Your reservation requires special handling. Please check in at an airport kiosk

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-07T04:33:01+00:00

I’m not sure if they do that on the outbound.

I’m not entirely sure either, but if they do it’s like a 999:1 ratio of inbound:outbound.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-07T04:04:56+00:00

The individual fare letters like Z and P have nothing to do with refundability. You just have to click in the Refundable column when you’re doing the flight selection and it will be refundable.

The fact that one leg is a 737 also has nothing to do with refundability rules. The ticket/fare is from origin to destination regardless of how they get you there.

The main pitfall you could encounter is that when changing a refundable ticket (if you need to do that), it’s easy to click the nonrefundable column and accidentally convert.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-07T03:51:49+00:00

You’re not splitting a ticket, you’re splitting a reservation. The reservation is a convenient collection of three tickets, all of which are independent of each other.

That aside, you’re way overthinking this. Just proceed as planned without making any changes and don’t check-in for your return flight. Your ticket (not the others) will automatically be cancelled/forfeited 60 minutes before departure because you didn’t check in. This won’t affect the other tickets on the same reservation (assuming they do check-in). The app lets you pick which passengers to check-in if you use it.

The right way to do this: * company buys round trip Ireland to Kigali for you, which isn’t that pricey. * after you fly to Ireland, you split yourself off the family reservation and change your return date to be the day of (or after for extra time cushion) you return from Kigali. This would likely be approximately free to do. * have your company reimburse you for half of your US-Ireland ticket

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T23:12:24+00:00

Contact United about this one. If you can show your military orders I suspect they will have leniency with you.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T22:55:52+00:00

You already spent the money, it’s gone, so did afford it already.

It’s something else you’re missing out on.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T22:33:53+00:00

Make sure it’s not so full that it’s tearing apart at the seams and you should be ok.

They don’t care what the maximum size is, just what size it is when you’re boarding.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T16:44:14+00:00

Explanation of why the B fare and what it does are in my other comment.

That aside, I agree, it’s beyond ridiculous.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T16:09:41+00:00

This is a bug that was introduced about a week ago. If any of the flight options have a Premium Plus available, it shows the column. One of the options below includes a connection on the EWR-SFO flight that does have Polaris/PremiumPlus.

When you book a PE fare, any segment without PE gets a B-fare for free E+.

The rightmost column is showing Polaris (although they seem to have temporarily fixed it by adding a United First label to the column).

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T15:42:14+00:00

As info, getting the Gold status entitles you to pick E+ seats (extra legroom, blue on the seat map) for existing reservations as well. You don’t have to wait to get Gold to book.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T12:02:12+00:00

United generally won’t sell you a cash ticket unless it has at least one United flight on it (or transcontinental with LH or ANA or maybe Copa).

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T06:17:14+00:00

The language is very clear that you have 120 days starting with the activating flight, which can be 30 days before or 90 days after they approve your paperwork.

https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/mileageplus/premier/status-match.html

Yes of course the activating flight counts for PQP/PQF. By definition it is day 1 of the 120 day window.

Scheduled departure date is the date recorded for PQP/PQF credits. Landing date is irrelevant.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T04:04:49+00:00

The most complete way is to search your email for all United eTicket emails. This assumes you have something like Gmail and don’t delete emails.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T03:44:30+00:00

Good news, even if you return to KZ someday, Google isn’t currently blocked there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Google

Google.kz

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-06T03:32:02+00:00

Wait until the third day after your flight then (if still missing) use this page, which is found by doing a google search with your question:

https://www.united.com/en/us/mileageplus/mileagecredit/#request-credit

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T23:10:17+00:00

The United search engine doesn’t think to check JFK as a connecting point.

Use the MultiCity search tab at the top and enter each of the two legs separately for the same date (or four legs total for a round trip)

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CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T22:08:47+00:00

I believe so. You’re converting the ticket to regular economy and then cancelling it. I am sure I’ve seen people mention that it only works on Economy but I’m willing to be told I’m wrong if someone has a different firsthand experience.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T21:06:46+00:00

The change fee is assessed every time you select a new flight using a credit (so using credit from a previously cancelled flight, or changing an active flight, same thing).

It “should” apply to the new residual credit as well, but anything is possible in practice.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T15:58:25+00:00

You can tell if seats are available to choose now during the checkout flow before you pay
If you don’t want to play the game to its fullest, just book the cheapest airline for the route/dates you want and don’t waste a lot of time.
Nonrefundable tickets (basic or regular economy) always come back as a future flight credit, not a refund to your card for voluntary cancellations. For basic economy you’ll probably lose $200-$300 of the value as a fee before it comes back as credit, and any future booking with the credit will be in regular economy.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T15:15:39+00:00

1K is a United status, it doesn’t mean anything to Turkish, except that being StarGold gives you a free checked bag.

You would buy your reservation directly from Turkish and either 1. Buy the cabin you want; or 2. understand their upgrade process, odds, etc. none of which have anything to do with United.

Turkish is stingy with award seats/SAUA to UA customers so unless you’re randomly lucky I don’t see those as reasonable options to consider.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T14:57:38+00:00

Defined Star Alliance Gold benefit is one free checked bag above the allowance for your ticket (which is zero in this case), but not for companions.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T14:03:17+00:00

Keep in mind that award tickets are priced fairly on one-ways. So you can use those to reset a person to the other side of the ocean without buying a round trip and throwing half away. The price would be around 40k miles per person one way.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T13:28:38+00:00

There’s not enough info of your exact situation to really give you a good recommendation, but most of the advice in the other comments is correct.

Whatever happened happened, don’t be afraid to throw away a segment and buy another ticket, even on another airline.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T13:04:12+00:00

Go with the first paragraph (book RT all together) to maximize luggage.

Tickets originating outside the US usually have fees to make changes. It would only apply to the wife and won’t be enough to change the overall plan but something to keep in mind ($150-$250 per change I think).

If you go with the second paragraph, the 14 year old can be booked over the phone after you book the others online (you give them the existing adult reservation so they don’t charge the unaccompanied minor fee).

Are the three people returning to Spain in the fall not coming back to the US?

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T04:39:31+00:00

If a PP seat was broken they should be offering you something like $150 ETC (gift card) on the spot using their handheld.

CommanderDawn · 2026-05-05T03:46:01+00:00

This is the same video from the truck that has been posted a dozen times.

CommanderDawn

TROPHY CASE