Update: DEAD! Don’t miss it if this becomes alive again. Sign up for deal notification alerts here!
United typically serves their transcontinental routes with narrow-body 2 class aircraft, but they are operating an international 777 with coach, business, and first class on several routes for limited dates:
-Newark-San Francisco: 1 daily flight from April 5-May 4
-San Francisco-Newark: 1 daily flight from April 6-May 4
-Washington/IAD-San Francisco and San Francisco-Washington/IAD: 1 daily flight (except Saturdays in March) from March 3-May 4
-Washington/IAD-Los Angeles: 1 daily flight from April 5-May 4
-Los Angeles-Washington/IAD: 1 daily flight from April 6-May 4
I’ll break down the exact award availability on the Newark-Los Angeles and Los Angeles-Newark routes below. There’s first class award space on every date that the flight operates. In fact there are just 8 first class seats, so you can book out the entire first class cabin with saver awards on many dates!
We flew to Brazil on TAM by booking out the entire first class cabin with miles, though granted that cabin just had 4 seats so it worked perfectly for our family. It was an unforgettable experience.
View which miles to use, the full availability between Newark and Los Angeles day by day, and more about the seats after the jump:
Business class is lie-flat on this route, but it’s in a 2-4-2 configuration with some forward facing and some rear facing rows. Great for families, but others will want to grab the non-middle seats.
Business class photo via SFGate:
First class has a 1-2-1 configuration.
First class photo via SFGate:
-United charges 12.5K miles in coach, 25K miles in business class, or 35K miles each way in first class. You can transfer points instantly from Chase to United.
-Singapore charges 12.5K miles in coach, 20K miles in business class, or 30K miles each way in first class. Plus Singpaore has no close-in fees and only charges $20 to change an award or $30 to cancel and redeposit an award. You can transfer points from AMEX, Chase, Citi, or Starwood to Singapore, though transfers are not instant.
-Lufthansa charges 12K miles in coach, 17K miles in business class, or 25K miles each way in first class. Plus Lufthansa has no close-in fees and only charges $60 to change or cancel and redeposit an award. You can transfer points from Starwood to Lufthansa, though transfers are not instant.
-The Chase United Explorer card gives expanded saver coach award space and last-seat standard award space in every class.
Roundup of saver award space:
Newark-Los Angeles United 1600, 4:59pm-7:50pm:
April 6: 9+ Coach, 6 Business, 7 First
April 7: 7 First
April 9: 6 Business, 7 First
April 10: 1 First
April 11: 9+ Coach, 9+ Business, 8 First
April 12: 9+ Coach, 8 Business, 8 First
April 13: 9+ Coach, 8 Business, 8 First
April 14: (9+ Coach for United cardholders only), 9+ Business, 8 First
April 16: 4 Business, 8 First
April 17: 7 First
April 18: (9+ Coach for United cardholders only), 9+ Business, 8 First
April 19: 9+ Coach, 9+ Business, 6 First
April 20: 9+ Coach, 8 Business, 8 First
April 22: 9+ Business, 8 First
April 23: 9+ Coach, 5 Business, 8 First
April 24: 5 First
April 28: 9+ Coach, 9+ Business, 8 First
April 29: 9+ Coach, 9+ Business, 8 First
April 29: 9+ Coach, 5 Business, 6 First
May 1: 5 First
May 2: 9+ Coach, 9+ Business, 8 First
May 3: 9+ Coach, 8 Business, 8 First
May 4: 9+ Coach, 9+ Business, 8 First
Los Angeles-Newark United 247, 7am-3:13pm:
April 8: 9+ Coach, 8 Business, 8 First
April 9: 8 First
April 10: (9+ Coach for United cardholders only), 6 Business, 8 First
April 13: 9+ Coach, 8 First
April 15: (9+ Coach for United cardholders only), 3 First
April 16: 8 First
April 17: 2 Business, 8 First
April 19: 9+ Coach, 8 Business, 8 First
April 21: 9+ Coach, 6 First
April 23: 9+ Coach, 4 Business, 7 First
April 27: 6 Business saver awards, 8 First saver awards
April 28: (9+ Coach for United cardholders only), 6 Business, 8 First
April 30: 6 First
May 1: 8 First
May 2: 9+ Coach, 7 First
May 3: 9+ Coach, 3 Business, 8 First
Will you be booking an award for the whole family on the 777? Hit the comments!
Want to pickup Lufthansa, Singapore, or United miles?
-You can transfer Starpoints to Lufthansa at a 20K:25K ratio.
-You can transfer Chase points to United at a 1K:1K ratio.
-You can transfer AMEX, Chase, or Citi points to Singapore at a 1K:1K ratio or Starpoints at a 20K:25K ratio.
American Express is a DansDeals.com advertiser.
-The Starwood Consumer AMEX and the Starwood Business AMEX awards 25K signup points with no fee for the first year. 20K Starpoints can transfer into 25K miles with the 25% transfer bonus. Transfers can take a few days.
-American Express Membership Rewards points can be earned from credit cards like The Amex EveryDay Preferred Card or The Amex EveryDay Card.
The Preferred card awards 1.5 miles per dollar everywhere, 3 miles per dollar on Uber and gas, and 4.5 miles per dollar on groceries if you make 30 transactions per month.
The EveryDay card awards 1.2 miles per dollar everywhere and 2.4 miles per dollar on Uber and groceries if you make 20 transactions per month.
You can also earn Membership Rewards points from consumer cards like the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card and The Platinum Card® from American Express, and from business cards like the AMEX Business Gold Rewards Charge Card or The Business Platinum Card.Â
The Blue for Business® Credit Card from American Express has no annual fee and a limited time increased signup bonus. It earns a generous 1.3 points per dollar everywhere, but you’ll need any of the membership rewards cards listed above to transfer points from that card into airline miles.
-Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred instantly at a 1:1 ratio into United from the Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card and Chase Ink Plus credit cards.
Cards like Chase Freedom and Ink Business Cash® Credit Card can’t directly transfer points into miles, you’ll have to transfer those points to a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Ink Plus that belongs to an additional user before you can transfer those points to British Airways.
-The Chase United Explorer card gives expanded saver and standard award space, 2 free club passes per year, free checked bags, priority boarding, primary CDW rental car insurance, premier upgrades on award tickets, 10K bonus miles for spending $25K in a year, and your miles will never exire if you’re a cardholder. After clicking apply now you can also click to view the business Explorer card which offer 50K miles for signing up, and the Club card, which gives a full club membership, 2 free checked bags, and waives close-in booking fees.
–Citi Thank You Premier, Prestige, and Chairman cardholders can also transfer points into Singapore miles. You can find credit card offers by issuing bank in the “other credit cards” tab at the top of this site.
Leave a Reply
27 Comments On "United 3-Class 777 From Newark To LA And San Francisco With Wide Open Business And First Award Space; Book The Entire First Class Cabin With Miles!"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
Booking all 8 seats would be a great way to demonstrate to people how much better you are than the next guy.
how do I book with lufthansa? only on phone or website will work?
@Anonymous:
You would need to call Lufthansa or Singapore to book partner award flights like these.
It’s definitely one of the nicest ways to get to the west coast, but i’m not holding my breath about the seats… look very outdated. That said, for domestic it’s nice.
The HT should go to the guy who posted in the rare space thread two days ago
70k miles for round trip to LA? That’s like two years worth of mile accumulation for me
first set after the jump, you mean Newark-los angeles
wish I had enough miles!!
Thanks. Are you certain someone flying domestic F will receive lounge access?
I couldn’t find that info on their site
@puzzlefighter Why the negativity?? Why cant it be booked simply for a family of 8 or two families traveling together, looking to enjoy extra comfort! Not everything is always about being better than the next guy!
So except the bonus of having expand availability with the united cc, i would come out cheaper transferring my chase points to signapore then to united ?
@Shoobi:
It is outdated. Pretty soon United won’t have any 3-class planes.
Still, good use of saver miles if you want business or first for the family.
@Josh:
Less with partners.
@High end hobo:
Will did I say it would?
@jonathan:
Yup.
@David:
Depends on the route. For this one, yes.
Dan when I fly united can I ask them to put my miles on a star alliance partner instead of united ?
If they don’t offer normally a first class cabin, why do they have a set mileage rate?
@Much:
Yes, generally Singapore is best, but you need to check the fare class.
@Anonymous:
Same reason they have a United rate from Europe to Middle East when United doesn’t fly from Europe to Middle East.
They have published rates for everything, regardless of whether they actually have it. Though they used to fly 3 class planes from JFK to LAX and SFO not too long ago.
@jen: you can buy miles from brokers (like me, i am a mileage broker)
@shlomo What does that mean? And how’s the math usually work out on purchasing miles?
Great redemption value. I am sitting on a 40k+ of these miles but unfortunately I doubt I’ll be able to use them… Feel free to contact me with suggestions 🙂
@Matt: if you don’t have enough miles you can buy miles to fill up whatever miles your missing. all miles are different prices
@Dan:
What would the fare class make a difference here ?
HT sillypainter
Wow, those seats look horrid. And I’m not even talking about business class (2-4-2?!).
Many airlines’ business class is leagues nicer than UA’s First. Yikes.
@Much:
Fare class determines how many miles you earn.
@AJK:
This plane is from the pre-merger United side. Probably waiting for United to launch all aisle access business class and then it will be retrofitted with that instead of business and first.
Still, it’s not often you can find this kind of transcon saver award space. Even works for Pesach. And it sure beats coach or recliner business.
@Ez, donate them!
We looking at the same Miles and More chart? I thought it’s 75K R/T domestic first class
@Ross:
You need to look at the domestic section on the bottom valid for flights within 1 country.
@AJK:
Maybe some people like to have a stranger staring at them from across the aisle for hours on end.
Seats are not to compare to americans business ( it looks even better than United’s first class.) what is nowdays the best way of getting on american??