Star Alliance - Question about Star Alliance Freq Flyer Programs

Greetings,

I have 2 frequent flyer accounts, one with Asiana and one with United. When I fly domestically, I usually fly with United and put my miles into my United Mileage Plus account. When I fly to Asia, I usually fly on a Star Alliance airline and request that they put my miles into my Asiana account. Since I will be flying to Asia in the near future on United, I was wondering whether I should put my miles into my Asiana Club account or my United Mileage Plus account.

My quandary boils down to this: how do I determine the number of miles required by Star Alliance member airlines for award travel to various destinations? If I fly often to Asia, for example, and I determine that United requires 70,000 miles for a round trip flight to China and Asiana requires 80,000, then it would obviously be better for me to put my miles into my United Mileage Plus account. I assume that, since Asiana requires a stop in Seoul and United has direct flights, that Asiana would require more miles. Is this a valid assumption? Is there a website that provides the number of miles required for award travel to various destinations on each of the Star Alliance airlines?

My second question if this: within Star Alliance, does the airline from which I am drawing my frequent flyer miles or the airline with which I am flying determine the number of miles required for a particular destination? In other words, if Asiana requires 80,000 miles to fly to Beijing, they are unable to provide me with a flight, and they instead book a flight on US Airways (and let's assume that US Air requires 70,000 to fly to Beijing), would Asiana withdraw 80,000 miles or 70,000 miles from my Asiana Club Account?

And finally, any thoughts on which frequent flyer program is better between Asiana Club and United Mileage Plus? Which airline has greater availability when it comes to award travel, for example?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

Welcome to FT.

You always go by the program you have miles in. So if you use United miles, you must play by United's rules/award chart.

The United award chart is here:

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps/mileageplus/awards/travel/awardTravel.aspx

I do not know where Asiana's award chart is. Watch out for crediting your miles to another carrier--certain fares sometimes do not get 100% of miles.

another good website for checking general miles needed is:

www.Milez.biz

I've found it is not always right, but gives you a good idea of where to start researching more.

Since United and Asiana are both Star Alliance numbers, if I were in your shoes I would only use United or only use Asiana for collecting miles. It's much better to have 100K elite qualifying miles on United and be 1K, than it is to put 50K miles each on United and Asiana, for example. The benefits of status increase disproportionally as you go up in miles per year on one airline.

Hi Stubtify,

Thank you very much for your rapid reply. The links you provided were very helpful. Based upon this information, I regret having put so many miles into my Asiana Club account. It seems that United has a better track record where award travel is concerned and United seems to require few miles for award travel to my preferred destinations (perhaps because the have direct flights to most of these destinations). Oh well, lesson learned. I'll have to begin building up the mileage in my United Mileage Plus account and begin using the mileage on my Asiana Club account. Thanks again for your assistance!

Thanks altaskier.

Actually, as far as status goes, Asiana seems to have one of the lowest mileage requirements for gold level status. Asiana only requires 20,000 miles per year while United requires 50,000 miles per year. The benefits of gold level status in both award programs are not comparable, however. United seems to have better benefits at gold level status.

It seems that United has a better track record where award travel is concerned and United seems to require few miles for award travel to my preferred destinations (perhaps because the have direct flights to most of these destinations). Oh well, lesson learned. I'll have to begin building up the mileage in my United Mileage Plus account and begin using the mileage on my Asiana Club account. Thanks again for your assistance!

It doesn't quite matter if the airline has direct flights to those destinations. For example, I can use United miles to fly between Frankfurt and Toulouse pretty cheaply, for about the same number of miles as flying between Seattle and Los Angeles. But United doesn't operate Frankfurt-Toulouse.

United's award chart is based on zones. If you want to fly from zone A to zone B, it costs X miles. It doesn't (usually) matter how many stops or which carrier you fly to get from A to B. But as you've seen, each airline does have different rules both for how many miles you earn and how many miles you have to redeem.

It's great that United has cheaper awards for your travel patterns, but don't start building up a pile with United until you check to make sure all your paid flights will still earn 100%. If you earn 0% or 25%, then you won't have any miles in either program.

This would be better in the star forum.

It doesn't quite matter if the airline has direct flights to those destinations. For example, I can use United miles to fly between Frankfurt and Toulouse pretty cheaply, for about the same number of miles as flying between Seattle and Los Angeles. But United doesn't operate Frankfurt-Toulouse.

United's award chart is based on zones. If you want to fly from zone A to zone B, it costs X miles. It doesn't (usually) matter how many stops or which carrier you fly to get from A to B. But as you've seen, each airline does have different rules both for how many miles you earn and how many miles you have to redeem.

It's great that United has cheaper awards for your travel patterns, but don't start building up a pile with United until you check to make sure all your paid flights will still earn 100%. If you earn 0% or 25%, then you won't have any miles in either program.

I agree mostly with what was just said and saw Delta sent out an email today saying they are reducing miles earned on different types of flights more. Basically full fare then discounted then deeply discounted and the percentage drops.

My experience has been that the award miles needed are the same regardless of stops only Sometimes. Often if they have a flight (especially on Delta) that is say 18 hours to the Philippines it may cost more miles than the rest of the options with 22-24 hour travel time. Basically what the market will pay

I agree mostly with what was just said and saw Delta sent out an email today saying they are reducing miles earned on different types of flights more. Basically full fare then discounted then deeply discounted and the percentage drops.

That's only on flights booked through certain channels like cruise packages, discount tour packages, and student discount consolidators. Any fare booked on Delta.com or an OTA still earns normal mileage earnings.

Thanks altaskier.

Actually, as far as status goes, Asiana seems to have one of the lowest mileage requirements for gold level status. Asiana only requires 20,000 miles per year while United requires 50,000 miles per year. The benefits of gold level status in both award programs are not comparable, however. United seems to have better benefits at gold level status.

20,000 = Asiana Gold = Star Silver (Fun, I know, its always fun to see Koreans abroad trying to use their OZ Gold as Star Gold and getting denied lounge accesss)

40,000 = Asiana Diamond = Star Gold

20,000 = Asiana Gold = Star Silver (Fun, I know, its always fun to see Koreans abroad trying to use their OZ Gold as Star Gold and getting denied lounge accesss)

40,000 = Asiana Diamond = Star Gold

This is accurate. However, qualifying for elite status on OZ is over a 24-month period, and obviously accruing 40k miles is much easier when you have two years to do it.

This is accurate. However, qualifying for elite status on OZ is over a 24-month period, and obviously accruing 40k miles is much easier when you have two years to do it.

And I think the status is valid for two years?

And I think the status is valid for two years?

Yes. It all works on a two-year cycle.

Thanks for all the input, suggestions, and advice.

One quick question. Scottrick mentioned that some paid flights do not accrue 100% of miles, while amolkold mentioned that this normally only applies to cruise packages, tour packages, and student discounts. I usually shop around for tickets on various travel websites (Kayak, Expedia, One Travel, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc, etc), consider the flights that fit my criteria (scheduling, price, Star Alliance, etc), and then go to the airline website(s) to see whether they can match these criteria. If so, then I generally buy the ticket from the airline website simply because I've found it much easier to deal with the airline directly if changes need to be made.

However, if I buy my airline ticket from one of the more popular travel websites, such as those listed above, do I accrue 100% mileage on my flight? I did not realize that airlines sometimes give less than 100% mileage for flights, and so I have never checked.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Thanks for all the input, suggestions, and advice.

One quick question. Scottrick mentioned that some paid flights do not accrue 100% of miles, while amolkold mentioned that this normally only applies to cruise packages, tour packages, and student discounts. I usually shop around for tickets on various travel websites (Kayak, Expedia, One Travel, Travelocity, Orbitz, etc, etc), consider the flights that fit my criteria (scheduling, price, Star Alliance, etc), and then go to the airline website(s) to see whether they can match these criteria. If so, then I generally buy the ticket from the airline website simply because I've found it much easier to deal with the airline directly if changes need to be made.

However, if I buy my airline ticket from one of the more popular travel websites, such as those listed above, do I accrue 100% mileage on my flight? I did not realize that airlines sometimes give less than 100% mileage for flights, and so I have never checked.

Thanks again for all of your help!
With most airlines, if you are flying and crediting to that airline, you'll get 100% mileage credit even for discount fares. However, if you are, say, flying Asiana and crediting to United, some fares may not receive full credit. If you look at the United earnings chart for Asiana, (http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/marketing/custcomm/promotions/Pages/AirlinePartnerDetails.aspx?ItemId=303) you'll see that discount fares G, T, V, and W earn only 70%, and any unlisted fares earn nothing at all. In this case, most of the time the problem fares would not be available at retail, but in general it's something you need to be aware of when crediting mileage from one airline to another. For example, I happen to know that United's new discount business class fares in P earn no mileage at all on A3!