So, an award routing opened up that I prefer to my existing reservation to BKK, but only has a 1 hr, 25 min connection time in PEK. Is that doable and what happens if I miss it? It's United onto Thai.
I called the United Premier line and asked if they would issue both boarding passes when I checked in in the U.S. (to save time in PEK). She said "it depends and there's no way to tell ahead of time." Then I asked if I did end up missing my connection, is it United or Thai responsible for booking my on a new flight and how would that work (i.e. if it was United, could they get me on the Air China flight later that night - which currently has no award availability - instead of having to wait for the Thai flight the next day). She said that if I missed it due to immigration taking a long time, United will try to work with me to find something, but they are not obligated to do so, and I may be on my own to pay my own way...That didn't sound right at all to me.
I was going to HUACA, but thought I'd ask this board for opinions. She also said that she was seeing the MCT being 90 minutes, not 60 minutes, so it wouldn't be legal anyways and she was not seeing the availability of that routing in her system at all, so I shouldn't be able to book it (even though I could see it online). I said I saw 60 minutes as the MCT for a T3-T3 International connection on airport sites: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/city...t-transfer.htm. I see no 90 minutes as the MCT in the linked, but she insisted that's what it said in her system.
I would usually not want to risk a missed connection, but there are two huge advantages to this routing in my mind: 1.) Flying United on a 777 with access to Economy Plus is HUGE for me as I'm 6'3" and leg room is a big deal. I currently have a standard seat on Lufthansa for the 8ish hour flight with a six hour connection in FRA, and then a bulkhead seat on Thai for the 10 hour flight (at least I got that!) and 2.) Arriving late at night instead of early the next morning is a big plus, so I can get some good sleep before my day begins! (Don't sleep that well on planes). The overall travel time is also less as it's transpacific instead of transatlantic and the connection is shorter.
I'd definitely want to make the change if I was confident United would book me on the CA flight that departs 120 minutes after the Thai one in case I missed the connection, but sounds like I may be out of luck and would have to spend the night at the PEK airport, which is clearly NOT something I want to do, and even then I wouldn't be guaranteed anything. Wish the CA flight had availability, but I don't see award availability for it for basically any date, so am not confident it will open up.
Any advice or what would you do? Thanks!
I called the United Premier line and asked if they would issue both boarding passes when I checked in in the U.S. (to save time in PEK). She said "it depends and there's no way to tell ahead of time." Then I asked if I did end up missing my connection, is it United or Thai responsible for booking my on a new flight and how would that work (i.e. if it was United, could they get me on the Air China flight later that night - which currently has no award availability - instead of having to wait for the Thai flight the next day). She said that if I missed it due to immigration taking a long time, United will try to work with me to find something, but they are not obligated to do so, and I may be on my own to pay my own way...That didn't sound right at all to me.
I was going to HUACA, but thought I'd ask this board for opinions. She also said that she was seeing the MCT being 90 minutes, not 60 minutes, so it wouldn't be legal anyways and she was not seeing the availability of that routing in her system at all, so I shouldn't be able to book it (even though I could see it online). I said I saw 60 minutes as the MCT for a T3-T3 International connection on airport sites: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/city...t-transfer.htm. I see no 90 minutes as the MCT in the linked, but she insisted that's what it said in her system.
I would usually not want to risk a missed connection, but there are two huge advantages to this routing in my mind: 1.) Flying United on a 777 with access to Economy Plus is HUGE for me as I'm 6'3" and leg room is a big deal. I currently have a standard seat on Lufthansa for the 8ish hour flight with a six hour connection in FRA, and then a bulkhead seat on Thai for the 10 hour flight (at least I got that!) and 2.) Arriving late at night instead of early the next morning is a big plus, so I can get some good sleep before my day begins! (Don't sleep that well on planes). The overall travel time is also less as it's transpacific instead of transatlantic and the connection is shorter.
I'd definitely want to make the change if I was confident United would book me on the CA flight that departs 120 minutes after the Thai one in case I missed the connection, but sounds like I may be out of luck and would have to spend the night at the PEK airport, which is clearly NOT something I want to do, and even then I wouldn't be guaranteed anything. Wish the CA flight had availability, but I don't see award availability for it for basically any date, so am not confident it will open up.
Any advice or what would you do? Thanks!