Question about obtaining awards on airline partners
 

This may be a silly question that may have been covered before, but I haven't seen it. I'm wondering, if I am, for example, a DL Sky Miles member and want to claim an award on let's say OS, would it be harder for me to get a seat on a given flight as a DL ff member than it would be for a Qualiflyer ff member? In other words, do the airlines have one big quota for ff awards on each flight that is open to members of its program as well as members of the partner programs OR are there individual limits for each partner? I hope this makes sense!

Not a silly question Leroy but I think you will find a lot of various answers and policies regarding award travel on "partner" airlines. I've used US Airways miles for travel on Qantas and had no difficulty getting seats. Tried another time for travel on Swiss Air and had a lot of difficulty. Generally speaking, I would imagine that using the milage program of the actual carrier to be flown will give you the best chance... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Thanks a lot! Using the actual airline for awards would seem to increase your chances would be a good idea.

I know only Qualiflyer (Swissair) and StarAlliance (LH and UA).

technically with all of the above airlines: availability only depends of the actual CARRIER and is the same for all ff-programs allowing awards with that carrier. But if somebody has to go out of his routine to get you something, chances are much better if you use the carrier's own program (because it will only depend on the carrier if/when/to whom to free addional space.

Leroy, it's a very useful question.

My knowledge + experience has been similar to Rudi's. The pool of frequent flier seats is the same regardless of who is requesting the reward. (I was looking for UA flights for my brother-in-law both by calling AC and by calling UA - and the availability was absolutely identical) But if you need an exception made, like waiving capacity controls, or a weird routing etc. than you are better off using the mileage program of the actual carrier - as they are the ultimate arbitrators.

BTW, an annoying thing about booking UA tickets with AC is that the process is quite slow. They check a particular flight, put you on hold, and then return you a "yes/no". If no, then you pick another flight and the process repeats. Then if the answer is "yes" they "confirm" availability and give you a booking reference number - but they mention that UA can still reject the reservation within 48 hours of receiving it. Now, they have never rejected a reservation in my experience, but it annoys me that they reserve that right.

It was even more cumbersome booking on US Airways for an ANA flight. I and the US agent had to come up with a proposed routing. Then the US agent e-mailed ANA, which took several hours to a day or so to confirm availability. This went on for several days until we requested a routing where they had seats.

Very annoying.

Charlie

I just recently used BA miles to claim an award on AA. I called up BA, gave them the info, said there was availability, and they'd make/confirm the booking with AA. I got a printed intinery in the mail, saying that I'd get the printed tickets about 4 weeks before travel date. Also something I didn't know, was that BA told me I can change the travel dates & times, without any charge for this award. (Not the cities of travel though.)

Thanks a lot for all of the information - it's useful to know!

I keep the bulk of my miles with Alaska Airlines. They are partners with British, Northwest, Quantas, KLM, SAS, Continental, American, TWA, Canadian and Horizon.

I have never had a problem getting an award flight either on Alaska or any of its partners. Generally, I only use mileage for pleasure trips, so I plan them fairly far out. However, even when I do book first or business award flights, I sometimes have to keep calling back to find first or busines seats on some legs. I still think, however, that this is the best way to go (if you have enough mileage) because booking first or business ahead, you are almost always sure to get the seats you want--as opposed to trying certificates, good will or good luck. Of course, the gamblers, lover the thrill of anxiety waiting for the upgrade.

Whatever lifts your plane.