Really? No-one who has ever flown Economy Plus for 14 hours on a UA 747 would agree I suspect. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

See - www.seatguru.com

And remember that Air NZ do NOT fly OZ-USA any more direct, and a Star Alliance award is supposed to go "most direct route".

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[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 10-02-2003).]

If you don't have status with United, little chance of getting Economy Plus. And not everyone needs to go thru Sydney to get to their destination. He did not say where his child was going to school. If in Queensland, I'd prefer to change planes in Auckland rather than Sydney. Likewise, same options for other cities in OZ. I mentioned Air New Zealand because it provides another viable and more than acceptable option for getting to Australia on United miles. And if no seats are available on a non-stop United to Sydney, changing in Auckland is fine. Not sure what you are getting at about "most direct route," as have used United miles many times to go Air New Zealnad through Auckland.

"More Direct Route" has ALWAYS been the rule for Star awards using UA miles. They are enforcing it tightly recently. So SYD is UA if there are seats.

To BNE TG or NZ are acceptable, or for PER Air NZ is the only option. ADL is not permissible as you can only fly there on SQ via SE Asia and that is not allowed.

The easy way around it (for SYD or MEL) is to request the one legal "stopover" to be in AKL.

Above, someone mentioned "laundering" CO miles through Amtrak.

How does this work?

See Does CO->Amtrak->UA really work?