flyhen

Hello all,

I know for 140000 miles, I can fly the long way from USA to Asia (via Europe) with stopovers.

Wife and I are planning on a getaway roadtrip, and I wonder if the following can be done..

For 70000 miles, each of us will fly one way *A F from USA to Asia. ORD/SFO ---> FRA/MUC --> ZRH --> SIN --> HKG with a 2-4 days of stop overs each in FRA/MUC, ZRH, and SIN.

Is it possible to fly LH, LX, and SQ in terms of the above mentioned routes? I know LH and LX awards are not hard to come by, what about SQ (dreaming of the A380 F from SIN to HKG)

Is this possible, can this be done?

by reading this report: http://thelounge.me/2011/03/02/part-...rh-on-lx-in-f/ the OP used 140000 miles for a round trip, so I thought, maybe with just 70000 miles.

hmm?

thanks

Unterwegs

Since the rules are depended on the program you use for the flights you are likely better of to ask your questions in the specific forum of that program.
Each of the programs have their own rules for number of stopovers, number of segements, possible routings and required number of miles.

In general: SQ calls their F on the 380 something else than F and i believe no program (except) the SQ programs allows awards in this special class.

Peninsula

Stopovers will depend on which *A member's program you book through. CO, for example, allows only one stopover on a r/t reward ticket (in addition to your destination city). Aeroplan allows two stopovers, I believe.

I think you might have trouble traveling eastward to Asia from SFO. Out of ORD you should be ok.

belfordrocks

If SFO does not allow you to fly to Asia via Europe then just fly out of ORD and grab a seat on NK or something- it's better value that way.

flyhen

Thanks for all the answers, I will be spending miles from UAMP.


Mods, please help me move this thread to United Airlines MP forum.



@ Unterwegs, with just UA MP miles to spend, I think I can only book thru CO or UA for the trip. You are not suggesting I can call up LH and spend my UA miles on them, are you?

@ Peninsula, reason I want to fly out of SFO, is the LH A380 F. Not sure if it's available, but that is what I have in mind, initially. BTW, I will not be using miles on a r/t, rather just a one way roadtrip from ORD to Europe to HKG with wife, if that makes the stopover rules any different.

Also, from the link in my OP, the person did go from SFO to Europe to HKG. That's where I get my idea. What do you think?

DownUnderFlyer

No, Unterwegs isn't suggesting this, you will have to call UA to redeem your miles.

Firstly note that the A380 is only seasonal to/from SFO, not year round. And LH A380 F awards can (almost) only be booked by people with LH status. There are some reports of people getting LH A380 F out of MIA without status but you need to be very lucky for something like this.

Unterwegs

flyhen,

i am not familiar with all the details of the UA program, but what i know is that you can use any star alliance carrier. In any case you need to book either on the website of the program you have the miles on aor call that airline. You should be allowed to mix and match carriers.

flyhen

Yes, that is what I am planning on. Mix and match with LX, LH, or even other *A carriers. But still, I have to find out more about the stopover rules for a one way trip.

If stopovers are allowed, do I have to fly out of the same airport (e.g. ORD-MUC (stopover) MUC-SIN-HKG)

or can I fly out of a different nearby airport (e.g. ORD-MUC (Stopover) ZRH-SIN-HKG)

ORDnHKG

You know it is not too hard to look and get all the information you need from united.com. Oh btw, your SIN-HKG "might" consider as "back track".

http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53698,00.html

4) What you can’t do with a Star Alliance award ticket

a) You cannot book a flight or make changes to a flight that is departing within 24 hours.
b) You cannot change the name on the ticket.
c) You cannot fly an indirect route.
d) You cannot combine classes of service on the same itinerary.
e) You cannot include a stopover when traveling within an award region (for example, an itinerary wholly within North America).
f) You cannot include a stopover when traveling oneway.
g) You cannot have a “backhaul” (backtracking routing) unless it is required by routing restrictions.
h) You cannot travel on codeshare flights operated by other airlines.
i) You cannot upgrade an award ticket.
j) You cannot earn award miles, elite status miles or elite status segments when flying on any United award ticket, including Miles & Money Awards.
k) Discounts for children are not available.

flyhen

It's not hard to look for someone like you who knows how to dig thru the haystack for that needle. For me, well...

anyways, thanks for the info, not what I was looking for, but I guess there will be other options to do with the 140000 miles I want to splurge.

eponymous_coward

If you can come up with 17,500 additional UA miles per person (so 35K all together), you could do USA->Europe (less than 24 H stay)->SIN on one award, and then HKG-SIN in business class on SQ on a second award. SQ now offers *A award space on the A380 on that route- and even if you don't get it, they are a nice ride nonetheless.

flyhen

Tempting! And very nice idea indeed! But it's no fun to splurge w/o wife in the case. I believe towards the end of this year, I will hit 17500 no problem. Any more great suggestions for a splurge for two for a one way road trip?

thanks

eponymous_coward

Well, if you can get a ticket to Hawaii...

HNL-XXX-SIN: 50,000 miles in F
SIN-HKG: 17,500 miles in C

These are one-way. I don't think you're allowed to route through Europe, though.

(FWIW, AS is selling a lot of Hawaii tickets for cheapish out of California, at least a lot less than what UA is charging. Just not to HNL, except out of SAN. BUT UA does have intra-island tickets you could add to an award for an extra 5K, so:

- buy AS ticket to get you from Bay Area to OGG/KOA. Stopover.
- KOA/OGG-HNL(5K). Stopover in HNL, if you'd like. (alternately: pay cash for these)
- HNL-NRT-SIN on one F award (50K- if you want something fancier than UA, I'd take TG's 77W they are leasing from 9W through BKK, and route HNL-NRT-BKK-SIN). Stopover in SIN.
- SIN-HKG in C on SQ (17.5K)

This would run you, one way, two people, 145,000 UA miles, plus the cash cost of your AS tickets (or 135,000 miles, plus the cost of AS AND HA tickets for the interisland hop).

Granted, no Europe. Hawaii is a nice enough consolation prize, however.

flyhen

thanks! this is one suggestion I have to look seriously. Somehow, I never thought about flying via hawai'i. I guess it will work!

ORD-HNL-GUM-(SIN)-HKG

even better, GUM is a CO hub! Will have a serious discussion with wife. =)

eponymous_coward

Except as a single one-way, there wouldn't be any stopovers, plus ORD-HNL-GUM-HKG is going to be on UA/CO domestic config equipment, not nearly as nice as international config. Plus I would bet the cash fares from ORD to Hawaii are significantly more pricey than West Coast-Hawaii.

I would route HNL-NRT-SIN (You'll either be on UA or NH to NRT, though NH doesn't fly F on HNL-NRT). You might also be able to use SQ metal for some of that- as well as for the SIN-HKG segment out of SIN.

(In fact, I've been told that if you used CO miles by transferring your balance into a CO mileage account, you might be able to get something like HNL-LAX/SFO-ICN/NRT-SIN, that CO allows backtracking to the Continental US on Hawaii-South Asia redemptions. I wouldn't bank on it, now that they are becoming unified with UA and their MPM restrictions, but it might be worth a try if you could get NH F or OZ F.)