1. United has a policy of not poaching elites from its Star Alliance partners, so normal status matches are not possible. A few people have had success by writing to United to explain that they've moved to the US, and their travel patterns have changed. Consequently, they are in the process of evaluating another airline. Therefore, they would like to see if United could get them *G with a status match or challenge to mileage plus. This path isn't guaranteed either, but seemed to have had some success previously.

2. You can't transfer your Aeroplan award miles to United via Sart Alliance or Aeroplan or Mileage Plus. You can try an alternate program like points.com, but that will probably cost you quite a bit in the conversion.