use of united miles?

As a Star Alliance Member,(with a ton of UA miles) I'm not sure how being a member of the Star Alliance works if I want to fly on one of the other airlines in the program using my United miles.
(specifically, using my miles for upgrades, or for 1st or biz class seats on one of the other Star alliance partners.)
Could someone please explain to me how this works,or point me in the right direction or to the right thread?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Brentski

You'll find that information in the UA forum and of course on united.com under "Mileage Plus". There's also an table (PDF file) for *A awards, which basically have the same award levels and regions as UA Saver Awards.

So far, MP members can only upgrade on LH (confirmed upgrades with miles, stand-by upgrades with converted SWUs). But I've heard that *A plans to intruduce some universal upgrading scheme that works between all partners and loyalty programs.

It's reasonable to use miles for awards on airlines other than UA. Intercontinental F awards offer the best value and are especially nice on premium carriers such as SQ or NH in Asia or LH for transatlantic flights.

To book your award, call MP. Before booking, download the *A timetable from staralliance.com and check out possible routings. As usual, award seats are quite rare.