Basic Question Re Using FF Miles & Available Seats - UNITED

When I was last looking for flights with United miles, I booked about 11 months in advance, as soon as the preferred dates opened up. And still had to tweak dates and airports.

I believe that seats may be added if revenue reservations are slow, or people may cancel ... but I would grab the saver seats when they show up. United allows you to book each leg separately.

Alexandra, I haven't used FF on United, but with other airlines, I found it was more productive to call the phone number for FF members and talk to a human. But it is really pretty late for a March trip.

I did what Laura B did. I had to tweek my departure date and for my return trip I had to return to another airport. I flew from Sacramento to London on 9/11/14 (plenty of choices that day!) and from Frankfurt to San Francisco on 10/20/14. I got these tickets in mid November 2013. Our outbound flight was on United and our return flight was on Lufthansa. If your trip is in March of this year I would get my tickets ASAP!

United does periodically add more seats. For example, I live near a United hub (IAD) and there often seem to be options that open up less than a month out. However, there are no guarantees and Rome always seems to be a difficult route for FF miles. If you see a FF flight that is acceptable, I'd suggest that you book.

If you see a booking you can live with, take it! Otherwise you'll get close enough to your travel dates that you'll end up paying a much higher price if you have to purchase tickets since the airline computers will classify you as a business traveler that doesn't care much about price instead of a vacationer that does.

Airlines have spent millions to squeeze every penny they can out of selling seats, and they're pretty good at it. What you're seeing may be the result of new calculations and seats being taken. As travel time gets near they may open up unsold seats to their FF audience. But another explanation may be that you are causing the fluctuation as the airline computer sees you search for seats and offers one here, then withdraws it and offers one there, seeing if you'll bite. May sound farfetched but read thru http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/seaney/2013/04/30/airfare-expert-do-cookies-really-raise-airfares/2121981/ I'd suggest clearing cookies between sessions, using multiple computers (if you can) and browsers, etc.

Each time I go online to view possible flights on United to Vienna (then return from Rome), the 'green' saver seats have changed. Sometimes what was there Thursday is gone Friday. BUT, sometimes a cheap saver seat appears where it wasn't there before.

Alexandra,
To your unspoken question, this might be the answer.

Airlines actually have computer programs that are constantly monitoring flights, analyzing booking patterns, and in real-time changing the number of seats available at each fare level. If a flight is booking up faster than expected, an airline may decrease the number of seats available at some of their lowest fare levels, or wipe them all out altogether. If a flight is not selling well, suddenly more seats may appear at fare levels that were previously “sold out”.

http://www.cheapair.com/blog/travel-tips/air-fares-101-why-do-fares-change-all-the-time/

If you see a good seat, snatch it up!

Ciao!

Grab it. It may be gone a few minutes later. People cancel reservations and re-bank their miles all the time, which opens those seats up. Agree with the others that it's worth it to talk to the FF reservation people to make sure you get the best if you are at all unsure of what you are doing.

"Do the airlines release seats periodically and that's why it's changing?"

Yes, frequent flyer seat availability changes day to day (if not more often). I agree that if you don't see what you want, call. If you do see what you want, book immediately.

Once I had placed a 24 hour hold on seats with an indirect routing in one direction. The next day when I had to finalize the transaction, the seat on the direct route became available, and I was able to switch to that. This was before they started charging extra to do phone booking of FF mileage tickets, but I'd still consider paying the fees to get the flights I want.

Yes, grab the seat you want when it's there because there is no guarantee it will come back. Airlines also change fare prices daily, as do many hotels. Certain days of the week are better / cheaper. Usually mid week, when the fewest people are shopping.

The seats change constantly! My wife and I spent weeks watching United availabilities, trying to put together our Europe trip. We finally found an itinerary that was close to OK but instead of booking it, we bought a 7 day hold. Which was wise, because we kept looking and looking and a better option popped up that we booked. It's a full time job, but you gotta do it. Yes, the avails in ALL seat categories change all the time, and just because you get a great deal on one leg doesn't mean they won't stick to you on the rest.

They have more computers than NASA and they are busily crunching away all the time.

Now, having said you gotta do it, there are in fact people you can pay that will do (most) of this work for you. You can find them on the intergoogles. But they may or may not have better luck than you. I conversated with a few of them but found that the DIY approach suited me best.