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Great--I think that is best.

One other nuance--maybe two. I think both US and UA would probably tell you that they you have to use their flights (metal) if they actually fly to the destination for an award. For instance--if you were going to fly to Sydney AU, United flies there as well as Air new Zealand.

I don't know if that is exactly true--what I think is closer to the right answer is that you will end paying more miles for an award ticket using a partner carrier in Star Alliance than if you booked the award as an UA or US flight.

Having sad that, with all the goofy code share agreements out there now, you could get on a Lufthansa plane in the United States and fly to Europe, maybe even have a connection and all the flight numbers could be either United or USAIR flight numbers. That issues is a bigger one if you are paying for the tickets and want the ff mileage accrued in a specific account.

For award tickets, I would get too hung up over who's flight number is on the award ticket. When you call US or UA, they will know if it it their plane flying the route. If you have to connect in a gateway city in this country--you'll probably end up on US or UA to the gateway and then connect to the Star Alliance carrier.

Hopefully, you are living inm an area where you don't have too much trouble getting the award to connect to the closet airport for you. have seen on here some folks that live in small cities--like Fayetteville, NC and when they have tried to get USAIR awards--they have no trouble starting out at Charlotte--but getting ther award seat on the commuter planes that apparently fly into Fayetteville is not easy..

Have a great trip..!!!

^