Sep 21, 16, 8:13 pm
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
How to upgrade a partner flight using UA MileagePlus miles:
See UA's Star Alliance Upgrade Awards Page
Key points:
See this thread for the no-longer-available award chart (disappeared from united.com as of October 2018): https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...d-website.html
Error codes
For UA operated flights see Using Miles to Upgrade on United
See UA's Star Alliance Upgrade Awards Page
Key points:
- Only a few fare classes (and expensive) are eligible -- depends on the carrier (see the UA page)
- Needs to be native flight numbers, codeshares are not eligible
- Generally no waitlisting but ANA allows waitlisting
- Most can be requested after ticketing (NH/ANA & ET cannot be requested earlier than 8 weeks to departure -- still true??) and must be done at least 24 hours prior to departure
- Max of 4 passengers can be upgraded
- Generally the available of award space is a good indicator of upgrade space (but not guaranteed) - typically requires (I) inventory
- Upgrade request can only be made electronically
- Upgrade requests are per segment
- It may increase your chance of success to request only one segment at a time on the upgrade page, even though it allows you to enter two (YMMV).
- For mileage requirements, see Interactive travel destinations awards chart
See this thread for the no-longer-available award chart (disappeared from united.com as of October 2018): https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...d-website.html
Error codes
- "We were unable to complete your request due to a technical problem. In the U.S. and Canada call 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331) within the U.S. or Canada, elsewhere use the local phone number. (Error code: 110).
- "We were unable to complete your request due to a technical problem. In the U.S. and Canada call 1-800-UNITED-1 (1-800-864-8331) within the U.S. or Canada, elsewhere use the local phone number. (Error code: 118)"
- "The traveler has the same name as an existing traveler on this flight. Please contact the operating airline for the required information and try again. (Error code: 384)"
- "Upgrade not available (Error code: 511)."
- "The number of travelers indicated does not match the number of passengers in the reservation. Please correct your information and try again. (Error code: 528)"
- "insufficient MileagePlus Balance (Error code: 2001)"
For UA operated flights see Using Miles to Upgrade on United
How to upgrade with UA miles on Star Alliance carriers
May 12, 12, 10:31 am
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 4,645
Star Alliance Upgrades
So, I think I finally got the ANA site working through a convoluted process that I can probably never repeat again.
When I search for availability of business class seats using award miles on the ANA site as a surrogate for star alliance upgrade availability from economy to business using miles with B fare, I'm finding that there is virtually no availability for any flights that I'm checking. Just for fun, I'm checking Asian carriers from SFO to NRT and SA from IAD to JNB. Availability in business is showing up as "x" for everything I check.
Is the ANA tool really any different from using the UA search? On the UA site, you can search for award travel and it will show all possible flights from origin to destination on UA and also on partners and it'll show if there are award seats in business both at standard and saver fares.
So, in conclusion, I can go to a foreign carrier, and I can purchase a ticket in B fare, and then I can go to UA, and I can request an upgrade using miles through the star alliance upgrade program. But, before shelling out the money for the B fare on the foreign carrier, I need to know if there is inventory available to accommodate the upgrade request. It only seems possible to use the ANA or UA site to look for award travel seats under the assumption this represents the same fare bucket as that used to approve or deny upgrade requests, but when I do that, I find that availability for all flights on all carriers on all routes I've been checking, on all dates I check, is always "x" on both UA and ANA sites. ExpertFlyer doesn't show these buckets for many of the star alliance carriers that I'm interested in.
Am I missing something here? Is the star alliance upgrade program actually for real?
When I search for availability of business class seats using award miles on the ANA site as a surrogate for star alliance upgrade availability from economy to business using miles with B fare, I'm finding that there is virtually no availability for any flights that I'm checking. Just for fun, I'm checking Asian carriers from SFO to NRT and SA from IAD to JNB. Availability in business is showing up as "x" for everything I check.
Is the ANA tool really any different from using the UA search? On the UA site, you can search for award travel and it will show all possible flights from origin to destination on UA and also on partners and it'll show if there are award seats in business both at standard and saver fares.
So, in conclusion, I can go to a foreign carrier, and I can purchase a ticket in B fare, and then I can go to UA, and I can request an upgrade using miles through the star alliance upgrade program. But, before shelling out the money for the B fare on the foreign carrier, I need to know if there is inventory available to accommodate the upgrade request. It only seems possible to use the ANA or UA site to look for award travel seats under the assumption this represents the same fare bucket as that used to approve or deny upgrade requests, but when I do that, I find that availability for all flights on all carriers on all routes I've been checking, on all dates I check, is always "x" on both UA and ANA sites. ExpertFlyer doesn't show these buckets for many of the star alliance carriers that I'm interested in.
Am I missing something here? Is the star alliance upgrade program actually for real?
May 12, 12, 10:55 am
#17
Join Date: Jun 2007
Programs: UA, AA, LH, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Hertz
Posts: 1,759
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry 9000 (Bold): Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9900; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0.0.576 Mobile Safari/534.11+)
The program is for real and you are stressing this way too much. Most (if not all) B fares are refundable so double check the one you are looking to book and if it is just go ahead and book. As already mentioned, award/ug availability is capacity controlled and may open up closer to the flight. You can also wait to book until you are sure there is availability since the B fares are pretty stable and shouldn't change between now and time you book your ticket.
As far as the ANA tool, I find that lately it shows the same availability as the UA award search. The only difference is that ANA will display all options regardless of availability while UA will show partner flights only if the availability exists. That's probably the reason why you keep mentioning that you only sometime manage to "force" UA to show you the partner flights. I would also suggest that you spend some time reading through the above referenced thread as it gives detailed instructions how to get ANA's award search tool to let you search for *A flights. The straightforward way is to have a few miles in your ANA account (I keep 100 miles just for this). For other ways reference the thread.
The program is for real and you are stressing this way too much. Most (if not all) B fares are refundable so double check the one you are looking to book and if it is just go ahead and book. As already mentioned, award/ug availability is capacity controlled and may open up closer to the flight. You can also wait to book until you are sure there is availability since the B fares are pretty stable and shouldn't change between now and time you book your ticket.
As far as the ANA tool, I find that lately it shows the same availability as the UA award search. The only difference is that ANA will display all options regardless of availability while UA will show partner flights only if the availability exists. That's probably the reason why you keep mentioning that you only sometime manage to "force" UA to show you the partner flights. I would also suggest that you spend some time reading through the above referenced thread as it gives detailed instructions how to get ANA's award search tool to let you search for *A flights. The straightforward way is to have a few miles in your ANA account (I keep 100 miles just for this). For other ways reference the thread.
May 12, 12, 3:41 pm
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 20,272
Is the ANA tool really any different from using the UA search? On the UA site, you can search for award travel and it will show all possible flights from origin to destination on UA and also on partners and it'll show if there are award seats in business both at standard and saver fares.
To sum it up in a couple of sentences:
1 - There is no "Saver" vs. "Standard" for *A flights. There is one single bucket from which all *A awards are drawn.
2 - On most, but not all, carriers, that bucket is the same as the upgrade bucket, so you can get a pretty good idea of what's available by searching using UA, NH, or AC's tools for award inventory.
3 - Once you have a candidate flight, if you would like to check for the upgrade availability before purchase, you can call United and ask.
4 - Since most B fares are fully refundable, you also have the option of purchasing the fare first and trying for the upgrade afterwards.
Good luck!
May 12, 12, 4:20 pm
#19
Join Date: May 2011
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 41
To sum it up in a couple of sentences:
1 - There is no "Saver" vs. "Standard" for *A flights. There is one single bucket from which all *A awards are drawn.
2 - On most, but not all, carriers, that bucket is the same as the upgrade bucket, so you can get a pretty good idea of what's available by searching using UA, NH, or AC's tools for award inventory.
3 - Once you have a candidate flight, if you would like to check for the upgrade availability before purchase, you can call United and ask.
4 - Since most B fares are fully refundable, you also have the option of purchasing the fare first and trying for the upgrade afterwards.
1 - There is no "Saver" vs. "Standard" for *A flights. There is one single bucket from which all *A awards are drawn.
2 - On most, but not all, carriers, that bucket is the same as the upgrade bucket, so you can get a pretty good idea of what's available by searching using UA, NH, or AC's tools for award inventory.
3 - Once you have a candidate flight, if you would like to check for the upgrade availability before purchase, you can call United and ask.
4 - Since most B fares are fully refundable, you also have the option of purchasing the fare first and trying for the upgrade afterwards.
Also, the upgrades made the ticket practically unchangeable. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details since I ultimately didn't make a change, but as far as I remember, when I tried to make a change to the return after flying the outbound, LH wanted to reprice the upgraded outbound as a business fare and there was apparently no way around that. Or they couldn't give me a quote for the changed price without me having United remove the upgrade on the return, which I obviously didn't want to do without being certain that I wanted to make the change, which was a bit of a catch-22...
I like the concept of these upgrades, even with requiring B-fares, but the implementation isn't quite there yet...
christian
May 13, 12, 8:23 am
#20
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: coastal Croatia
Programs: BAEC Gold, M&M Senator
Posts: 2,164
The main thing I haven't seen mentioned so far is that the Star Alliance upgrade is for A SINGLE SEGMENT. If you click on the "Star Alliance Upgrade Award rules and Terms and Conditions" at the bottom of the UA page, you will find more details including this important note. That gives a pretty good overview of the process and the steps needed.
But bottom line is to first buy the ticket in an eligible class (no codeshares) and then request the upgrade via the website or by calling (at least 24 hours in advance).
It would seem that if there is award space, then the upgrade should clear immediately. But it also says "An upgrade may be confirmed as early as time of ticketing, if a seat is available." So if a seat isn't available, you would have to be wait-listed. Maybe someone who has done this can confirm--although my guess is that most people on this board would want to know for sure that they will get the upgrade if they're paying for Y or B, rather than just hoping for the upgrade to clear later on the partner airline.
But bottom line is to first buy the ticket in an eligible class (no codeshares) and then request the upgrade via the website or by calling (at least 24 hours in advance).
It would seem that if there is award space, then the upgrade should clear immediately. But it also says "An upgrade may be confirmed as early as time of ticketing, if a seat is available." So if a seat isn't available, you would have to be wait-listed. Maybe someone who has done this can confirm--although my guess is that most people on this board would want to know for sure that they will get the upgrade if they're paying for Y or B, rather than just hoping for the upgrade to clear later on the partner airline.
May 18, 12, 11:11 am
#21
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Joliet, IL
Programs: HHonors Diamond, UA Plat.
Posts: 147
It would seem that if there is award space, then the upgrade should clear immediately. But it also says "An upgrade may be confirmed as early as time of ticketing, if a seat is available." So if a seat isn't available, you would have to be wait-listed. Maybe someone who has done this can confirm--although my guess is that most people on this board would want to know for sure that they will get the upgrade if they're paying for Y or B, rather than just hoping for the upgrade to clear later on the partner airline.
May 18, 12, 9:27 pm
#23
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 26,871
Since these book in D, it should be okay in theory as long as you're not booked on a codeshare. The rules don't require a particular ticket stock. But in practice, I'm not sure.
Jun 2, 12, 1:21 pm
#24
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: CO one pass gold
Posts: 100
Upgrading on a Star Alliance flight
The UA web site says to get an upgrade with miles on another airline, I have to buy the tickets, then apply for an upgrade.
We want to fly from Cleveland to Munich, and return from Vienna to Cleveland. I would like to try Swiss International, but when I go to their site to buy they insist they cannot find the flights. My guess is that while their site allows me to input CLE as a departure and final destination, their programming covers only Swiss International flights and since they don't fly directly to CLE, they punt, rather than looking for Star Alliance airlines that do service CLE. A few other Star Alliance airlines I have looked at seem to have similar problems. I tried the booking function on the Star Alliance site, but they appear to only handle esoteric trips, such as circle pacific and around the world.
Any suggestions on how to make this work will be appreciated.
We want to fly from Cleveland to Munich, and return from Vienna to Cleveland. I would like to try Swiss International, but when I go to their site to buy they insist they cannot find the flights. My guess is that while their site allows me to input CLE as a departure and final destination, their programming covers only Swiss International flights and since they don't fly directly to CLE, they punt, rather than looking for Star Alliance airlines that do service CLE. A few other Star Alliance airlines I have looked at seem to have similar problems. I tried the booking function on the Star Alliance site, but they appear to only handle esoteric trips, such as circle pacific and around the world.
Any suggestions on how to make this work will be appreciated.
Jun 2, 12, 2:17 pm
#25
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
The UA web site says to get an upgrade with miles on another airline, I have to buy the tickets, then apply for an upgrade.
We want to fly from Cleveland to Munich, and return from Vienna to Cleveland. I would like to try Swiss International, but when I go to their site to buy they insist they cannot find the flights. My guess is that while their site allows me to input CLE as a departure and final destination, their programming covers only Swiss International flights and since they don't fly directly to CLE, they punt, rather than looking for Star Alliance airlines that do service CLE. A few other Star Alliance airlines I have looked at seem to have similar problems. I tried the booking function on the Star Alliance site, but they appear to only handle esoteric trips, such as circle pacific and around the world.
Any suggestions on how to make this work will be appreciated.
We want to fly from Cleveland to Munich, and return from Vienna to Cleveland. I would like to try Swiss International, but when I go to their site to buy they insist they cannot find the flights. My guess is that while their site allows me to input CLE as a departure and final destination, their programming covers only Swiss International flights and since they don't fly directly to CLE, they punt, rather than looking for Star Alliance airlines that do service CLE. A few other Star Alliance airlines I have looked at seem to have similar problems. I tried the booking function on the Star Alliance site, but they appear to only handle esoteric trips, such as circle pacific and around the world.
Any suggestions on how to make this work will be appreciated.
In order to use the *A upgrade program you have to be in the Y or B fare class and pay points per segment rather than per direction. It is quite a pricey option. Oh, and you need the regular award inventory ("I") to be available and that is quite rare on LX metal, particularly in advance. So there's a good chance you'll pay extra for a B fare and still be sitting in coach.
Jun 2, 12, 4:12 pm
#26
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Plat 1.96MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott Plat/LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 65,117
Jun 2, 12, 4:15 pm
#27
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
Jun 3, 12, 7:49 pm
#28
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: CO one pass gold
Posts: 100
Thanks
Thanks for the advice.
We don't fly that much, and it is a struggle to get our 50K EQM miles each year, so its not practical to use the miles we have amassed for an award flight that doesn't earn miles. So there isn't much we can do with our miles, although we did buy a nice camera.
I did read about a KVS availability tool that may be useful for finding inventory, but I haven't yet tried it; perhaps it will make this easier.
We don't fly that much, and it is a struggle to get our 50K EQM miles each year, so its not practical to use the miles we have amassed for an award flight that doesn't earn miles. So there isn't much we can do with our miles, although we did buy a nice camera.
I did read about a KVS availability tool that may be useful for finding inventory, but I haven't yet tried it; perhaps it will make this easier.
Jun 30, 12, 12:33 am
#29
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: DEN
Programs: UA 1K (MM), DL, AA, AS, HHonors, SPG, Kimpton, Hyatt, IC PC, Marriott Titanium (LT PLT), Hertz PC
Posts: 7,213
Jun 30, 12, 7:26 am
#30
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: DCA/IAD
Programs: United Premier Gold, AirBerlin Gold, Starwood Gold, Avis Preferred, CBP Global Entry
Posts: 497
How to upgrade on Star Alliance carriers
Just to correct something I keep reading here, you DO NOT need to call every day. I was doing this for an upcoming flight until a CSA suggested I try the website. She pointed me to:
MileagePlus - Use Miles - Star Alliance Upgrade Award - Request Star Alliance Upgrade
When you get to this page, enter the minimum amount of information required and it will check availability.
MileagePlus - Use Miles - Star Alliance Upgrade Award - Request Star Alliance Upgrade
When you get to this page, enter the minimum amount of information required and it will check availability.
