We still don’t have an official announcement about one-way Star Alliance awards on United, but they are definitely bookable now by calling United Reservations.
We can also breathe a collective sigh of relief: multiple UA res. agents have confirmed that a stopover or open-jaw will still be permitted on r/t awards. Although it would have been nice to have a stopover allowed on a o/w award, UA has never offered this option and I can’t blame them for deciding not to relax their award rules even more.
Until there is an official announcement, we remain in speculation mode, but we can all sleep a little easier tonight knowing that not only are open-jaws and stopovers still permitted, but those that elect to purchase o/w instead of r/t awards can now mix and match service levels or buy a revenue ticket o/w and an award on the return journey.
Plus, there are rumors that changes to reservations will be permitted after travel begins. This is a given if two o/w awards are booked and you want to modify the "return" trip, but what I’ll be looking for is whether r/t awards will now allow post-departure changes. Currently, once your award trip has begun you may change only if all your remaining flights are on UA or if you change to UA flights.
More options = good news.
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