bmw303

According to United.com, I am allowed to redeem miles on Jet Airways.

However, I have tried over the past couple weeks to get agents to look to see if a jet airways ticket is available in saver business and no agent I have spoken with even agrees that it is possible to book an award with Jet Airways. Agents have told me that "we have an baggage agreement with them but thats all". So no one is looking.

This is frustrating, considering the saver business class award I wanted to India was available before using a combination of Virgin and LH on multiple days but CO agents refused to book that award as well citing that the partnership had ended, when it had not.:/

Am I wrong here? Has United's partnership with Jet Airways ended and they simply failed to update the website?

Continental used to be amazing, the primary carrier I've flown for 17-18 years, and I've also held United Premier status in the past and knew United to be a good airline, but now I'm beginning to question all this. Customer service doesn't even respond and hold times for agents in recent weeks have been ridiculous.

Thanks.

unicon

I've been trying to find out the same thing for the past couple of days and have got pretty much the same answer from all agents except one. Of course that MP agent didn't check the availability or anything but just said you should be able to book it and then transferred me to the reservation line where I was again told that no you can't book Jet airways flights.

Just to confirm I called Jet airways to see if the reverse is true, i.e. can you redeem Jet Privilege miles for United flights and I was told yes you can and even gave me the miles required for DEL-EWR and EWR-SFO, which would indicate that it should be true the other way round too.

At least one of the United reservation agents was clear and told that pre-merger this was allowed but not any longer after the merger. To me this looks like the most probable scenario, and most likely the Jet airways agent was just not aware of it.

But would really like to hear from other folks here about their experience redeeming MP miles for Jet airways flights after the systems merged.

And I completely agree with you that it is very frustrating. They should be able to give a definitive answer one way or the other.

abcx

I think PMCO did not partner with 9W but PMUA did, albeit at special 9W only rates and you couldn't mix with *A carriers. 9W has terrible availability - never more than one seat in C per flight and that's when you can get it. Forget about F. And they'll never open up another award seat last minute even if the whole damn flight is empty.

In theory, you should be able to book 9W awards - the website is pretty clear. Maybe you are getting PMCO agents who don't know how to do it? Or is it ICC PMUA agents?

Regardless, official clarification from UA will be much appreciated.

exerda

Sounds similar to the issues others have reported trying to redeem awards on AerLingus (EI), which according to .bomb is permitted--and the .bomb award search engine even returns EI flights--they just never ticket and agents insist it can't be done.

chff

On which Jet Airways routes can I redeem miles? Does it have good availability?

jakeg104

I'm interested as well, thinking of flying my parents on Jet Airways GOI-BOM-SIN RT and hoping to use UA miles for Jet airways for domestic (internal India) flights as well as on the SQ route.

Thanks in advance!

ffI

From the mouth of babes....
http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/mark...spx?ItemId=437
I was going to log in and state that Jet is only with AA and DL and DL is stopping as of October, but then I decided to look before I leapt.
Thanks for this info - my United PP status just became more valuable.

I am shooting for 1k and forgetting about US (I do love their almost guaranteed upgrades so far) So it is domestic for US from DCA and intl for UA from IAD.

Anyway, coming back to the question, on most flights, but the problem is availability. You have to call the UA number in the link above and check a day at a time. You can not ask them to search a whole year- they will hang up on you, I think (or "get" disconnected).
My suggestion is to call and if you do not get Jet, ask for Qatar via FRA. LH always gets you to FRA and if need be to DOH, and then all the flights from DOH to India are almost always available in biz.

This is one of the FEW good things about the merger. UA lost Emirates, added Qatar (do not know if that is good or not) AND you CAN mix *A and non *A partners in 1 award, without paying extra.

My guestimate is that EY will go closer to OW, QR to *A and EK to Skyteam perhaps long term. AND SQ will start losing more money, without changes to their fortress policies for premium cabins.

aacharya

Umm, Qatar is a fantastic airline. I'm happy for that partnership - now my parents can fly to KTM without the god-awful overnight in DEL/BOM.

chinatraderjmr

EK has committed themselves not to join an alliance. They don't need it and due to some very bad experiences w UA and CO (as separate companies) both Clark and Flannagan have gone on record many times lately saying the Alliances the way they are today are not for them (but still open to individual tie ups (like they have with SA, AS, KE and MU)

Also as a side note - Skywards is one of the hardest programs to earn free travel with (it just cost me around 750,000 miles for 2 tkts USA - INDIA. They will never give there seats away for current ALLISNCE award levels

groobie

I am currently saving United miles to get my family to India in the next few years. I have about 108k, Mr. Groobie has about 25k, and Pre-Teen Groobie has about 35k. I want all 3 of us to get Business awards. I will have Mr. Groobie get some easy miles by signing up for the credit card and the family has some travel that should get me and the Mr. to 125k within our timeline. My question is about Pre-Teen Groobie. My current idea is to get him to 60k and redeem for a one-way award. I will increase my miles to pay r/t for me and the other one-way for him. However, before I get too far, I wondered, is it reasonable to expect that I might find 3 business class saver award tickets to India during typical school holiday breaks from LAX? Or is it more likely that I will only find 2, so I need to start saving money to pay for his ticket? Any advice or strategy ideas would be appreciated.

PVDtoDEL

You'll be lucky to find any award availability into India during peak school vacation breaks... December is the worst - summer is the best bet because dates get more spread out.

FWIW, it's probably less hassle and not much more expensive to just keep looking for Z tickets on sale - sometimes prices drop as low as $2,500 rt

groobie

I was thinking we'd probably go in the summer...when I travel that far, I like to stay several weeks and experience the culture. I will definitely be on the lookout for a good sale - thanks for that advice!

uwr

You can get the tickets if you book far in advance (about 330 days). Some cities are more difficult to get than others. If you are flexible, then try various airports such as DEL, BOM, MAA, BLR, and HYD.

Unfortunately, MP is severing the relationship with QR this month, but you should be able to find flights on Lufthansa, ANA, Thai, Asiana, and Air China, or a combination of those. If you are willing to take a long layover at NRT, BKK, or PEK, it might be easier to find a flight.

grahampros

India is well reported as very tough to use miles on with UA. So dont do a lot of planning on the ability to use miles. Save your money and buy the tickets is a better approach.

lax2010

A couple months or so ago, I was just playing around to see the possibility for around Christmas and actually saw some avail. The keys are planning in advance and be flexible.