mynetdude

I'm not new to collecting miles but I've never used miles to upgrade or fly for "free" either. Either way upgrading and getting a free ticket still costs you.

But my question is this:

could I use UA miles to upgrade on USAirways? I heard this is not possible, but I also read somewhere that its possible to redeem miles for award tickets on any carrier in the alliance or certain partners.

leftpinky

You can almost never use miles to upgrade. I think BA allows it using their own points, but not sure of anyone. Even if you could, it would only be with that airlines miles. You have a US Air ticket, would need US Air miles. You can use UA miles to purchase a ticket on any *A airline, but only through United. If you have to deal with anyone other than United, you're SOL.

mynetdude

Ok I see that to use miles on Star Alliance you'd have to go through the carrier you have miles with; this makes sense.

But it doesn't make sense when they actively show that upgrades are possible across Star Alliance as well as their own metal yet you say its not possible even someone else I know has tried to do it but I discovered why he couldn't do it because to upgrade across Star Alliance you have to have booked a full fare/unrestricted fare to even be considered for eligibility.

IMO it sounds like upgrading is crap, so just buy tickets with miles and then pay the difference for upgrading if that's even possible?

leftpinky

No, I think once you buy a ticket with miles, that's it, you're in that cabin. The one exception could be if you have the highest status level with an Airline. Then it would not matter if the ticket is cash purchase or miles.

craz

Beware if the Mods find a person padding their post count just in order to get onto CC, that person will be Masked = not allowed onto CC

Generally you can use a Carriers Miles to Upgrade a tkt on that Carrier eg UA miles can be used to UP a UA (CO) flight but not a US or any other *A carriers flight/s. Most Intl fares require a $$ co-pay in addition to any miles, the amount of $$ depends on the fare basis of the purchased tkt

mynetdude

I know this is a little OT and I don't want to be padding either, but I couldn't help but ask... how do you see where you are? I don't see a title of this under my username?

mynetdude

well then I guess its better to just buy business class fare tkt with miles or part miles/part cash (I see many airlines allowing you to fund tickets with miles & cash now).

craz

under your handle you should see posts:## by you it shows 66 so its 180 - 66 = 114 then in addition I believe a person needs to be a member for 6 months

I think they review your posts before opening the door to CC, so if they dont see that a person has contributed in a meaningful way to FT no entrance to CC. So its not just make 180 posts, most of those posts need to be of substance

craz

that all depends on what Carrier and where aperson wants to fly to

eg I just did a NY-IAD-LAX-NRT-SIN and back in under a week, I flew UA and was in E+ in which there were tons of empty seats and entire rows empty. Picked up just under 23k in EQMs and 2x for RDMs. It was a paid tkt that cost me $0 out of pocket, it should have been $1127 . No way would I use miles for Biz when so many miles were at stake, and it was an extra $1400 if I wanted to use a couple of System Wide Upgrades I have but werent able to be confirmed at the time the tkt was purchased. In the end all the flights would have cleared but I wasnt gonna bet $1400 and the possibility of sitting in the exact same Coach seat as if I paid $1100

paying the miles and $$ copay they wanted wasnt an option as it too would have been close to $1400 in ca$h and a boat load of miles.

Personally I save my miles for hose trips I must take TATL and where the cost per mile for a tkt is anywhere between .10 - .15 That SIN trip would have cost me .024 apx per mile when paying 1/4 of the cost of the TATL I must take.

mynetdude

cool thanks, yeah I don't plan on getting CC I'm not that active or substantiated :P

mynetdude

how'd you get it for $0? Was it paid for by somebody else? Using miles is rather complicated, I don't like that about airlines (and obviously they like it because they're betting you never use them) but I just can't wrap my head around this illogicalness of miles its a limitation of my disability.

I see what you mean you weren't willing to fork over a ton of miles and have to pay $1,400 on top of that (if I understood that correctly) when you earned almost 23k miles, to boot if you fly using miles you earn no miles on that flight.

What happens if you pay 50% of your tkt with miles and the other with cash? Then you only get 50% miles back?

turtleisland

There are *A Upgrade Awards, so you can use UA miles to upgrade on US Airways, but the problem is this is typically limited to full fare unrestricted economy. As usual, space for such awards is limited.

mynetdude

Yeah I made that point out in one of my replies, it is indeed a stupid rule/problem.

cmn.jcs

Clearing up a few misconceptions...

US-based airlines almost always have a system to upgrade tickets with miles. Also, the big three alliances (Sky Team, Star Alliance, and OneWorld) allow cross-alliance upgrades. BUT not all tickets are upgradeable. It depends on purchased fare class.

As for buying tickets with miles, that's one of the marketed benefits of the alliances. It is completely normal for those with United miles to buy tickets on Lufthansa, ANA, and Swiss with those United miles. Same thing goes for Korean and Air France with Delta miles.

Yes, your statement is generally correct. That said, (again, speaking about US airlines) the system varies. The top three tiers on Delta (Gold, Platinum, and Diamond) get upgraded on award tickets domestically, just the same as they do on paid tickets. United has a similar program, but I think it involves holding a credit card (don't quote me on that).

craz

I used a $400 VDB voucher so that brouight it down to $727 which I charged on my Venture CC where I had a $2500+ credit towards travel for getting 2 Venture CCs last year.

not sure if you earn even 1 mile when using Miles & $$, I think most programs treat it as a free tkt = no miles, but not 100% sure if its that way across the board. But for me it usually doesnt pay anyway. If I can get a tkt where it costs me say 3 cents per mile earning wise for EQMs I will buy the tkt

an old debate on FT is what did you save by using your miles, alot of folks like to say they cashed in their miles and saved $10,000 for that Bis tkt. To me all I saved is what ever the coach tkt would have cost me . So if it took say 100k for a Bis tkt NY-SIN all I would have saved would have been $1127, since no way would I ever have paid $10k or even $5k for a tkt when I can pay $1100

no question Bis or 1st is alot more comfortable, but personally I fly a min of 3 x a yr to the ME where ist 80k for Y and 120k for Bis, I try to get Bis so I need bet 240-360 a year for those 3 tkts or I could pay apx $5000 for 3 Y tkts and earn 33k in EQMs No Thank You I guess someone who takes 1 vacation a year will look at it very differently then I do