sunilkumarkapoor

Hi All,

I have about 100K miles with UA Mileage plus and noticed I cannot use those for any upgrades on SQ, do you know if that will change?

Also, I have a few long haul trips on SQ in the next few months that can net me about 30K+ miles, do you recommend I switch from UA to SQ or LH? All of my flying will be on SQ, however they only give a 25% bonus when you hit their "gold" status.....any thoughts?

Thanks

UA Fan

I think they are reluctant friends at least since they are part of *. Soon they will have upgrades avail I'm sure, but maybe after you need them. With 30K miles will you hit their gold status? Isn't it 50K or so?

Rudi

they are business partners and competitors at the same time that bundle most of their common interests (to make more mony in the long run) in/within the StarAlliance.

SQ is generally very reluctant (and that is part of their financial success) in giving away first class seats for 'free', against awards and/or upgrades. Even if upgrades are officially possible with (LH) miles&more, it is not easy to get them confirmed ever, and same goes for award seats in first.

My guess ist that in first class a maximum of 2 seats is given away on any longhaule SQ flight against awards (or upgrades) with miles of any non-SQ frequent-flier-program. SQ prefers to keep seats empty and maintain the higher degree of exclusivity and not to let people speculate (and that way not pay for it) to get those seats for 'free' (against cheaper miles or vouchers).

I personally understand that policy, but egoistically don't like it ...

globetrekker84

Until UA increases its standards of service, then I'd say no. I say this because I remember seeing something about why SQ and UA don't have any codeshares. IIRC, SQ said that they don't want to be associated with a poorly-run airline, where their premium passengers will be treated poorly by UA. Another reason why SQ doesn't like UA is that a good number of UA flyers (like myself) redeem their miles in SQ's premium classes, thus eating into SQ's profits overall since they can make more by selling it to passengers instead of the agreed-upon values with UA.

I do see a *A-wide upgrade feature between the two in the future, but it'll be quite expensive in miles and limited to the most expensive tickets.

kkjay77

I believe SQ joined *A as an intrim step before they form their own alliance, IIRC. Of course SQ alliance never materialized. I believe that they are not that satisfied with some of the star members (for example, UA and US would be the most obvious ones as globetrekker84 outlined while TG might be the other for being the major competitor).

I also see *A upgrade being offered in the future, but IMHO, they are not worth it as B class fare on SQ is quite expensive. OTOH, if my company pays for D and if I could use miles to upgrade to SQ F, then I would be all over.

sunilkumarkapoor

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Do you think I should switch to LH or stick with UA? I doubt I will fly enough to make LH Senator status, but will easily make Star Alliance Gold status on UA, anyone else have this problem?

globetrekker84

Really just depends if you travel in the front classes and where you're located. There's a lot of comparisons here that you can find useful. Hopefully someone else can tell you where they are, since I don't know.

cesco.g

In May of this year UA showed 1 seat in SQ F on the JFK-FRA available one week out. I booked it. On the day of the flight we were a total of 3 pax in the 744 F-cabin.

RichardMEL

ummm I believe SQ and UA are now part of the Star Upgrade project. Of course, you need a high Y (or C) fare to actually use this (I think Y/B fares on SQ only) but you can do it.... if there's availability, which is another issue, and I am not certain the cost in miles is worth it.

globetrekker84

UA and SQ are part of the upgrade scheme, but not with each other: http://www.staralliance.com/en/trave...de_awards.html

UAL747fan

why not join all three and after a years time see which one (or two)you like the most and drop teh other one (or two). or just join all three and stay on al three?

or is that not allowed?

globetrekker84

Sure it's allowed, but why would you? You'd be basically throwing miles away.

aerosmith

I thought UA once code-share with SQ on the A345 non-stop flights between SIN-EWR and SIN-LAX. Any reasons why that code-share agreement was lifted?

Kiwi Flyer

I dont recall there ever being a UA code on the ultralonghaul flights.

Buster CT1K

Never happened.