Let me insist: we can only blame UA for this. LH is being very generous in its award seat allotment to other *A airlines as documented in this thread. We know for certain (UA's own admittance to some FTers during the freddies) that MP is blocking some premium cabin awards from showing up in the system. This is just another twist in the same direction.

As someone living in an European city not served directly by UA (but served by LH) this is not a minor annoyance but a mortal blow. In most cases, LH through FRA or MUC is the most convenient or the only way to get where I need to go. I'm not going to start paying 300 euro to get to FRA in addition to the mileage. And yes, I know this is only for the rest of the year, but the main point is that you can't count on your MP miles when it comes to redeeming your awards. For all we know, this will happen again next year.

I've been considering moving to OneWorld on 2007 mainly because it suits my current travel patterns better, but my status on United and all the miles I have in the bank were preventing me from doing so. However in light of situations like this the choice is becoming increasingly clear.