Gary, thanks for trying Award Nexus. I can see your searches there, but in respect to your privacy, I am only going to reply here in generality.

Here are some ideas to try (some may have been mentioned already):

- Do not start your search from OAK/SMF. Those are minor airports and many award engines (e.g. CO, ANA) have trouble creating comprehensive list of routes to find you awards.

- Try doing searches on North American Gateways to LHR. For example, you may try some less common options: IAD, DEN, YYZ (note that some of these may require 2+ stops or overnight connection)

- Download Airport Route Mapper (http://arm.64hosts.com/). It gives you a visual map of all the routing possibilities on Star Alliance.

- Can you arrive into LGW? US does CLE-LGW.

- Try also arrivals into European gateways, such as FRA, BRU, MUC. You can arrive into one of them and then take European partners such as LH or SN into LHR.

- Some have suggested one way awards, but note that Star Alliance awards can only be RT right now, so it is of no help. On the other hand, if you are willing to accept downgrade into coach, you may be able to mix cabins (I am not familiar enough with the rules to say any further).

As WineCountryUA said, it is peak season, so premium award seats are hard to come by. However, if you are willing to put in the leg works to do some serious searching, you may be able to find something.

P.S. I would not wait for united.com for any possible Star Alliance redemption beyond US and CO. Somehow I doubt that with Starnet blocking, UA is all that eager to put all the partner award online. Even if they do, I would think it will take them more than a few months to roll that out.