US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - using US Airways Dividend Miles for a United Airlines ticket

I have some very simply questions

When I go to www.united.com, and look for award travel using my United Airlines Mileage Plus miles from Bloomington, IL (BMI) to Las Vegas on Wednesday, November 2, 2005, returning on Monday, November 7, 2005, I show a number of flights available using my United Airlines Mileage Plus miles.

Since you cannot make United Airline reservations using US Airways Dividend Miles at US Airways website, www.usairways.com, you have to call US Airways Dividend Miles at 800-428-4322 to check United Airlines availability. When I call US Airways Dividend Miles at 800-428-4322 they claim to have no seats available for my November 2nd trip from BMI to LAS.

Now I completely understand that the airlines have very little communication between one another, even when they share/mingle frequent flier programs. And I understand that you can sometimes see award availability on some airlines on their websites, while when you use their partner websites those same flights are not available, but why does this happen?

So, here are my questions:
1. Why would www.united.com show my flights from BMI to LAS are available on 11/2, but when I call the US Airways Dividend Miles at 800-428-4322, US Airways claims they have no seats on United from BMI to LAS on 11/2?
2. Why doesn’t US Airways update their website to be able to check award availability on their partner airlines, for example United Airlines?

Thank you for your help and time. I have almost come up with the conclusion that if you want to travel using miles on United Airlines, you have to use your United Airlines Mileage Plus miles and not your US Airways Dividend Miles.

Jim :)

1. Award availability between carriers is not necessarily 1:1. They may allocate 5 seast per flight, but only up to 2 for codeshare awards.

2. Its one of those lacking parts of the website that is doomed to never be upgraded, IMO. Unfortunate.

US Airways does not have access to the full availibility of United award seats. United keeps more seats for its own members then it gives US access to.

Depending on your status and how busy they are, some agents have called United on my behalf to get them to release additional seats to US. It's not always successful, but you might want to ask.