United Awards to Hong Kong and Beyond for 4 Miles

by Gary Leff

Reader Sean emails to let me know that United’s website appears to be pricing out award tickets originating in China for 4 miles plus taxes.

I’ve checked this with tickets originating in Shanghai and in Beijing (though I haven’t checked other cities), and for business and economy awards, and the result is the same. Here’s for a Beijing-Hong Kong roundtrip in business:

I love that for $1035 I could save my 4 miles.

You’ll see that it shows the correct mileage price initially and then the mistaken cost in the ‘total’.

I haven’t tried to ticket this, though Sean reports that he was successful and had only 4 miles deducted. It remains to be seen whether this will be honored or not. My guess is that it will not be, but some may find this useful — even though pricing out this way appears to require starting the award off in China.

Update: Indeed it appears to show 4 miles for awards originating in the U.S. to China as well. And it appears to show 4 miles for standard awards as well as saver awards.

Update 1:56pm Eastern: Still seems to be working. Connect from the U.S. to anywhere you want via Hong Kong and it is pricing. Some reports of success first class to Vietnam and even to Australia.

If you have enough miles for ‘regular’ mileage price in your account, it will deduct the full miles but send you a receipt showing the lower 4 mile per person price.

If you do not have enough miles for the ‘regular’ redemption cost, it will send you a receipt showing the 4 mile per person price, and no miles will be deducted from your account at this time.

Update 2:23pm Eastern: It does not appear over, despite comments suggesting otherwise. Remember that the United website is glitchy. It hangs. It gives errors. The key is that you have to connect in Hong Kong or have Hong Kong as your destination at this point, regardless of where you’re originating.

And if you have problems with the United website, clear out and start over. My advice to minimize glitches is to be logged in when you start your search and to already have your credit card on file in your account. Ideally to even have the passengers loaded into your profile.

Update 2:34pm Eastern: Will these be honored?

Lucky thinks new DOT rules requiring airlines to honor tickets as they are sold will mean United has to honor these.

I disagree, at least it is not obvious to me that an airline saying that the number of miles required for a promotional ‘free’ ticket counts as raising the ‘price’ of that ticket at least as far as DOT regulations are concerned. But then I am not a transportation lawyer.

As of this moment, no one knows whether United will honor these tickets or not. Let’s just hold our collective breaths for the next 48 hours to see. If I had to bet money, I would bet against. But stranger things have happened.

If United doesn’t honor these then everyone will certainly get a full refund. You can normally cancel awards for a full refund with no fee for 24 hours. If United doesn’t honor them at 4 miles per person then I have to imagine that anyone that has a 4 mile per person e-ticket receipt but more miles than that deducted from their account will be able to get a full refund even after the 24 hour period.

Update 2:54pm Eastern: It appears that United has shut down the ability to see reward flights to/from Hong Kong, meaning that this is likely dead.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Pingbacks

  9. […] on Sunday, Gary from View from the Wing posted that United was pricing award flights to and from Hong Kong at only 4 miles per award!  I jumped online and booked our first class flights to Hong Kong.  The total fare came […]

  14. […] now you may have heard of United’s mistake fare over the weekend — first class award tickets routed through Hong Kong were pricing at 4 miles + taxes. (A mistake fare is when a ticket is unintentionally priced far below the intended price, usually […]

Comments

  1. Interesting, I found the same thing between Beijing and Hongkong
    wonder if it only works for Beijing and shanghai to Hong Kong or any other cities

  2. It works for flights from cities other than Beijing and Shanghai but it seems the destination must be Hong Kong.

  4. So if it does work we should just book two round trips so we can get both legs starting from the US

  5. If I were to book this, what is the worst that can happen, other than it not being honored?

  6. got it ticketed for HKG-BKK-PVG-ICN-SGN-BKK-HKG for F/J using 8 miles and $112.60 last night. Still available as of now.

  8. Booked one way first class HKG-BKK-FRA-BRU for 4 miles and $47.10 Thanks for sharing, but 100% sure they are not going to honor this booking. 🙂

  9. Just booked ORD-Hong Kong RT in first. Apparently you don’t need to originate in China.

  10. This works from flights org. from HKG as well. This works on business class too.

  12. Hahahahaa – I already had tix booked home for my honeymoon, but HKG-SFO for two passengers in first class for 8 miles + $66 seems like a better deal than what I already had! Booked it! We’ll see 🙂

  13. I am sure Sean meant well when he emailed you, but blogs like yours are deal killers. Oh well, could have lasted till Monday, had you been vacationing somewhere. 🙂

  15. I am trying to add a new traveller to book for a friend but it keeps saying ” please wait” and the page will not load. Anyone having this problem?

  16. It is still showing 4 miles. However, after I ticketed the reservation with credit card it deducts the full award amount from my miles balance. I went ahead and cancelled the reservation. oh well, it was a nice try.

  18. Can book open jaw and anytime awards. Just booked HKG-RGN/GIG-GRU-IAD, normally 177,500 miles, today 4 miles!

  19. I think I’m the original poster of the glitch in UA sub-forum(the thread has been edited by myself, I want this one alive u know…). It seems the “deal” already being dead. Just FYI the departure cities are NOT only available in Asia. I was able to ticket 3 itineraries from YVR,YYZ and ORD to China. But the glitch didn’t work on US domestic flights.

  22. Alive as of 12:05pm EST. Booked HKG-ORD-BOS in F. 4miles and $38 taxes. Saw $38 pending charges on credit card immediately after booking.

  26. Do you have to have the full amount of miles available in your account? Tried but didn’t work.

  27. I booked 2 r/t tix from EWR to HKG. Receipt says only 8 miles but they deducted 120k miles from my account. Anyone else noticing this?

  28. Is there a FT or MP thread? If so, can someone post a link to it?

    BTW — just worked for me!

  32. Anyone get it ticketed yet?

    I did anytime awards LAX HKG. Have no doubt this will not be honored.

  34. Well, the screen says that I booked an award for 16 miles. But once it issued, I got deducted the full 560,000 (4 x Saver F).

    Has anyone else actually got a confirmation and then verified their MP balance?

  35. It doesn’t work, as another poster said, it comes out of your balance with the correct #. Forget it.

  38. I am ticketed too. And instead of subtracting 16 miles, it subtracted 560k!

    Does your MP balance get deducted by the small amount or the real amount?

  39. There were some lads had already made calls to UA call centre for “4 miles” award reservations…

  42. Look folks: SHARES does NOT do instant ticketing. Just because it SAYS you have a reservation, it hasn’t actually ticketed it yet. You have to wait a few minutes (up to a few days!) for the actual ticket number.

    once you have a ticket number, please report back whether or not the small or real amount of miles were deducted.

  43. Mine just got ticketed – no miles deducted yet but the email receipt claims there were only 8 deducted (MileagePlus Miles Debited/Award Used:8/ZF72).

    Crossing my fingers…

  45. Do you think it would go through if I booked a flight for tomorrow or even for today?

  46. my two booking were ticketed using 8 miles and 4 miles only. I have 250 miles on my accounts, so we’ll see.

  47. @hobo13 – I don’t even have that much miles. only 28000 miles are sitting in my account, they are still there, so far…I won’t be sad if UA deduct all of it:)

  51. Thanks Cdegt for posting, and for confirming.

    I had the miles in my account for what I booked, and it took the right amount. (After saying 16). Wonder if that makes a diff?

  53. it will be fun to see how this thing play out. My receipts still say 8 and 4 miles, though like some of you said, the miles haven’t been deducted yet, which is normal for UA to take a couple days to duct your miles. Is DOT ruling applicable for reward ticket too?

  55. I booked what I thought was 2 anytime awards but it deducted 320k miles. Anyplace on the ‘view reservation’ screen to confirm they are standard awards?

    I had 324k miles in their at the time. Now only 4k. I just booked another RT LAX-HKG and it went through – we’ll see what is deducted.

  58. I should have added that I got a ticketed notice as well as having 320k miles deducted.

    Can I cancel online and get the miles returned?

  59. Let’s hope for the best!

    Total Price 8 Miles and $144.80

    Flight Details United Confirmation Number
    Sep. 19, 2012 | Hong Kong (HKG) to Tokyo, Japan (NRT – Narita)
    Depart:
    10:15 a.m.
    Wed., Sep. 19, 2012
    Hong Kong (HKG) Arrive:
    3:20 p.m.
    Wed., Sep. 19, 2012
    Tokyo, Japan (NRT – Narita) Travel Time:4 hr 5 mn Flight: UA78
    Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
    Fare Class: United Business (ZN)
    Meal: Lunch
    No Special Meal Offered.

    Sun., Sep. 23, 2012 | Tokyo, Japan (NRT – Narita) to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
    Depart:
    4:00 p.m.
    Sun., Sep. 23, 2012
    Tokyo, Japan (NRT – Narita) Arrive:
    9:01 a.m.
    Sun., Sep. 23, 2012
    San Francisco, CA (SFO) Flight Time:9 hr 1 mn Flight: UA838
    Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
    Fare Class: United Global First (FN)
    Meal: Dinner
    No Special Meal Offered.
    Change Planes. Connect time in San Francisco, CA (SFO) is 1 hour 39 minutes.
    Depart:
    10:40 a.m.
    Sun., Sep. 23, 2012
    San Francisco, CA (SFO) Arrive:
    4:14 p.m.
    Sun., Sep. 23, 2012
    Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW) Flight Time:3 hr 34 mn
    Travel Time:14 hr 14 mn Flight: UA1051
    Aircraft: Boeing 737-700
    Fare Class: United First (ZN)
    Meal: Food for Purchase
    No Special Meal Offered.

    Sat., Dec. 22, 2012 | Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW) to Singapore, Singapore (SIN)
    Depart:
    6:00 a.m.
    Sat., Dec. 22, 2012
    Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW) Arrive:
    8:21 a.m.
    Sat., Dec. 22, 2012
    Chicago, IL (ORD – O’Hare) Flight Time:2 hr 21 mn Flight: UA638
    Aircraft: Airbus A319
    Fare Class: United First (ZN)
    Meal: Food and Beverages for Purchase
    No Special Meal Offered.
    Change Planes. Connect time in Chicago, IL (ORD – O’Hare) is 5 hours 9 minutes.
    Depart:
    1:30 p.m.
    Sat., Dec. 22, 2012
    Chicago, IL (ORD – O’Hare) Arrive:
    1:30 a.m. +2 Day
    Mon., Dec. 24, 2012
    Singapore, Singapore (SIN) Flight Time:22 hr 0 mn
    Travel Time:32 hr 0 mn Flight: UA895
    Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
    Fare Class: United Global First (FN)
    Meal: Lunch
    No Special Meal Offered.
    1 Stop. Time on the ground in Hong Kong (HKG) is 2 hours 30 minutes.
    Note: You are departing Hong Kong (HKG) and arriving Singapore, Singapore (SIN).

  60. I am not seeing the offer. Can someone give me an example of dates and airports to check?

  62. I think that it deducts miles one ticket at a time, so it deducted one at 320k and stopped because there was no room on the other.

    I got ticketed on the second one, no miles deducted (only 4k there).

  63. What if someone books for today’s flight at 4 miles? I only had 6K in my account, and mine was ticketed (should have been 600K, was only 8 miles)

  64. Wasn’t showing up for me from the US because I was searching one-way. Worked like a charm when I searched round trip.

  65. I got 4x Business tix, SIN-HKG. I got the ticketing confirmation email (e-ticket nos & everything) and it says that 16 miles were deducted, although a quick check of my account shows nothing deducted so far. Well, if it gets through, it’s a nice vacation for the family at the end of the year. 🙂

  66. Sounds like folks who have the proper number of miles are having that proper amount deducted from their accounts. But lots of reports here that folks without the regular mileage balance required are still seeing tickets issued which is interesting.

    My bet is that these aren’t honored at 4 miles apiece.

    However —

    * United allows free cancel/redeposit within 24 hours
    * If they quote 4 miles and deduct more, it seems to me that they’ll have to offer free cancel/redeposit beyond 24 hours (I’d grab a screen shot of the price quote as backup)
    * Some have speculated the DOT rules will require them to honor these. I disagree. I believe the rules are that they would have to cover any costs incurred associated with an assumption that they would honor tickets that have been issued, not that they actually have to honor the tickets themselves (so if you’re out non-refundable hotel, they could be on the hook for reimbursing that). I have not paid attention whether this DOT position statement applies to award travel either.

  67. My account only had 29k miles and my eticket says 12 miles debited for 3 business tickets (900000 miles normally). Will my account me negative 870k tomorrow??

  68. in for fun. booked four of us to hong kong for thanksgiving. 16 miles and $162. i only had 900 miles left in my account after draining with last weekend’s sq screw up. i will laugh my head off if this sticks. not ticketed yet, let’s see how this plays out!

  71. I assume this “deal” is now gone? I priced a few China award itineraries on united.com, and no special price.

  72. Lucky says that the DOT rules require them to honor, even in the event of mistake, and contract of carriage statements to the contrary don’t apply.

    I’m not so sure. It’s not clear to me that award travel counts as purchased travel under the DOT rules. I could be wrong, and would love to be. We’ll find out soon enough!

  73. Got LAX to HKG in November. Tried to book a second trip, open jaw ending in OGG, but no luck…but the first trip is TICKETED! Do you think they’ll honor it?

  75. I only have 24 miles, and just booked 2 tickets, and they’ve both ticketed… though nothing yet on my mileageplus account. Though in the eTicket receipt, it does say the charge is 4 miles.

  76. It says complete this purchas now and I click it and it says it’s already purchased I got a confirmation number as well.

  78. DOT made KE honor the last round of RGN tickets, I’d say miles or cash doesn’t matter as long as you have your eticket issued.

  79. Talking about DOT if it does apply to this someone could book some non refundable hotel stays and get reimbursed by united for them? This could help get closer to my platinum status at Spg. I could book rooms at four hotels for four different nights. How can we check to see if DOT rules would cover this

  82. I booked 4 or 5 YYZ – HKGs for my parents just in case it a) sticks and they b) want to go so they can choose dates. 3 of these have ticketed so far…

  84. Ah, I got it to “work.”

    Anyone want to place odds? I’m going at about a million to one, but I had to join the fun.

  86. I have serious doubts it will stick, but once it’s ticketed and your CC is charged, I thought DOT makes them make them keep it?

    Or can they argue that it was clearly an error because it even says 160K miles.

  91. This has as much chance of sticking as the Cartera ~80K AAdvantage miles! But fun to roll the dice I guess!

  92. I’m not sure but it says this

    1 award 4 miles
    Additional taxes/fees $40.50
    Total Price 4 Miles and $40.50

    but it takes out 140,000… what am I doing wrong?

  93. Just tried a ORD-HKG RT and while the mistake fare of 4 Miles and $49.60 shows, it won’t actually let me book. It gives me an error. Looks like they’ve become aware of the issue!

  94. Lots of united.com errors all the time, just start over and try again, I just got one to go through — first class standard awards to HKG 😉

  95. @Tom it seems they are deducting the ‘correct’ number of miles from accounts that have enough miles, even though the receipt shows a lower price. Accounts without the usual number of miles are getting ticketed and no miles are being pulled.

  96. Just got ticketed for SFO-HKG over Thanksgiving on United Global First and Asiana Business Class. It took about 5 minutes after purchase to receive the ticket number. $52.90 and 4 miles, and I haven’t got more than 18k miles right now in my account, should they choose to try to take more later. Guess we’ll see whether I’m still ticketed in a few days’ time 🙂

    Thanks heaps for the tip!

  100. So what can we do if the correct miles got deducted, as according to the DOT regulation, that seems to be a violation, charging more than the customer was promised. Isn’t it? What are people planning to do?

  102. @Gary Thanks just tried again and it worked this time! I’m even flying OZ from ORD-ICN-HKG and UA back from HKG-ORD. I do have enough miles so they will probably deduct the full 140K. But if they I’ll cancel saying the total showed as only 4 miles. I’m hoping they honor the cancellation policy beyond the normal 24 hours.

  103. @Yaswanth – you have a receipt showing a total price of 4 miles (per person) and the e-ticket receipt shows the total miles as 4 per person. So I am confident you should be able to get them to honor full refunds without penalty past 24 hours. 😉

  105. This is really going to ruin somebody’s day in Chicago and/or Houston.

    Sean, I hate to say it, but you should NOT have shared this offer. If you had just gotten the tickets for yourself, there was a chance this could have flown “under the radar.” But with tens of thousands of folks booking these (by the end of the day), there is zero chance. Sorry.

  107. In checking United’s “My Account” and the “Current Reservations” listing below for the subject reservation, mine only shows the 8 miles and the $88.40. No reference of ANY other miles. I’m confirmed and ticketed but the 8 miles haven’t been deducted yet. Guess we’ll all wait and see ———-

  108. @Gary After 24 hours, they might create issues in cancelling it, wouldn’t they? Or will they be more likely to honor the ticket if I wait beyond 24 hours?

  109. Review Trip Itinerary-
    2 award 600,000 miles
    Additional taxes/fees $68.20
    Total Price600,000 Miles and $68.20

    What am I doing wrong?

  110. @Shane shopping does not post instantly. Transfers from Chase Ultimate Rewards do. Not sure if purchases do these days, they used to with Continental so probably/

  111. @greek2me – what is your destination? It stopped working for me to Beijing, or at least it stopped briefly, but I could still get it to work from HKG

  114. @ Gary – Thanks for the post.

    PVG and PEK did not give a lower total but HKG did. Seems to work with an account w/ usual miles.

  115. Gary: My tickets shows:
    1 award 4 miles
    Additional taxes/fees $29.60
    Total Price4 Miles and $29.60

    here’s the excerpt of the confirmation email i received:
    Award Used:
    4/

    but i got 55,000 miles deducted from my account. What should i do now?

  116. Just booked in F DEN-NRT-HKG for next May (flying on a 787 DEN-NRT):

    2 award 600,000 miles
    Additional taxes/fees $147.40
    Total Price 8 Miles and $147.40

  121. “This reservation was ticketed and confirmed on Sun., Jul. 15, 2012 at 12:36 p.m. Central Time.” only 4 miles for my flight, only have 61,000 real UA miles too

  122. in a perfect world, united should not honor it. it’s obviously a glitch in the system. what’s crazy is that so many of you out there want this to be honored so some poor schmuck can get fired for this glitch.

    stay classy, road warriors.

  124. I booked IAD-HKG; HKG-PEK; and PEK-IAD for a week next May. The website quoted me 4 miles and $73.70 taxes. However, it appears that the website is in the process of deducting 140,000 miles from my account.

  125. Inmust be retarded. I can’t find anything for less then the normal miles. I will book anything at the 4 miles. Can someone suggest a us to china route with dates that works?

  127. Yes that’s what I booked but no miles please someone tell me how to get 70 miles instantly , I just purchased 2k and nothing there

  129. Currently I have 0 United miles. Would this be worth buying 2,000 miles ($75.25)? What are the chances of this actually happening?

  130. looks like, you can now only book for 4 miles if you have the correct amount of miles in your account? everybody else can get the price, but is not able to enter personal data now…

  132. Have he UA tkt numbers and receipt from UA saying 4 miles deducted. But when I check account it was 60k for each tkt. isn’t that something I should be able to argue. They give me a recept for one price and charge another.

  133. Sending my whole familia to HKG for Thanksgiving for a total of 24 miles + tax. Hope it works!

  134. @flying77 I don’t have the amount of miles but was able to get through. I changed browsers from Chrome to IE and was able to get past the personal data freezing up.

  135. I’m trying to book, and when entering the traveler information, I’m getting a message that says, “Please wait . . .” It’s been hear for a while…

    I tried doing it in a new tab (Google Chrome), and it’s the same result.

    Help! I don’t want to miss out! 🙂

  136. I have a receipt and confirmation for 4 miles + taxes, but they took the regular mileage from my account.

  138. My account is showing the proper deduction (not 4 miles per person); time to wait it out and see what happens over the next few days. Receipt still just shows 8 miles total.

  141. @Shane – you can purchase miles in 1,000 mile increments. However, this might not work and then be a waste.

  143. Almost forgot to mention… If you have Platinum or higher Premier status, you can cancel and have the miles redeposited at any time without charge. Gold PRemiers have to pay $100, and Silvers have to pay $125. I’m not sure about those without any status. They will refund the taxes no matter your status.

    Only tickets purchased with $$ have to be canceled within 24 hours in order to be refundable. That rule does not apply to award travel.

  144. I got quoted 8 miles and $81.00 for 2 passengers and then once it was ticketed I noticed they deducted 2 X 65,000 from my account so I guess it’s a no go for me. One thing that is interesting is that the dates I chose were just standard award days but they gave me the super saver rate so that’s something.

  145. @flying77-that happened to me on chrome browser, did it again on IE and I could enter personal info

  146. @Ken – I have to imagine that ANYONE will be able to cancel at no charge after 24 hours if United gives you a receipt for 4 miles but charges you 140,000 or 280,000 or whatever and if United doesn’t auto-cancel these for you.

  147. What happens if you book for tomorrow and check in because its t-24. Will be hard for them to cancel no?

  148. converting Amex memebership rewards points to MileagePlus should be instantly, in Canada at least.

  149. @Joel – unclear — lucky thinks new DOT rules requiring airlines to honor tickets as they are sold will mean United has to honor these. I disagree, at least it is not obvious to me that an airline saying that the number of miles required for a promotional ‘free’ ticket counts as raising the ‘price’ of that ticket at least as far as DOT regulations are concerned. But then I am not a transportation lawyer.

  150. @Sean – do you have any chase ultimate rewards? these convert instantly to united. need to transfer 1000 of them

  152. If this sticks, I’ll forgive COdbaUA for wrongfully clawing back 25K miles from their stupid promo!

  153. @Gary, can you add segments to this later, IE from HKG to TPE without additional miles?

  154. I booked one with Chrome and the last one on IE b/c of the traveler page being freeze (I am guessing they are updating the system in the background). I screenshot everything but so far they havent deduct any miles yet, so I guess I have to wait and see

    Thank you everyone who shares their experience in here and thank you to Gary for sharing!

  155. can get anything ex-US to HKG priced out at 4 miles ow anymore. Dead? At this rate, I don’t think the tickets will be honored

  156. @Will – you can certainly add segments NOW. As far as later.. normally the answer would be yes, for the cost of a change fee if one applies to you. In a world where United honors these tickets (which I certainly think is less than 50-50) I could imagine them saying ‘no changes of any kind’. So who knows?

  162. @dealswelike , thank you for your answer I did purchase the miles but nothing in the account I had to purchase 2k minimum

  168. Looks like it may truly be over this time…not showing any availability even in coach lax-hkg

  170. I love how UA could dispatch their programmers to work on clawing back the miles from their stupid promo, which might have saved them, what a few million miles….. and in the matter of a few hours this morning, they just let a few million miles slip right out the door.

    This airline is f-ing retarded.

  172. can’t find anything. Will it not show availability if you don’t have the real number of miles in your account?

  175. looks like they closed availability. For some reason i chickened out at the final page (regretfully). good luck all!

  176. @Scott – appears they have killed any ability to search for Hong Kong. Don’t know yet if that means the system won’t show any flights at all that connect in Hong Kong, or just that you can’t successfully specify Hong Kong. Likely dead though someone may find a way still to book this.

  177. The event lasted more than 12 hrs.if UA has to honor every 4 miles ticket, it will be HUGE. More than any glitch ever happened.

  178. @Andrew United awarded a bunch of miles from a promotion early, before they were required to. Then they realized that some tickets which had been purchased before the promo period were awarded the miles incorrectly. So they pulled back everyones miles and say they’ll re-run the mileage award later.

  179. I’m in for four first class tix! Only have a few miles in my account after recently nearly cleaning it out for another redemption. 🙂

  182. Booked my family of 4 for DFW-HKG rt in F. A couple of friends booked the same. We were trying to get 3 more there around the same time but looks like its shut down. If they honor these tickets my kids are going to have the coolest spring break ever.

  183. Hey all, no matter what happens (and I still think it’s unlikely they will honor these) it’s a fun ride for a Sunday afternoon!

  185. Yeah maybe we all get 10,000 miles for the effort when they cancel. This will be in the news! Now that this looks dead, you should call your contacts Gary!

  187. Gary is right
    It was a fun Sunday morning and afternoon
    No matter what happens I am still happy lol

  188. @greek2me…i totally agree. my hands were shaking as i booked my parents first class ORD to HKG at the end of the year! 8 miles and $71!! I have been ticketed…we’ll see what united does with this! what a ride!

    thanks gary and lucky!!

  190. UA hasn’t blocked everything. Set your destination to other Chinese cities but HKG(like Can/SZX even somewhere west/north. No hassle at all to buy a bus ticket even a shorthaul flight ticket if necessary, you will get to Hong Kong in few hours), better try connecting at ICN or NRT, some of the routes are still working.

  191. Don’t blame Sean. How many of you figured out this on your own? You had to have heard it from somebody, right?

  192. Wow, those emails telling me “you’re closer to a feww award than you think” were right!!!

  194. I have already cancelled my itinerary and got back the 130,000 (2×65,000) miles that they had deducted. If only I had booked 1st class from my mother’s account. It has less than 10K miles.

  195. Got in R/T HKG in first but convoluted way home to EWR. Either way I am not holding my breath that this will be honored but what the heck I may be going to China.

  198. They pulled 300K miles out of my account for 2 businessfirst tickets. Think I will get nailed with a cancellation fee when I cancel these tix? I am only Premier Gold.

  202. cdegt: if you are the one took the news mainstream, you and the word ‘sorry’ are not allowed in the same sentence.

  203. So, now that the deal is dead, can we have a discussion thread on FT or MP? We need to consolidate this discussion, as now comes the fun part of the ‘7 steps of mistakes fares’!

  204. Great fun for a Sunday AM…excellent suggestion by hobo13…is there perhaps a “legal beagle” who got in on this deal has some perspectives as to the validity of the purchased fix?

  205. I just booked and held 2 JFK/CAN (thank you cgedt) Saver first JFK/CAN on Aug 30, returning Sept 11.

  207. I got SYD LAX SFO HKG ICN SYD for $622.35 and 16miles for 4 passengers all in F can’t wait !

  208. @hobo13 – I got this from a college student member of flyertea(a Chinese FFP community). I think he is the one first discovered this. He sent me a message and I just posted it few hours later. what a fun Sunday~~ Good luck everyone

  209. Thanks @Sean thanks @cdegt — fun all the way around, however it came about, so while I’m at it thanks to flyertea as well!

  210. @cdegt – Just wanted to give a big thanks for sharing, either way it turns out it’s appreciated!

  212. Yes, thanks to all who had a hand in taking this public.

    Lottery ticket punched.

    Popcorn popping.

  216. That’s not fun for me I had to buy 2k in miles and transfer points over from hotel accounts , look for surveys and tried transferring e miles all to just get. 200miles !

  218. Dogs, cats, hamsters, fish, parrots – who do you prefer? Or perhaps what that non-native animals – snakes, crocodiles, lizards, monkeys?

  220. DOT has no rules governing FF programs:

    Complaint about an Airline’s Frequent Fyer Program
    Published 03/05/2008 01:56 PM | Updated 11/08/2010 04:40 PM
    Complaint about an Airline’s Frequent Fyer Program?
    According to the Department of Transportation Aviation Consumer Protection Division:

    “The Department of Transportation does not regulate airline frequent flyer programs. These are matters of individual company policy. If you are dissatisfied with the way a program is administered, changes which may take place, or the basic terms of the agreement, you should complain directly to the company. If such informal efforts to resolve the problem are unsuccessful, you may wish to consider legal action through the appropriate civil court.”

    This and additional regarding frequent flyer program information is available by visiting the Aviation Consumer Protection Division web site at: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/publications/frequent.htm

    The Aviation Consumer Protection Division home page is: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov

  222. Shane, how did you manage getting miles? I am missing 8 miles to complete my two bookings that are on hold…

  223. Looks like United is having more problem than this deal. Now it cant pull up any of my mileagePlus status…either they charge me 150k for the RT ticket and my account become negative or it might be a bigger problem than we think. I am anxious to see what the outcome will be 🙂

  225. For anyone who’s ever wondered just how many people read these blogs… It’s days like today;)
    I have 2 tix with legs in the lottery pile.

  226. Booked hkg-doh-JFK & hkg-jnb on QR and SA for 8 miles. Big thanks to @cdegt , @gary. Let the post speculation discuss begin!

  228. @Joe Bloggs – were you aware of this deal without reading it on the blogs? A ‘secret deals’ email list and a ‘secret deals’ forum cited this blog post. Flyertalk cited this blog post as well. Do tell, how many people were taking advantage of this under the radar already before I posted? This was never going to last a long time, and because of the posting a whole lot more people got to avail themselves than otherwise would. Who knows how it’ll turn out? But it was fun…

  230. It’s funny when people post the blog killed it. They would never have known about it without the blog. Thanks Gary for posting it.

  232. …it doesn’t matter who revealed this, when they did so, or how. These reservations will all be cancelled without recourse in just a matter of days – anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves, particularly when it comes to COdbaUA.

  233. Looks like people who were able to travel today are boarding flight. That’s amazing.

  234. Let me add my sincere thanks to cdegt, Gary and all involved in getting the word out on this. It cracks me up that people want to complain that Gary killed this deal. Killed it for who? The two people in China who knew about it before the blogs let us all in on it? 🙂

  235. Indeed, looks like JN commenting on Lucky’s blog and someone at Dan’s Deals forums are traveling. Which says little about what will happen for the rest of us…

  236. My money is on United with this one. Something happened on the retail end of the written code and we all see it as 4 miles a ticket but if you have the correct amount of miles in your account those miles are deducted for the flight so the code is correct at some point in the system. The glitch then is not that it showed 4 miles but it allowed those who have insufficient miles to book at all. If you booked a flight to leave within 24hrs you have a shot and that is it the rest of us will get a cancelled notification out of this and those who actually had the correct amount of miles and those miles were deducted from your account will most likely enjoy the joy and splendor of a UA representative.

  237. Travelling today is pure genius. Whoever thought of doing that was brilliant (and had the time!).

    I probably could have taken a quick trip tomorrow. Wish I had considered that. Of course, tomorrow may very well be too late.

  238. Blogs definitely kill deals. There is no doubt that they killed this one. Anybody arguing?

    But sometimes they also break the news on deals….. 🙂

    It’s like this — I want blogs to ONLY cover deals that *I* personally don’t know about yet. If *I* read about it somewhere else, then the blogs should just shut up. OK? Got that, Gary?

  239. @Joe Bloggs – The goose that lays the golden egg does die of old age eventually. Dissemination of where the goose is hastens its death, but ensures it lays more eggs during its wonderful life. Unless someone is engaged in tipping UA off, I think dissemination does all others, on balance, a service.

  240. I took advantage of this to a point. I booked R/T MSN-ORD-HKG for my 4 miles and $40.50. It is exciting to think of the possibilities of it happening. I’ts not entirely unlikely, afterall people a few years ago had free or nearly free weekends in Vegas thanks to Expedia’s Save300. I flew to Oslo for $300 a year and a half ago. I always believe that these deals are highly unlikely until I am in the clear on them.

    If I were able to go back in time I’d have also chosen a 2nd or even 3rd flight out of HKG to get around other cities in Asia. As it is, I’ll pay for a flight from HKG to other locations. I know I could get to BKK for a song from HKG. So, plenty of options in my 2.5 week itinerary that may or may not remain valid. I’d feel a lot worse about my chances if it wasn’t already ticketed.

    And I will keep my hopes up despite some negative Nancy’s out there trying to douse the excitement. I don’t see any downside to taking this chance.

  241. Im assuming mine will be cancelled too but there has to be some repercussions for these guys. If you go into a store and they price an item incorrectly, they are obligated to sell you the item at the cost marked, even if it results in a loss. why isnt there a law that protects consumes similarly in a case like this?

  242. It is more likely that UA will cancel those. It totally screwed up the award seats to HK and even southeast Asia for the rest of the year. Looks like it affects not just united flights but all star alliance flights.

  243. Well, I have one ticketed, but I already have CX F and SQ F. The SQ F I may never see again. It would be hard to choose SQ F for 280K miles or UA F for 4 miles.

  244. If they do decide not to honor the tickets, a thousand or so angry frequent flyers couldn’t hurt anything. United has enough problems right now so who knows, maybe they’ll do something to actually make themselves look better instead of worse.

  245. However it turns out, it was a rush. I dragged my wife out of bed for this and she was so excited on it possibly happening she couldn’t get back to sleep! 🙂

    I do think that there is a high chance of it UA not honoring this and finding someway to wiggle out of it, so I’m not keeping my hopes up. However, doesn’t cost anything to be in with a chance. 😉

    (I’m just kicking myself now that I didn’t book a few more tickets….)

  246. That was fun. I went hogwild on the off chance UA will honor it. Must’ve spent close to what would normally cost 3 million miles for me and the family.

    Well, I consider it like buying a lottery ticket. Chances are you won’t win. But a man can dream with a lottery ticket in his hand, can’t he?! And the best part is, if I don’t win, I’ll get a refund – it’s a free ticket.

    Thanks Gary, at least for letting me and my wife dream.

  247. I actually read about this before there was one comment on here and i thought to myself this is a blantant mistake and if you think united is gunna take a big loss and give free rides then your probably mistaken. However i wish you all the luck in getting your flights. I also find it amazing how much free time / vacation time people can come up with on a whim. You guys have it good.

  248. Does anyone have 1000 Chase UR to transfer to UA? Please contact me at yerffej201[at]gmail.com. I still have a ticket pending!

  249. I am hardly a UA apologist, but clearly a mistake. Would not blame them for not honoring.

  250. @Eric – That applies only if a reasonable person would have believed the price to be a legitimate offer and then you relied upon that price to your detriment. It is going to be hard for anyone who saw hundreds of thousands of miles quoted as they added segments and had only a fraction of those in their account to argue successfully that they *both* believed 4 miles was a legitimate offer *and* they made the purchase relying on that offer in a manner that was detrimental when cancelled (i.e., refunding the taxes/fees/few miles wasn’t enough to make them whole).

  251. It seems United does not serve HKG any more…lol..nothing showing up on search results …

  252. I booked one of these for two friends with no UA status. They’re a little nervous that they’ll get dinged for some kind of cancellation/re-deposit fee if they decide not to go. I’ve been telling ’em I’m fairly confident that UA would be thrilled to redeposit for no penalty in this situation, if the deal is honored at all.

    That makes sense, right? It’s likely that they don’t have to cancel within 24 hours to get a free redeposit in this case…?

  253. I booked a BOS-HKG round trip in March 2013, it was confirmed and ticketed…However, I made the stupidest mistake in the world…I calculated the return day wrong and it turned out the return trip was one day after my ideal day to come back to the states…So I called UA Hongkong and asked them to change the flights for me in order to push the date forward for a day. My heart was literally on string when I was calling them. And the agent seemed to be unaware of the wrong price 4 miles that I used to booked the standard BOS-HKG first class trip which requires 32W normally…And then she successfully change the return trip day for me. However, It took forever for she to ticket it. Finally she said there was something wrong with the system and she cannot ticket it but can confirm it for me at that time. And she said she will call me tomorrow and try to ticket it tomorrow…What should I do? Will they ticket my trip???

  254. @Karen – if United doesn’t honor this at 4 miles per person, folks won’t be on the hook. My guess is that even if United does honor this they’d be happy to have the seats back with no cancellation fee even post-24 hours, but potentially for a limited period of time like a week. I wouldn’t sweat this one.

  255. @Pablo… very stupid indeed. There is nothing you can do now and it would be very surprising if they re-ticket it.

  256. We’re in a similar situation to Karen. I booked a couple of trips speculatively (without elite status). The one I want to cancel is within the window in which I was charged a $75 per person booking fee. So now, when I go to cancel, it looks like I’ll only be refunded the $121 in taxes, but not the booking fees. Is that right? If so, I’m thinking now that I’m better off keeping the booking and hoping that United cancels it or offers us something for it. Agree?

  257. UPDATE：I called the UA America and they realize that I used 4 miles to book the trip. And they said I am in the calling list and there will be someone to discuss it with me……

  258. Again,what’s the good thing for me to do at this point? Will they make my ticket disappear?

  259. The good thing for you to do right now (nay the only thing, I’d argue) is to sit and wait like the rest of us.

  260. Why so many haters? The airlines nickel and dime us left and right and the service levels are in constant decline. We’re practically molested before we even get on a dang plane. Soon we’ll be paying for the recirculated oxygen we breathe on the flights. I feel no guilt about trying to take advantage of this deal. If this pans out, good for us. If not, oh well, it was fun, while it lasted!

  261. Shannon just posted on FT that UA will be contacting all with the incorrect mileage debuted to let them add more miles or xl without penalties

  262. Just my 2 cents. I don’t hate you guys getting the deal, but I can imagine that it will become way much harder for others (like general people) to redeem award tickets to Hong Kong or SE Asia for the rest of the year. BTW, there is a published award chart in United that doesn’t vary much.

    It will be even worse if people who get on this mistake fare don’t fly at all. This will really hurt everyone else chance to redeem award tickets in the short term, and hurt United frequent flyer program reputation in the long run.

  263. United just came out with a statement that these 4 mile awards will not be honored and the 4 miles refunded.

  264. Hi Gary, for those who already have had the ticket(s) issued (with ticket number(s)) and credit cards charged for the taxes and fees, what’s going to happen to them? will they all receive an email or a phone call from United regarding the cancellations of the tickets? and get a refund on credit cards? Has anyone already gone through that process? Thank you.

  265. @WT as far as i know folks haven’t been contacted by united yet. but yes folks will be able to cancel without penalty and get the taxes refunded

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