a money
saver.
As stated,
award availability for (
saver) business class to New Zealand on United is not great and you'll need to book far
in advance if you want to even have a chance to snag redemptions with business class seats between the US and Australia / New Zealand.
Travelers can take comfort
in the fact that
award availability at the
saver level is increasing.
Yes, you still have to pay fees with Iberia, and they're much more than those typically tied to United
award flights, but if there's no
availability in business class through other alliances, it might be worth it to you to pay the fee to get your business class
saver tickets.
In the image below, you can see plenty of
Saver Award availability from IAH to CDG.
Assuming you can find United - metal
saver availability in coach for the days you want, you can save 20 % off a roundtrip
award from the US or Alaska to Porto, Portugal, Reykjavik, Iceland, Singapore, or Sydney, Australia.
Getting to Europe with AA miles is challenging because AA
saver level
award availability is abysmal
in general, but also because they largely let their oneWorld British Airways handle traffic to Europe.
Other Chase cards you can apply for at the same time include the Chase Freedom (15K for spending $ 500 +2.5 K for adding an additional user for a limited time only plus 5 - 10 points per dollar spent
in rotating categories), Chase British Airways (Up to 100K signup bonus for a limited time only), the Chase United Explorer (30K signup plus another 5K points for adding a free additional user on the consumer card / 50K signup points on the business card, plus get free luggage, free primary car rental insurance including
in the US and Israel, expanded
saver and standard
award ticket
availability, priority boarding, and more), the Chase IHG (with 60K signup points and a free night every subsequent year upon renewal), the Chase Marriott (with 50K signup points and a free night every subsequent year upon renewal), the Chase Slate (with zero balance transfer fees, 0 % APR on purchase and balance transfers for 18 months, and free FICO scores), the Chase Ink Plus (60K signup points plus up to 5 points per dollar spent), and the Chase Ink Cash (20K signup points plus up to 5 points per dollar spent).
There is more
saver award availability earlier
in the month for SF > AKL than for DC > AKL so I'd like to try to use one of those earlier dates.
Logged out
in June, there are only 3 days with any
saver award availability.
I highly recommend doing your own research
in advance and finding
saver award availability at United.com and wiring down the flight numbers and calling
in.
Other Chase cards you can apply for at the same time include the Chase British Airways (50K signup points, 1.25 Avios per dollar, and an annual companion
award ticket if you spend $ 30K +
in a year), and the Chase United Explorer (30K signup points plus another 5K points for adding a free additional user, and it gives free luggage, free primary car rental insurance including
in the US and Israel, expanded
saver and standard
award ticket
availability, priority boarding, and more), the Chase Sapphire Preferred (40K signup points plus another 5K points for adding a free additional user, no fee the first year, free primary car rental insurance including
in the US and Israel, plus 2 - 2.14 points per dollar on travel and dining with no Foreign Exchange fees), the Chase Marriott (with 50K signup points plus a free night upon signup and a free night every subsequent year upon renewal), the Chase Freedom (which has no annual fee, gives 5 points per dollar
in rotating categories, and 10 % bonus points through 2015 if you have a Chase checking account), and the Chase Ink Cash (which also has no annual fee and gives 5 points per dollar on telecom / office supplies and 2 points per dollar on dining and gas)
If you're interested
in visiting during April, you just need to find
saver award flight
availability from your city to Chicago (ORD) during one of these dates.
At the time, there was a single date
in all of 2014 with first or business class
award availability at the
saver level.
Availability is unfortunately always going to be an issue with
award seats — that's the constraint
in the system I try to preach flexibility above all else, so you usually can come by the
Saver Level seats needed to book the 35k Singapore miles on United flights.
A question on waiting to see
Saver Award availability: I booked 2 award tickets with Alaska to Hawaii for the last week of Dec 15 (11 months in adva
Award availability: I booked 2
award tickets with Alaska to Hawaii for the last week of Dec 15 (11 months in adva
award tickets with Alaska to Hawaii for the last week of Dec 15 (11 months
in advance).
However close -
in availability can get very expensive and
saver award availability on routes like JFK - Tel Aviv is non-existent.
United generally has good
saver award availability from the US to Europe
in economy no matter what your home airport is.
* You can also use Delta's website to search for
availability but keep
in mind that
in order to book a Delta flight with either of the Ultimate Rewards Skyteam partners, there must be
award space available at the
saver level on Delta.
He also said that United plans to increase the
availability of
Saver award seats by more than 10 percent
in domestic and Canadian markets.