Originally Posted by
misterno
I am looking at ADB-IAH around August. I have been trying to book a flight for the last 6 months only to see no availability in UA website. I am trying to book this with United miles in Turkish airlines economy class.
Since United is not offering anything, I tried Singapore Airlines thinking that they are in Star Alliance but I can not register. There is a problem with their registration page for US residents. I have thank you points also so I can transfer there too.
Then I tried TK website and saw that they are offering the same flight for 45K miles and the tax is much higher too. If I were to buy this flight on UA it would have been 30K miles + $6.00 (I know because I buy ever year) but TK website is offering or $45K TK miles + $87. Why is same flight one way costing much more than UA website?
Is there another way to get ADB-IAH? UA is not even offering other options like ADB-MUC-IAH. I guess UA website algorithm is not set up that way? All the options given are ADB-IST-IAH but there are tons of other ways where UA can fly me to Houston but they do not show it.
Am I missing something here?
Unfortunately, you are missing something; the award ticket system in for *A partners are different. To purchase a Star Alliance Award, there must exactly be available seats on the award ticket fare class bucket for your flight, this means that for Turkish Airlines Economy flights, the flight must have X fare class availability and for Business Class flights, the flight must have I fare class availability.
Also, United is one of the rare carriers that doesn't surcharge for all of the taxes on award tickets. All European carriers charge for all of the taxes when purchasing an award ticket. In your case, $87 is a great number as usually that amount is much higher when booking an award ticket with TK Miles&Smiles on TK.
Indeed, August is a peak season for all ADB-IST on TK, IST-IAH on TK, ADB-MUC on LH so it's quite normal that there is no award ticket availability for Star Alliance partners.
By the way, when you mention,
Is there another way to get ADB-IAH? UA is not even offering other options like ADB-MUC-IAH. I guess UA website algorithm is not set up that way? All the options given are ADB-IST-IAH but there are tons of other ways where UA can fly me to Houston but they do not show it.
what do you mean? In the first part of your post, you have mentioned that United is not offering anything and now you mention that you have an ADB-IST-IAH option and seeking for a Lufthansa option.