Originally Posted by
tods27
First, take a deep breath and exhale....
You need to search for upgrade availability on each *A carrier separately. There is no way to see this information on United.com (CO doesn't exist any more). If you have a route in mind, that will limit your partners you need to search. You can find this on the ANA tool (at least for carriers that use the same space for upgrades and awards - LH does this). For the ANA site, you must have an ANA number and there are some tricks to get it to search when you don't have any miles. There is a
long thread here. Sorry, but I don't remember the details, so you will have to slog through the thread a bit.
Here is the link for searching for awards on the ANA website. Just log on with a valid ANA mileage number.
The bottom line is that it is not easy. If you try to use miles and money as an option, you will end up on UA metal as that is all they can offer (miles and money not valid on *A carriers). In the case of LH, if you can book an award in C, you can most likely be able to do a *A upgrade. I can't speak to the Asian carriers.
Thank you very much for your reply. It was helpful to be pointed to the ANA page, as I couldn't find it on my own. I logged in using my ANA credentials, and it says this:
Members must complete the application by themselves.
Before applying, please read the Guide to Using Awards.
Do you have any idea what it means?
Below that, there are two sections - one for ANA awards and one for partner awards. The option to proceed with partner awards is disabled. "Use Star Alliance Member Airlines" is grey and when I click on it nothing happens.
Any idea how to solve this?
So, I understand how to purchase a ticket on a foreign carrier in B class but I still don't understand how to determine whether there is space available on that carrier to subsequently upgrade with miles?
Originally Posted by
ualboston1k
As far as seeing what flights have open seats for upgrades, you can do this a variety of ways. For LH, I know upgrades to business book into "I" class, which is the same as their award seat. So if they are showing business class award seats availalbe, you will also be able to upgrade. You can find these on ANA or on UA's reward booking engine.
This is the point I am stuck on.
How do I check "I" class availability? How do I determine equivalent classes and their availability for other carriers? Does the "I" for LH map to "standard award" or "saver award"? Since I have 1K status, if I use the UA web site to book with miles I can sometimes force it to show me LH flights. In this specific instance, if it shows availability at the standard level, does that mean the flight can be upgraded? Or, only if it shows availability at the saver level?
I'm suspicious about this b/c it seems like almost all flights have availability at the standard level but few at the saver level.