I just tried half for fun, half with the idea to try to maximize an intra Europe award in O, to see how .bomb is pricing awards to VVO (Vladivostok, Russia). Unfortunately I get 145,000 miles for MUC-ICN-VVO in O+I and not 30,000 as I would have hoped for a Europe-Europe flight... I guess I could call UA reservation, but I think that the experts on FT might be much more versed in award rules than the UA agents :D
So what is going wrong?
MUC-VVO direct would be 5153 miles, so MUC-ICN-VVO at 5802 miles should well be within MPM. Playing with the calendar, I can get LH+OZ with just about 3hours connection time in ICN, so there is no stopover there. Yet the price of 145,000 miles is the result of .bomb pricing MUC-ICN in O for Europe-North Asia plus ICN-VVO in I for North Asia-Europe (checked segments individually).
Is there any rule on connecting airports that I am missing, or is there a chance to convince an agent that the price should be 30,000 based on MP award charts?
I know that this is a long stretch... but trying to explore boundaries of the fare rules is very much in the FT spirit ;)
So what is going wrong?
MUC-VVO direct would be 5153 miles, so MUC-ICN-VVO at 5802 miles should well be within MPM. Playing with the calendar, I can get LH+OZ with just about 3hours connection time in ICN, so there is no stopover there. Yet the price of 145,000 miles is the result of .bomb pricing MUC-ICN in O for Europe-North Asia plus ICN-VVO in I for North Asia-Europe (checked segments individually).
Is there any rule on connecting airports that I am missing, or is there a chance to convince an agent that the price should be 30,000 based on MP award charts?
I know that this is a long stretch... but trying to explore boundaries of the fare rules is very much in the FT spirit ;)