o.k., lots of questions here. You can use UA miles to upgrade NH Z-class or higher to First (only P cannot be upgraded). You can even waitlist that upgrade. You can also use United PlusPoints if you have that, but let's skip that for now. You need to be a UA MP member, nothing else - the online tool is here: https://www.united.com/loyalty/partn.../ui/en/us/saua No status needed here ...
I am suggesting that if your goal is upgrades to First and you are SIN based, then the SQ program is likely best for you. You can fly TK and earn with SQ, that's not a problem. https://www.wheretocredit.com/turkish-airlines/k
Not every airline is participating in *A upgrades and even if they offer it, SQ for example won't allow C --> F upgrades with partner miles (except for LH). So 2 things need to be true, the airline you are earning with must participate in that program and the airline you want to upgrade on must allow C --> F upgrades through that program.
Very few people list 'C --> F' upgrades as their highest priority - I think your options will be limited with that.

Thanks very much for helping.

Excellent pointers on how to upgrade NH Z-class or higher using UA miles. Will try that in my next flight coming up soon.

• BTW, can I use UA miles to upgrade from NH Economy class to NH Business class?

Thanks for the Where to credit table. Very useful.

It seems if my TK ticket is in K class it shows I get 125%; but if it is in J class I get only 100%. Seems like the business class tickets I booked tend end up being J and D class and NOT K class. So it seems most likely I will end up with 100% depositing TK miles into SQ.

This seems weird; I look up "airline fare codes list" and see the following from Wikipedia which seems to show K class is the lowest Discounted Economy Class Tickets. :confused: Then why is TK J class earning less miles on SQ? Is the fare code table below universally applicable to all airlines?

1. Discounted Economy Class Tickets: K, L, Q, V, W, U, T, X, N, O, S.
2. Full-Fare Economy Tickets: Y, B, M, H.
3. Premium Economy Fares: W, E.
4. Discounted Business Class Tickets: D, I, Z.
5. Full-Fare Business Tickets: J, C, D.
6. Full-Fare First-Class Passengers: A, F.

One important clarification question, for SQ KrisFlyer is there a requirement to fly some SQ operated flight segments before I can up my SQ KrisFlyer status? ... I only know that UA has this requirement.

Regarding my focus on 'C --> F' upgrades, basically I am near retirement and probably have at most another 15 - 20 years of flying life left; so no point torturing myself flying long haul economy class. So I expect to fly mostly C; given this the only meaningful use of mileage would be the upgrade to F (I won't need to use mileage status for lounge access too). So really only 'C --> F' upgrades is useful to me :D + perhaps use my miles to upgrade my children's flights.

UA thread--> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...-carriers.html
Has onerous t&c's.

Fewer airlines/routes/aircraft have long haul F. F is disappearing. With some airlines the newish "business class suites" are better than F on other airlines or/and better than F of 5~10 years ago. More companies have policies not to pay for First fares, but will pay for Business fares. Even in the $$ for business is more (all about perception)

No. Tends to be same in an alliance, but can be exceptions.

TK booking classes do not align with the rest of *A. K class is above J class and below D class.
To the very best of my knowledge SQ does not have SQ metal requirements. However, if you are not planning on flying SQ (how to do get to Oz???) then it may not make sense for you.
I get you on wanting to upgrade to First - I am the same. Why UA works for me since they allow LH and NH upgrades quite easily and that is what I need. SQ is the hard one here ...

Thanks. It is not that I do not fly SQ metal; I would just like to opt for better price options when they are available. For flying to Europe and hoping over the eastern USA TK is very competitive. When I fly to Oz I would likely be flying SQ. That is when I would be interested in upgrading to First :cool:.

I just spent some time this evening online live chat with KrisFlyer's agent. As far as I can ascertain from the agent SQ indeed do not have SQ metal requirement for status upgrade to Elite Silver and Elite Gold. However to get to PPS Club one must earn PPS Value which can only come from flying SQ metal. And the SQ KF miles can indeed be used to request upgrade from Business to First ... Although I am sure the PPS Club members have priority over Elite Gold and Elite Silver.

• For UA it is impossible to raise status to even Silver without flying at least 4 segments of UA. This makes it tough for me when UA do not fly Singapore - Japan these days.

So I guess it looks workable to fly TK and deposit miles into SQ KF. And I will fly some SQ metal along the way.

It is possible to request Business to First upgrade on LH and NH using SQ KF miles, right? Do you mean that is hard to do?

https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/s...tner-airlines/

Don't know how easy/hard it is to do. It is possible, however.

Updating thread as UA just jacked their 2026 qualification requirements. I was going to remain with UA back in September but now am rethinking this approach, and looking at A3, TK or even AC.
Just that the AC metal requirements may be too high to meet (CAD$6K for 50K, I only fly Y with them and it's usually a low fare, I'd have to do probably 10 R/T with them).

Just out of interest ...
 

Just out of interest, since I'm not really that bothered, but if I should chose to sign up for a miles program with a Star Alliance carrier, which one to chose? I'm based in Europe, most trips are to/from the US with a smidgen of Asia thrown in for good measure. It's all company travel, and the company pays for business class.

It would help to know where you typically fly from and what you'd like to do with the miles.

Please modify the thread title so it provides some hint about the topic or merge into one of those larger threads.

Or better yet, alert a Moderator, and request that this inquiry be moved to this thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star...post-here.html

<deleting my original post since I realized a logistical issue might prevent me from considering a switch.>

I didn't realize it was possible to wrack up UA mm segments while crediting to non-UA FFPs. How do you report your flight activity to United?

if you're referring to my post, no, I didn't say or imply that you can get UA MM while crediting to a non UA program. My question has to do with my options after I get to 1MM on UA.

I have my first ever Star Alliance flight coming up in December and wondering which FF shceme I should join. Any advice most appreciated.

This flight is LH ticketed, connecting in Frankfurt with two legs on UA. This intial ticket is a multi-leg:
EDI > FRA > SFO > LAS
SEA > FRA > EDI

Based in Edinburgh.
Fly long haul multiple times a year for a mix of business and pleasure. Travel is both to the Americas and Asia, with some middle east travel likely to come.
Most european travel is point to point with low cost due to convenience.
Tend to stick to SkyTeam and AMS where possible. But I'm primarily cost & convenience orientated when choosing rather than loyalty driven. (e.g. this ticket was £3K with LH vs £4.7K with KLM)
Long haul travel is typically business class.
Miles, I rarely spend them.
Have a preference to connect in Europe vs USA when travelling back to Edinburgh (e.g. one of the european hubs giving me one long flight and one short flight rather than two medium flights with a connection in New York etc.)
By far the most important to me is as much preferential treatment as possible when I need to change a flight or there is disruption.