Hi opus17,

I'm not sure why those miles wouldn't count for your elite status on UA. Two years ago I took a flight from SFO to Auckland on Air New Zealand and then on to Sydney, Cairns and Alice on Ansett. All flights counted toward elite status. However, if I remember correctly, Ansett only counted 75% of the miles. That may have changed since when I took the trip, those two carriers had just joined Star Alliance.

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-wl