suggestions: A plan for using United miles

Maybe send Bob a private message?

I have no experience with the United plan, but can make some general comments. You have enough miles for a roundtrip in Business class on a Standard award, but you wife has only enough for roundtrip saver award in Economy. So unless United allows you to combine your miles in one family account ( my miles plan with British Airways does allow this) you will both be flying Economy if you want to go together. And Saver awards ( fewer miles required) are limited and may be hard to find.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps/mileageplus/awards/travel/awardTravel.aspx

You can also use Star Alliance partners like Lufthansa but it takes more miles---70,000 in Economy. So you would have to buy some miles to top up your wife's account.

You can search pretty quickly on the United website. Using Multicity into Milan and out of Rome, it looks like there is lots of availability from SFO, but I didn't examine the actual routes offered, and didn't include SBP.

There is a website called Expert Flyer that you can also use to search for award seats on a particular airline and flight. You can try it for five days for free. I'd do that. Try from San Francisco as well as from San Luis, unless you know for sure that United offers award seats on the hop from SBP to SFO.

I redeem miles on Alaska, not United but they operate pretty similarly. You're looking at a lot of April flight options which are two stop out of SBP for 30,000 miles per person. There's a few business class seats here and there for 70,000. You didn't'give your exact travel dates, but go to United and plug them in. You'll notice that you might be able to use your 162k miles to buy two one way business class tickets at 70K each and then use your wife's 69K miles to buy two one way 30K coach tickets.

We are traveling from and back to SFO during the same time period as you, though not to Italy. I was able to get one ticket using 90,000 miles, and we paid for the other. United is better than Delta on having available seats and charges fewer miles. However, they are bad on transferring miles or buying what you need. It quickly becomes so costly to do either that you might just as well buy the whole thing with cash. If you decide to go the one and one route, as we did, it makes sense to me to get the miles ticket first, just to be sure you can.
I don't know how the SBP leg will work into this. The optimal arrangement would be to have it included for little or no extra. If that doesn't work, how about a Southwest cheapie flight? Just be sure to have an adequate time margin. My gut instinct says that unless the price difference is outlandish, you are better off having the whole itinerary on one ticket.

I'm also a UA frequent flyer and SFO/OAK/SJC are my home airports. I go to Italy every year at least once but I can tell you that due to my work schedule I cannot make flight arrangements too far in advance. I wish I could, because I could save a bunch and I would probably be able to use my UA miles more often that I have done. Airlines generally reserve only a limited number of seats for travel award travelers. As such in order to use UA mileage to Italy, you either have to make reservations far in advance or, if you don't, be willing to go through flights from hell, with multiple layovers, sometimes requiring you to spend the night somewhere along the way. For example the last time I use miles with UA to Italy, on the way back to SFO I had to stop in Newark (EWR) and Cleveland (CLE). Another time I used my AA miles. In that case on the way back to SFO I had to spend the night in New York (JFK). Other times I've been lucky, and I've traveled from SFO to Rome (FCO) on an UA award ticket with only one stop in EWR.

The amount of miles UA requires for a trip to Italy varies depending on the time of the year. They have several price structures.

As a rule of thumb, know that the amount of miles they ask really depends on the price of the ticket. In summer, when a trip to Italy from SFO is at least $1500, the mileage required is at least 100,000. In winter when prices are lower, mileage required for an award ticket is less. It used to be that each mile was worth 2 cents. I think nowadays it's more 1.5 cents. Therefore when prices are about $1500, they'll want 100,000 miles.You are traveling in shoulder season, therefore they might ask you something less.

For example I checked for a flight from SFO/OAK/SJC to Rome (FCO) with going June 22 and returning July 6. The cheapest option was from San Jose (via Frankfurt) with Lufthansa (a UA partner). They want 30,000 miles each way for that one (which is damn good, I might take it). Most other options on that date (mostly from SFO via Chicago ORD) require 65,000 miles each way (so 130,000 for the round trip).

Based on your situation, you must realize that from San Louis Obispo, your choices of flights are limited (and more expensive), therefore you might even have a hard time finding availability of seats with a travel award. In your case, if you want to use your mileage, you might need to drive the 4 hours to SFO or LAX, park at an offsite lot, and catch your flight from SFO or LAX.

Check the UA mileage plus website for details on the dates you intend to travel. But don't wait too long. You are traveling in 3 months and those award tickets at a decent price/mile award go fast.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/Default.aspx

62,000 is not a lot for Europe, especially in the summer. But maybe in April. Look way, way down the presented list for partner flights with painless connections, which will sometimes be Saver trips. (I realize you're not on the East Coast. But maybe you should deal with that separately.)

I think Valerie's suggestion of booking one-way, Business Class outbound and Economy return, is brilliant. However, I looked at the April calendar to Milan, using a dummy booking for two people, and see only Economy saver seats (30K miles each) the whole month. Lots of options in Economy, but no business. Maybe she saw something different? What is the trick?

Anyway, I tried the return, Rome back to SBP, and some Business saver awards did appear, specifically on May 4, 11, and 18. However, these are flights on Turkish Airlines that require you to fly to Istanbul first, with a long layover there before the flight to SFO. Total flight time 30+ hours. Would not be worth it to me. But again, maybe someone has tricks for finding more options. I did use the " all airlines" button FWIW.

@Sasha, No, I can't find them now either. I did a dummy booking and found only Economy on the outbound and then a couple of Business class options on the return, but for the life of me, they're gone now and I've plugged in a LOT of dates.:(

Check your calendar - and also a reality check.

It's currently half-past January. It sounds like you are hoping to leave about 3 months from now.

With frequent flyer miles, that is very, very, very late in the game. You may be able to find some options even at this late date, but I suspect those will be "the dregs" - the less attractive options (multiple connections, long layovers, inconvenient routes, etc.).

With award seats using FF miles, your best bet is to book waaaaaay early (like, 11 months out). The tricks vary from one airline to another, but United is one of those where your best options will generally be available 330 days out, and your options decrease with every passing day. As time gets short (and booking now for April travel is very short), you MAY be able to get things that work for you, but that may require 1) being very flexible (dates, routes, destination, connections, etc.); and/or 2) buying your way into a better seat (paying 2X or 3X more miles than if you planned ahead - if you have the miles to throw at it - of course, this is like throwing money at a ticket when you buy it at the last minute); and/or 3) if you just get very lucky.

You can't combine miles from two separate United accounts.

If I were you, I would get on this right now. With every passing hour your options diminish.

Unfortunately, the best seats - the ones that you probably wanted - were probably snapped up by someone planning ahead in May or June of 2015. The lesson here: Now would be a good time to book your FF award seats for November or December 2016 (like I recently did...). Getting decent seats now for travel to a popular destination just 3 months out may be...quite challenging.

Hey David --- those of us who actually looked saw lots of award seats available if they are OK flying Economy. Both for the outbound and the return. For the outbound travel, I looked at April 12, and there were many pages of flight options. Two stops, yes, because they are flying from San Luis to SFO to x to Milan. Some flights had long layovers and others ever reasonable in overall flight time, like 15--16 hours.

Another option is not to look from SBP but from LAX or SFO.

I just did that with AA miles and I could get better flights flying from NYC to London than from my home airport. (In NY, they wanted me to change airports and that would be a major hassle.) A short flight from home to JFK is about $150 so I will pay that and fly free the rest of the way.

I also had to be flexible with dates. The exact flights you want on the exact dates you want may not be available and you will have to compromise if you want to use your FF miles. You may not get a nonstop from SFO to Milan. You may have to change planes somewhere. The same goes for the return.

I also wouldn't wait much longer. I booked four flights for late April and May in November and all of those flights are no longer available for FF awards.

A search from SPB brings up routing through SFO so no need to search that separately. It is best to have it on one ticket. And there are plenty of good options as long as they fly Economy.

Andy didn't say what they are actually looking for and hasn't been back to comment. Lots of good suggestions here---would be nice to get some feedback on whether they hit the mark.

Over the past 15 years I've booked 4 award tickets at a time using UA miles close to two dozen times. Here are some of the tricks and observations.

As a lot of folks have said, a quick search shows wide open availability for 2 people for most of the months of April and returning in May. This is in economy. Business is a lot more limited.

If you search from just SBP, the flights that show seem to mainly be UA flights. If you would prefer to fly, say Lufthansa, there is tons of availability showing from both SFO and LAX via FRA or MUC. Since the online booking engine can sometimes choke if you try to do complex connections (i.e fly SBP to either SFO or LAX and then connect on the LH flights), call UA and tell them what you want and most importantly, ask them to waive the phone booking fee since the online system won't let you price the ticket. Most agents will waive the booking fee.

The trick is to search each component at a time rather than searching for a round trip. Once you piece all the components together, you can try booking it online or calling.

Some other things to consider when using UA miles and what makes these miles so valuable:
on a round trip (does not apply to one way bookings), you are allowed two open jaws and 1 stopover (should you want it). Hence you could do something like - SBP - MXP on the outbound and if you wanted to stop over in say Vienna or Munich on the return you could fly FCO-MUC, stay a few days and then fly MUC - SBP or MUC - SFO.
If you did the latter, your two open jaws would be 1) flying into MXP and out of FCO and 2) flying out of SBP and into SFO (this is just an example in case the last leg to SBP wasn't available) and you would also have a stopover in Munich.

The bottom line is that you can get a lot of value out of UA miles if you have the time, flexibility, and know some of the tricks.

One other point to consider, UA has extra award spaces (sometimes) on its own flights for UA elites and for holders of its credit card. These will only show if you are logged into the UA system. You need to go into expert mode to see this availability and then look out for the XN fare codes. You can let me know if you want more info on how to do this.

In summary, you should have no issues getting economy tickets since there is so much availability showing.

I can't help but wonder is Andy has been reading all this helpful advice!

A search from SPB brings up routing through SFO so no need to search that separately. I

If you live in an area where United service is mostly 'Barbie Jets' from United Express, it can be an interesting exercise because a lack of saver availability on any leg of a route will usually dump the whole route into a standard award price. And with only a very few saver award seats available on any given Barbie jet, it can be the domestic leg that makes it impossible to book a saver award for desired rather than the international leg with its larger planes and bigger 'bucket' of saver awards to pull from.

I run into this trying to use United miles out of my home airport- Houston to wherever I want to go will have wide open saver availability; the problem is that when I add a United Express connection getting to Houston, everything reprices high.

Wow, everyone has been so helpful on this site! I was pondering whether something similar as Andy would be feasible and would be very grateful for any guidance.

I have 245,600 miles (premier silver status) on United as well as their credit card (which I would use to purchase my tickets). Looking to fly to Munich from LAX on June 30th; I have an evening event in Munich on July 1, so not much flexibility on the departure. Return flight is more flexible. Departing from Budapest on July 9 or 10 back to LAX.

I would prefer business class (especially the departure) but would be ok with econ plus on the return.

Thanks in advance!
Todd

Todd: I only searched the outbound on UA

Leaving LAX on Jun 30 - nothing shows in Business and no saver economy to MUC. What I did find doing two separate searches is that there is economy seats to Zurich (LAX-IAD-ZRH) all on UA metal. These show as XN fare class which means they are only available to elites and those with the UA credit card.

From ZRH to MUC there are lots of Swiss flights available for awards. So you can put the two together and book it all for 30K miles and a small amt in taxes. If you have trouble piecing this together, you may have to call UA.

Are you planning on flying from MUC to BUD - you can get this for free provided you book your entire trip as a round trip. i.e. LAX-MUC, MUC-BUD, BUD-LAX. You can consider MUC as your stopover point and BUD as your destination or v/v - UA won't really care.

Todd: 2nd piece to what you are looking for:

1) if you want to fly between MUC and BUD, you won't have problems getting a free seat - just do a search and hopefully the timings will work - every single day in July showed availability

2) For your return from Budapest, there are 2 options I could find - neither of which is great
Option 1 - leave BUD for DUB on the 8th of July (I know this is not the 9th or 10th) - this will be in Business and overnight in DUB and catch the early 9th morning flight on Ethiopian direct to LAX (this flight shows availability in Econ and Bus) so you could get a bus. class ticket on the return

Option 2 - Fly from BUD to LHR via either Hamburg or Brussels on the 9th and then connect onto a UA flt to Newark. The Newark to LAX flight leaves on the 10th morning requiring an overnight in EWR. You can find these flights by splitting your search. Note - both these UA flights show as XN.

I know this is not the greatest but it does provide you an option of redeeming your miles for your entire itinerary.

Good luck.

Thank you, Arnold. That is very helpful!
I do expect to fly from MUC to BUD, so maybe I can at least use miles for that portion of the trip.

Wow, what a nice response. We thank each of you for your response effort. We're still exploring our travel options & will post a plan when finalized. We are finding some available flights for two @ 60,000 miles--that's one way.
Our airline limitation is flying out of San Luis Obispo--the "crash" dropped service from 4 to 2 airlines which led us to choosing United- Our larger aircraft from/to SFO are with economy plus (room for 6'2" legs). Problem with Lufthansa is no actual economy plus category & we are currently finding more options now with them.
A Question???? A transfer is required at either Frankfurt with a 90 minute layover or Minich with 65 minute layover--are these realistic transfer times?? Customs will be required.

We are finding choices so far to work with--you've helped make the planning more enjoyable, thanks Anne & Andy

While 90 minutes at Frankfurt seems tight, we've done that several times without a hitch. If the airline issues a ticket with that short a layover, they have to get you another flight should you miss your connection. There are likely lots of flights from there to Milan. To my mind, 90 is better than 65.

Mid April flight plan finalized and tickets assigned using our United frequent flyer miles.

USA to Europe: Air miles required for 2, economy class = 60,000 miles. Method of reservation: United online (the system would not allow a round trip request so one ways aquired) allowed us to use our air miles to secure a one way flight, Sky West (United) from SBP ( San Luis Obispo) to SFO (layover 75 minutes), SFO to Frankfurt via Lufthansa (layover 90minutes), Frankfurt to Milan via Lufthansa.

Europe to USA: Air miles required for 2, economy class + 60,000 miles. Separate online reservation: United online, to secure one way Lufthansa flight from Rome (FCO) to Frankfurt (layover 105 minutes), Frankfurt to SFO via Luthansa (layover 5 hours), Sky West (United) to SBP.

We experience some difficulty with United on line system accepting United credit card indicating it was out of date. Tried again last night and it went through. Thank each of you for your ideas and good thoughts--looking forward to our visit to Italy (Tour Best of Italy 17 days-- Rick Steves Europe plus 5 more days--this will be our 14 Rick Steves tour. Many years ago our European stuff all started by attending one of our childrens wedding in a small church within yards of the Rhine near Dusseldorf Germany. They met their future German spouse on a blind date in SFO.