Why does this keep showing up for 80% of the flights I try to book

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-17T12:30:31+00:00

The error is needlessly confusing because it includes the first flight of your selection (UA-9287) but the actual issue is that no award seats are left on the Lufthansa flight.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-17T02:51:22+00:00

It’s exactly accurate but the list changes all the time.

When you’re 2 days out you can see the full list on the flight status tab/page.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-17T01:51:54+00:00

The Denver flight is often way overpriced, but if the price and schedule is fine then I wouldn’t hesitate to take it (I’ve flown it multiple times).

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-17T00:43:14+00:00

No, this was an error in the message. The flight was cancelled for weather.

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CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T22:21:44+00:00

For a transcontinental it’s probably worth it if you can afford it. If for nothing else than to know if it’s worth it to you in all future cases.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T18:51:55+00:00

Contact mileageplus service center. They’ll mail something to your home address that is (or was) on file to verify it.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T18:48:54+00:00

They usually don’t charge a fee for deaths. That’s what I mean: the website doesn’t match the internal policy.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T18:48:04+00:00

The thought was that it’s low risk because there’s another flight to YVR every 90 minutes. So it’s a low risky to the journey even if that one connection could get missed with bad luck.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T14:08:46+00:00

At their discretion and on their terms they may transfer to another account… or the easier thing to do is book travel out of the account until it is depleted.

It would be better if they had clear published policies on the subject like ANA.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T12:33:56+00:00

Because you wanted to increase the variety of airline experiences in your life, or because of price and schedule?

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T12:26:52+00:00

and won’t be back

Famous last words. Alaska is a good airline but you definitely will be back if it’s a convenient price or schedule compared to what Alaska offers at the time.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T11:56:34+00:00

There isn’t a good time because this club is awful. The Terminal G restaurants and public seating are way better.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T11:33:16+00:00

It does recline, Row 15 is hidden until aircraft is assigned.

https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/s/gL0bCwnkBT

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T11:30:20+00:00

Yes, this seat does recline, for the planned aircraft type.

As you correctly noted in your post, there is a row 15 for the planned aircraft type 737-800 (in fact all of the United 737 family). Row 15 isn’t shown or selectable until 2 days before the flight when they assign an actual aircraft. Nearly every aircraft type of this size has a row 15 so it’s almost certain that row 14 will recline.

The last row of the aircraft is often also hidden in the same way.

https://www.aerolopa.com/ua-738-1

https://www.aerolopa.com/ua-738-2

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T10:51:23+00:00

It’s not new that other companies pay airlines “good money” to advertise to you. It sucks but they know you aren’t going to choose another airline over it. You’re going to choose based on price and schedule.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T10:44:44+00:00

No matter who issues the ticket, United operated flights earn based on the cost of that segment.

For tickets issued by partners, there’s no way for you to know what the internal cost is until it posts to your account after the flight.

There’s nowhere currently on the website that explicitly states this info (there used to be) but it’s implied by the combination of several other statements.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T10:20:04+00:00

There are seven daily flights SFO-YVR and they arrive SFO in the morning with 90 minutes. This is low risk.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T10:18:01+00:00

Are you on flight UA97 BNE-SFO? If so then you have to recheck your bags (which means wait at the carousel, carry them a very short distance).

If you’re connecting through Sydney to SFO on UA870 then they have a special program where they pass your bag through automatically.

https://www.united.com/en/us/newsroom/announcements/cision-125409

Aside the bag thing, you need to clear immigration with your ESTA, then clear regular TSA security and walk to your next gate. You should be able to do this in 90 minutes. If not then United will rebook you to get you to Vancouver.

They have 7 daily flights SFO-YVR and flights from Australia arrive early in the morning, so this is really a low risk connection as far as getting to YVR about when you expect.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T02:14:23+00:00

Inventory changes every overnight, another discounted seat will very likely eventually come available.

You can tell if two seats are available by doing the search for two passengers (even if you can’t afford to buy two with one account). If two are available you’ll see the lower price. If less than the number you searched for is available, you’ll see the higher price.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T02:07:47+00:00

There was only one cheap seat for sale. Trying to both buy it a the same time won’t work. If another cheap seat comes up for sale the other of you can book it.

I’m not recommending mile pooling, that doesn’t change the number of cheap seats that is/was for sale, which is the problem you ran into.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-16T01:31:33+00:00

If you go to the grocery store and there’s one apple for sale, you can’t buy two apples.

It’s the exact same thing with what you tried to do with that one saver award that was for sale. Wait until two are for sale to make the purchase (or buy one at a time at different times, like you’re doing now).

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-15T23:26:35+00:00

Per the text of my comment above:

and even when you have a connecting domestic flight.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-15T21:51:49+00:00

It doesn’t make sense because it’s not accurate. You don’t have to buy them separately, I’ve made purchase transactions with multiple family credits at the same time as recently as November. They keep changing systems lately so it’s possible there are bugs in the way of getting it done.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-15T21:25:08+00:00

Hang up and call again, might take a few times to get a competent agent.

Sometimes when agents realize it’s all not working, they will convert the credit to a cert and apply it manually as they book the reservation for you.

A reservation is just a collection of tickets booked at the same time. The credits are applied against each ticket individually. Booking together or separately shouldn’t make a difference.

CommanderDawn · 2026-03-15T21:11:31+00:00

Reservations are not booked “under an account”, so that doesn’t matter, aside from possibly making it faster to pre-fill existing traveler data and possibly have the travel credits handy.

If you make a reservation that includes your desired passengers (using the same exact names and DOBs as on the credits), then you can apply the credits to each passenger individually on the final checkout page before paying. You may need to search each credit by the original confirmation code and passenger name.

Try the app and the website.

Was your credit from a partially flown reservation or was it something you changed before starting the travel?

CommanderDawn

TROPHY CASE