No comp hotel for long layovers

[ColinD]

In case it's useful for anybody else, I enquired with MilesPlus customer service whether they will provide complimentary hotel accommodation if they only provide route options with long layovers.

The answer is "no".

This cam about because I'm trying to plan a trip from Sydney to Montreal or Vancouver, and most of their options involve a long layover in Asia. By long I mean more than 10 hours. Routing through US could avoid any long single layover, but has too many stops for my liking.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

That is, unfortunately, the answer I would have expected. Complimentary hotel stopovers have never been offered (AFAIK) as part of the program. Some airlines might offer them on their own accord, as passengers of that airline (for example OZ in ICN), but not because of mileageplus. And then again there is the issue of whether those airlines provide the free hotel on all connections, and/or on all booking classes (some exclude the very cheap or award classes).

 

[cloudysilver]

Yes it's something I'd expect from them as well. I happened to have purchased a long haul flight that they called me up just before I was about to leave for the airport to inform me that they had a problem with their system. It turned out it was the worldwide technical problem that they had. I was asked to fly from Melbourne to Sydney and then I would have to be in Sydney for about 3 or 4 days before they put me on another flight. When I asked if they would put me up due to the inconvenience and since it was their problem, they said no.

TLR - United has really awful customer service. Don't expect anything from them.

 

[drron]

About 20 years ago we would fly JAL to the USA as in J it was about half the price of QF.If your Australian flight didn't connect and you had to fly out the next day JAL would give Y pax a discounted room,J pax a room and breakfast and F pax a better room,dinner and breakfast.
So I would never expect a comp hotel on an award flight.

 

[oz_mark]

About 20 years ago we would fly JAL to the USA as in J it was about half the price of QF.If your Australian flight didn't connect and you had to fly out the next day JAL would give Y pax a discounted room,J pax a room and breakfast and F pax a better room,dinner and breakfast.
So I would never expect a comp hotel on an award flight.

My experience was that it was common on a lot of carriers when transitting their hub, and sometimes other airports, for a competitive edge. I've had it on Thai, Malaysian and Cathay. It does seem like one of those things not offered so much anymore.