u/AimingForFit

For our flight home from Narita to EWR in July, I saw an award flight today for 49.5k points. The four of us are already booked at like 79k points (have United card).

The 49k flight was the same exact flight, but only available for one traveler (not even 2 let alone 4). I booked it in my wife’s name, then cancelled her off our original reservation.

I search again and the 49k fare was still available! I tried to book for my daughter, but couldn’t as she’s a minor and it would have counted as her flying “alone”. So I took a chance and cancelled my wife’s ticket and searched for 2. Sure enough the fare was available! Not for 3 though..

So I book it for 2, cancel my daughter’s original, and search again. Another 49k available..! Just 1.

Chancing it again I cancel my wife and daughter, search for 3, and book for 3 at 49k each! I then cancel my son’s original reservation, so I’m left as the only ticket left on that confirmation.

I search and AGAIN 49k is available…! I book it for myself, then cancel the original.

It took some finagling (especially since I had to manage seat purchases), but I saved 100k worth of points!

So my question - is this normal, and is there a documented strategy on how to use this..?

I’m still seeking 50k flights from EWR to NRT or HND in June, checking multiple times a day with no luck.

FYI for US travelers trying to buy PokePark Kanto tickets - you CAN pay with Alipay!

I kept getting payment failures on the official site even though my credit cards were fine. The issue seemed to be with their payment processor when using US cards directly.

What finally worked for me was selecting Alipay on the payment screen, then choosing Dana (the Indonesian payment provider) inside Alipay. My US AMEX successfully processed through that option after multiple failures with other methods.

AMEX initially flagged it as fraud, so you may need to approve the charge

Hopefully this helps someone avoid the 12-hour nightmare I went through today trying every payment provider on Earth 😂