Using award miles. what are the risks if flight cancelled by bad weather

jacketwatch · March 22, 2015

Hello there: We are planning to go to SIN next Feb. If I can I would like to book two tickets on a partner carrier, ANA for biz class. However my question is what happens to us if say our flight is cancelled due to say weather problems. Can we get out on the next flight in biz but only if there are biz saver award tickets left? That may be a problem.

Also what if I buy a biz ticket and get another biz ticket using standard award from my miles and the flight is cancelled say to bad weather. Are they obliged to send us to SIN on biz seats and are they supposed to look for partner carriers as well.

I wonder if it would be better to book savers on UA itself instead of a partner carrier.

Any ideas please?

Thank you. Larry.

DebbieandJerry · March 27, 2015

These are all questions that I would ask the airline before booking. My guess is that the really tiny print online addresses these issues. It's the stuff that no one reads.

jacketwatch · April 11, 2015

So ultimately we decided to book saver awards. The reason is that if we have to cancel its a $400.00 fee to put the miles back in the bank vs. paying for a ticket with UAL and then if we cancel we have to use the credit w/i a yr. or lose it.

BTW saver awards go fast. There were few return flights when I booked last week and only one we really liked, that on Asiana which is a 5*rated carrier and one with a suitable time for our return and that one went away like two days later. I booked it right at the 331 days prior availability. Now there is only a mixed cabin saver on biz for the return and the outbound that is left has two stops and a very long layover too.

JohnG · May 4, 2015

Hasn't Asiana had two crashes in the last 6 months.

jacketwatch · May 10, 2015

Are you serious?

This post has been out there for quite a while and I asked a specific question so unless you can add something to that please don't post such a response. This was uncalled for.

JohnG · May 11, 2015

My point is that Asiana has reported two incidents, a crash and another incident, including the one serveral were lost lost a year ago. They have reported that the Asiana staff has not been keeping up with certifications. I am not making this up. You can look it up yourself.

Edited May 11, 2015 by JohnG

JohnG · May 11, 2015

I am not being disruptive, just remarking when you mentioned Asiana airlines that it has had problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/24/us/asiana-ntsb/index.html

http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/runway-approach-not-normal-in-japan-crash-asiana-airlines-755473

Edited May 11, 2015 by JohnG

jacketwatch · May 11, 2015

Which flight resulted in all souls being lost? Your links did not show this. R U thinking of the Malaysian airlines flight?

You provided three links and two were about the same crash in SFO and the other mentioned a possibility of a sudden downdraft? There is nothing there about a loss of all souls. The two crashes you listed had a total of three fatalities. Get you facts straight.

In any case my question was in regards to how using award miles are used and not to safety records.

JohnG · May 11, 2015

Passengers[edit]

Seat map indicating injuries and deaths

Two 16-year-old girls with Chinese passports were found dead outside the aircraft soon after the crash, having been thrown out of the aircraft during the accident.^[39]^[40]^[41]^[42]^[43] One was accidentally run over by an airport crash tender after being covered in fire-fighting foam.^[44]^[39] On July 19, 2013, the San Mateo County Coroner's office confirmed that the girl was still alive prior to being run over by a rescue vehicle, and was killed due to blunt force trauma.^[45]^[46] On January 28, 2014, the San Francisco city attorney's office announced their conclusion that the girl was already dead when she was run over.^[47]^[48]

Four flight attendants seated at the rear were ejected from the aircraft when the tail section broke off, and they survived.^[49]^[10]^[50]

Ten people in critical condition were admitted to San Francisco General Hospital and a few to Stanford Medical Center.^[51] Nine hospitals in the area admitted 182 injured people.^[52]San Francisco Fire Department Chief Joanne Hayes-White, after checking with two intake points at the airport, told reporters that all on board had been accounted for.^[53]

A third passenger, a 15-year-old Chinese girl, died of her injuries at San Francisco General Hospital six days after the accident.^[54]^[55]^[56]

Of the passengers, 141 (almost half) were Chinese citizens. More than 90 of them took Asiana Airlines Flight 362 from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, connecting to Flight 214 at Incheon.^[57] Incheon serves as a major connecting point between China and North America. In July 2013, Asiana Airlines operated between Incheon (Seoul) and 21 cities in mainland China.^[58]

Seventy students and teachers traveling to the United States for summer camp were among the Chinese passengers. Thirty of the students and teachers were from Shanxi, and the others were from Zhejiang.^[59] Five of the teachers and 29 of the students were from Jiangshan High School in Zhejiang; they were traveling together.^[60] Thirty-five of the students were to attend a West Valley Christian School summer camp. The Shanxi students originated from Taiyuan,^[61] with 22 students and teachers from the Taiyuan Number Five Secondary School and 14 students and teachers