CBR-SFO UA award?

[NP1]

We moved back from the US to Canberra in 2020. We have a bunch of UA miles and are planning an upcoming trip to the US. There is plenty of SYD-SFO/LAX award availability, but nothing comes up when I try to route from CBR. Searching for cash fares from CBR gives VA connecting flights under the new partnership, but I guess VA is not giving UA award availability or something?
I'd rather avoid booking a separate positioning flight from CBR-SYD (or driving) since we will be traveling with 2 kids under 2 and want to prioritise a quick and simple journey - we want luggage checked through, and to be accommodated if flight delays cause us to miss a connection.
Does anyone know if there is a way to get an award CBR-SFO trip on a single ticket despite the UA website not showing any?
Thanks in advance for any tips!

 

[Mattg]

You should be able to add on the CBR-SYD leg on VA once the UA/VA partnership comes online, but this won't happen until the end of May.

 

[Must...Fly!]

If there's availability now then I'd book it via UA and worst case you pay for a flight up the day before and have a relaxing overnight at Sydney, drive up, etc.

 

[2APlease]

Allow lots of time between your domestic and international flights as you'll need to use the inter terminal bus and, even if checked through on your return leg, cart your bags via the bus from international to domestic and then recheck them. When I came in from Canada last month the line to board the bus was over 50m long.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Allow lots of time between your domestic and international flights as you'll need to use the inter terminal bus and, even if checked through on your return leg, cart your bags via the bus from international to domestic and then recheck them. When I came in from Canada last month the line to board the bus was over 50m long.

You can use the train for a few dollars.

 

[NP1]

Thanks for the thoughts, all! Given there is no tricks available here, I think we'll just book a cash fare given flights are relatively cheap atm. I'd rather not extend the trip by doing separate travel to Sydney, and booking now gives us greater likelihood of snagging a bassinet for our 6 week old vs waiting until late May for the partnership to start. We'll hopefully find a good use for the points some day down the road (perhaps even for upgrading this trip...).

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Although this post is mainly about figuring out how to get CBR > SYD leg added on to a UA ticket, I thought I'd share some knowledge on how to maximize points for business class travel with them, particularly given how difficult it has become to find saver Polaris availability over the past year.

Just thought I'd chime in as someone who pre-COVID was flying United a lot and often times in Polaris business class. Your best bang for your buck in terms of using those points IMHO would be doing a points upgrade from an economy fare to Polaris business class. In particular, my last trip with United which was late January 2020 was booked as a $1200 AUD LHR > SYD return ticket. I requested a points upgrade to Polaris business class for 35,000 miles + $650 in taxes and fees and the upgrade cleared at check-in for both legs (LHR > LAX and LAX > SYD) which is not bad for some 25 hours in the air + 5 hours at the Polaris lounge at LAX.

One nice thing about United's upgrade system is that unlike Qantas they can upgrade you to Polaris at the time of booking, supposing there is inventory available. By pulling up the advanced search option United provides, you can request it to lists results by MilagePlus Upgrade Awards:


Then you will be presented with your cash fare flights as usual but this time with details on upgrade availability:

In this case as you can see an upgrade to Premium Economy is available by simply purchasing the cheap economy fare then spending 30,000 points to sponsor the upgrade. If I was you though, I'd avoid Premium Plus and instead focus on Polaris, as on UA's 777 and 787 those over-wing exit seats in Economy+ are best!

So that's the first thought. Now if you really want to get business class seats, don't care about flying United but just want to get those seats at the lowest price, my recommendation would be using the 30 day calendar option on United to see where the cheapest award tickets can be found. This can be done by doing a normal award search (but choosing flexible dates) and performing the search. From there you will see a 7-day award calendar just below the departure dates:


Click the View 30 day calendar link and you will be presented with a calendar view showing you the cheapest awards available for each date:


As you can see for the dates, there are two days in July where United has cheap business class awards: Thursday July 7 and Thursday July 21 for SYD > SFO. Viewing the 7th confirms this with SYD > LAX being Polaris J and LAX > SFO being in Economy, which isn't too bad considering you would still have Polaris lounge access on arrival at LAX:

Hope that provides some guidance and apologies if this post was a bit rambling.

-RooFlyer88

 

[levelnine]

Hope that provides some guidance and apologies if this post was a bit rambling.

Terrific post. I didn't realise they had upgrades available at the time of purchase. Really helpful to know.

 

[NP1]

Although this post is mainly about figuring out how to get CBR > SYD leg added on to a UA ticket, I thought I'd share some knowledge on how to maximize points for business class travel with them, particularly given how difficult it has become to find saver Polaris availability over the past year.

Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this @kangarooflyer88. Super helpful! Although it does create new decisions to ponder.

We will have a 7 week old and a 2 year old (just under 2 years for the outbound flight, just over for the return flight), and need to think about whether business/premium is worth it/desirable, especially since the toddler will need their own seat. In economy, we'd strap the toddler into their familiar car seat - they're not going anywhere, and there's a decent chance they'll sleep. Less sure how they would go in their own business seat pod. I may make a separate post to see what the community's advice is on this one (and prepare myself for at least a few folks who think kids shouldn't be in business at all).

Thanks again!

 

[BAM1748]

Don't waste time in booking the transpacific leg, even if the Canberra to Sydney leg is by bicycle, American's aren't flying to Oz at present for vacations but as soon as that changes UA will be back to full.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Another thought to consider, which might obviate the need for booking business class altogether would be breaking up the trip into two. Instead of being trapped on an airplane for 14 or 15 hours, why not split it up over the Pacific? Fly Sydney to Hawaii, preferably on a discount airline like JetStar, enjoy a few days of glorious Hawaiian sunshine before continuing to SFO? Depending on when you are travelling you may even come out ahead. JetStar often has base SYD > HNL fares for ~$300 return, even if you have to get a package for seating and a better seat that works out to maybe $500. I say that as I'll be doing exactly this later this month. Then getting from Honolulu to San Francisco is trivial, many airlines are competing for that short haul route including Southwest, American, United, Hawaiian, Spirit, etc.

If considering economy, on United's SYD to SFO, your best bet would be row 30, the over-wing bulkhead emergency exit seats. If you're still a Premier Gold member you should be able to book these for free. Otherwise it's a couple hundred each way but totally worth it from my experience. In addition, the bulkhead row has a bassinet to hold your baby:

Another option to consider would be upgrading your cheap United economy seat to Premium Plus. That will set you back 30,000 points per passenger but there is no co-pay to pay. In addition availability for Premium Plus upgrades is almost guaranteed these days. In which case row 20 is ideal since you'll have bassinet and hopefully decent leg room. For my money though, row 30 is best option based on leg room and access to basinet. Here's a view from my seat pre-COVID:


-RooFlyer88