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.
I booked it with no immediate change of miles in my account. Now… Will they honor it?
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?
@Ansh I’d just wait a day… 😉
@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.
@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. 😉
Does shopping the miles post instantly I need 64 miles
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.
SFO -> HKG booked, ticketed, confirmed. HKG -> BKK juuuust booked, but not yet ticketed or confirmed. Fingers crossed.
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 ———-
@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?
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?
@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/
@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
NYC to either PEK or Beijing
Try HKG.. (or if you wish try connecting in HKG to another city)
@ 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.
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?
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
THE SIMPSONS ARE GOING TO HONG KONG!
thanks gary, multi city thru HKG worked
Gone now? As of 1:58 EST
Got a trip to SGN to price at four miles too for any interested parties…
“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
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.
Is there a good HKG to Australia route? If so, SYD?
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.
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?
@Frequent Miler … HKG-BKK-SYD in Thai First? 🙂 HKG-AKL-Wherever in NZ business?
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
Can’t, routes are only ex hkg
Currently I have 0 United miles. Would this be worth buying 2,000 miles ($75.25)? What are the chances of this actually happening?
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…
Looks like it’s over.
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.
Sending my whole familia to HKG for Thanksgiving for a total of 24 miles + tax. Hope it works!
@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.
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! 🙂
I have a receipt and confirmation for 4 miles + taxes, but they took the regular mileage from my account.
Chrome seems to be a problem, try IE
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.
@anyone tell me how to get miles instantly ????
I have zero miles and need 70 miles
@Jim Chrome has been working fine for me
@Shane – you can purchase miles in 1,000 mile increments. However, this might not work and then be a waste.
Are there any DOT regulations for something like this?
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.
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.
@flying77-that happened to me on chrome browser, did it again on IE and I could enter personal info
@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.
What happens if you book for tomorrow and check in because its t-24. Will be hard for them to cancel no?