My wife is headed out for her second weekend away sans kids since we adopted our three young ones back in late 2017. The first trip was way back at the beginning of 2018 when she enjoyed a whirlwind weekend in Burbank for a dance event. Since then, she hasn’t wanted to be away from our youngest child for more than a day or two.
She was originally scheduled to be gone 4.5 days for a long weekend away. As this trip got closer, we decided we needed to cut it to just Fri-Sun, which unfortunately meant cancelling at least one leg and re-booking. Finding a ticket that worked was easier than I expected, and I jumped on a one-stop to Houston through LAX. It was amazingly a saver award. Thank goodness for access to XN space.
Since the itinerary worked so well, I decided to just book it and deal with changing the original ticket later. The original ticket was a revenue fare, but my in-laws booked it and would need to figure out what they could get back from United.
Can’t set aside my inner avgeek
I couldn’t help but notice that one of United’s new Boeing 787-10 aircraft is operating the LAX-IAH segment. I thought about mentioning this to my wife, but she would have probably asked what a 787-10 is, showing just how much it would matter to her.
However, my in-laws texted me later telling me that there was now a new PNR for the trip, which was utterly confusing. My miles were also apparently redeposited without a much a a nickel in fees. No clue how they pulled that off, but it sounded like they got an utterly amazing United agent who was sympathetic to the last-minute mess we were in trying to change and re-book flights. The agent had rebooked the revenue fare onto the same award flight itinerary. Shoulda just called in the first place, I guess.
To be safe, I checked the record locator to make sure everything was the same. Same flights, same times, same day. Everything checks out. But wait…what is this little detail??
Yes, after all changes were made, my wife is in first class. Not sure who made that decision, whether my in-laws or the United agent, but it’s a fact. The PQDs earned for the ticket are nowhere close to what they should be for a last-minute first class fare, so I have to assumed someone at United worked some magic.
I instantly knew what this meant: not only is my wife flying first, but she is flying it in Polaris business class on a brand new 787-10 aircraft! I was already a bit jealous of the fact she is flying a 787-10, but this takes things to a whole new level. This is an amazing upgrade from typical domestic first. So excited for her.
I didn’t tell her, though. She is flying today and I figured it’d be best as a surprise. Wish I could see her face when she finds her seat on the flight to Houston!
787-10 image courtesy of North Charleston via Wikimedia Commons and under CC-BY-2.0 license.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
United Polaris SUCKS!
So very descriptive of their product.
Then just fly economy.