ID 90s
 

OK, I've never done ID 90 travel; wife is interested in using it. I know how to log in to the site and see the rates. I know if you don't get on the flight, you can get a refund (that may take a while).

Question: are they for a specific flight? IE, if I get one from KAAA to KBBB, it doesn't have to be on a specific flight number on a specific day (unless the zone rate changes on a different day).

I assume it would be good for multiple flight numbers for the same city-pair, even on different days. In other words, if I get her one, she could standby for different flights on a couple of days.

Let me know if I'm woefully misinformed.

bumped for my reference

I am new here at United so I have yet to use the interline benefits, but I did a lot of travel with myidtravel/ID90 stuff with my previous airline.

From my experience I list on a specific flight from point A to point B. Certain airlines will allow you to actually check in for that flight via their general website like Lufthansa or Emirates. So you generally list for a specific flight, but that flight can be changed by the airport ticketing staff for when plans change.

For example we had missed a flight on Delta and rushed over to Cathay Pacific. The flight departed within 2 hours so we were not able to list for the specific flight. However the agents told us to list for the same flight for the following day and they would then be able to change it for the flight that we were trying to make but were past the website listing time frame. So it goes to show that while you are supposed to list for a specific flight on a specific date, it can be changed either by yourself on the specific ID90 website or with an agent at the airport.

As far as refunds go, they are a piece of cake. If I go on an international trip I usually end up refunding a few different ID90/ZED fares after the trip is complete depending on which flights we were able to make.

Does that answer your question for the most part? And if there is anything I missed from guys that know more about this stuff than I do, please chime in!

Sux:

Great info...thanks!

I'll try checking the travel dept at UA tomorrow, as well.

the ID90 is for a specific airline though you can buy them for more than 1 airline and cash them in when you return. I do it on Asiana from ICN to NRT or CX out of Hong Kong to NRT.

Styr;

I knew they were airline specific, I wasn't sure if they were flight number/day specific.

I haven't used a ID90 in years, but last time I bought one it was airline/route specific. Because as we all know, the "Interline/Inter airline Discount" is based on that percentage off the airline's highest published Y class fare. But like I said, that was while ago, not sure if there's been a change. I usually just ZED or buy a ticket now.

However, ZED's are good on ANY ZED carrier for that mileage zone" for the "Zonal Employee Discount".

Although I have bought ZED's and it had the specific airline's name on it. But that was before electronic. And you had the potential to have a foreign gate agent deny you because it's a different airline's name, yet they're BOTH ZED carrier and the SAME Zonal price, etc. Toss in a language barrier issue and it just make it all the more fun at that time.

The airline/route/flight specific's used to be a big deal when they were paper tickets. For example I have a paper ticket on All Nippon from Narita to Hong Kong I could not use it on Cathay Pacific as they specially required it to be ticketed for Cathay Pacific. So if you did not have two separate paper tickets you were out of luck. Or you might have had a zed ticket on a certain airline that had a Zed Low agreement for price, however the other airline you wanted to use that had seats was a ZED High fare you again were out of luck unless you had paper tickets for each carrier.

Now, that everything is done digitally, it's not a big deal at all. List up as many different flights on as many different airlines as you feel you might need and then refund them when you know for sure you wont need them. Easy as that!

It was in Europe when I did it. Not sure if they do it differently, or they simply didn't care. But using a different ZED carrier than what was on the ticket didn't matter.

But it's all like a cow's opinion at this point. You know, moo......

It's all electronic ball bearings nowadays boys.

It's pretty easy. All the procedures and rules are online now for each airline. Go to Flying Together - Travel - Other Airline/Interline Travel.

First page tells you where to go to buy the tickets depending upon which airline, and where to go to list. Then hit the drop down box to check the specific procedures for each airline. You will see that some airlines do not offer First or Business class tickets (i.e., Emirates). Also, for certain airlines you must list online only, and they will not help you at the ticket counter

You cannot use a ticket for one airline on another, so you buy multiple tickets. The ones i did not use took 4 biz days to get refunded back to my CC. sAys it can take up to 10 days. Just did the ID 90s in March flying from LAX to Istanbul. Then Istanbul to Italy, then Italy back to the US.

Big TIP: When you buy the ID 90s for a particular leg, make sure you buy a ticket for First class AND a ticket for Coach. If you buy the first class, and you only get coach, you do not get the difference refunded! So buy one of each to save money.

To help you with loads for all international carriers, enroll in Nonrevcheckin.com
Best money i spent and it was pretty accurate. Just keep in mind, when it says there are X # of seats open, it doesn't mean you will definitely get on (weight restrictions - came across that for UAL out of Milan)(For emirates, it showed 18 seats open but those were all in Business, and you can't buy Business on them, so I needed someone to buy the upgrade for me to get on, which happened). So when you see how many seats are open, go to that airline's website, and you can see what class of seat they are selling.

Nice part with everything being done online; no more going to the UAL ticket counter or travel office to buy tickets. It's extremely easy. Plus, if you have any issues buying or listing from the two main websites, the Cust Support for both are easy to get ahold of 7 days of week.

Have fun on your travels!