Hello.

I'm new to FlyerTalk and have had some questions answered in the US Airways Forum, but I think this is the most appropriate forum for these next questions. This is a bit of a cross-post, but I couldn't delete my earlier post in the US Airways Forum.

Premise:
I'm looking to get two 1st or business class R/T tickets to South America or Europe (1 for me, 1 for my wife).

Hypothetical 1:
If I can get 125K miles in my account for US AIRWAYS, and let's say I get 125K miles in my wife's account for AIR CANADA....

Is the redemption process as follows: I find any *A airline itinerary that we both want on ANY *A airline (maybe using the ANA tools or AwardNexus or calling the airline). Let's say I found it with CO. I would call US AIRWAYS and they would book my trip with CO; and then call AIR CANADA to book my wife's trip and they would book it with CO?

Hypothetical 2:
Suppose Hypo 1 works out. What is the best way to ensure that my wife and I actually get the same planes and itineraries because we're booking using two different FF programs to book on *A?

Hypothetical 3:
Can I "mix and match" airline miles across programs for a *A ticket? For instance, what if I amass 62.5K miles on US AIRWAYS and 62.5K miles on AIR CANADA, both in my name? Can I get a flight on CO through the *A for 125K miles? And how would I accomplish this?

Hypothetical 4:
If I end up with 250K miles in one airline's program, say US AIRWAYS, can I get a 125K ticket for me and a 125K ticket for my wife on US AIRWAYS or a *A airline? Or do I have to use my miles for my solo travel?

Thanks again in advance!

1) yes.
2) no way to be sure beforehand, other than checking that 2 seats are available
on all flights. But one may disappear between the time you confirm the first,
and make the second.
3) No, points from different programs cannot be combined.
4) yes, you can get tickets for both of you from one program.

I appreciate you answering my questions!!!

But, one more question regarding Hypo 1 above... I assume I would use the *A award chart to figure out how many miles I need for a particular destination (and not the booking airline's award chart unless my itinerary actually started out with the booking airline). Is this right?

For instance, if booking First Class US to Europe on Continental using US AIRWAYS miles, I would need 125K miles. But the same US to Europe trip on US AIRWAYS could be 60K miles (off peak) up to 350K miles (high season). And I noticed US AIRWAYS only lists economy or business class to Europe, no first class.

-Tim

Place your US award on hold (US will allow a 3 day hold on most itineraries, with an important exception being an itinerary with an SQ flight, should you end up on SQ's FRA-JFK route), ticket the AC award, and come back and finish up with US. If AC does holds as well, you could even reverse the order.

If the second award disappears while the first is on hold, then allow the hold to expire.

Yes.

Also, US does not offer longhaul international first class- just business and coach.

There is no Star Alliance reward chart, per se.
There is a US Dividend Miles chart for Star Alliance flights, an Air Canada
Aeroplan chart for Star Alliance flights, a Lufthansa chart for Star
Alliance flights, etc, etc. Those all vary in requirements for flights.
You must use the chart of the airline where you accumulated your points.

Then each airline usually has 2 charts - one for redemptions on its own
flights, and another for redemptions on Star Alliance flights.
These may/may not require the same mileage.

For example, for may years Air Canada required more miles on its own
flights in J class from Canada to Asia than it required for Star Alliance
rewards.

Note--a PM to a mod in the forum, or using the Report Post feature, would alert a mod to the post...and they can delete a post for you.

FYI - at this current moment, there are 2 *A program allow mile across another program - UA's Mileage Plus and CO's OnePass, providing that they are under the same person.

Also, Miles and More is a program for multiple airlines. So LX's Miles and More is basically LH's Miles and More.

You have to transfer the miles to one program before booking, so there is an additional step involved.