Donna - we booked using miles for ROAR 2. Since we were on Star Alliance, NOT United flights, we were limited to a 24 hour hold period. I waited to book until we were able to grab the outbound at the same time. I believe Suzanne has been able to follow the process you outline & get the tickets. The United ticket hold was 72 hours, so it's a call-back every 3 days to continue to hold the seat reservations on the outbound. We also had 120,000 miles per ticket for the award seats.

If others have a slicker way to do it than what I've outlined, please chime in.

Cheers, Anne