bishj5

I have a business trip coming up next month with this route:

SEA - SFO (Class S)
SFO - HNL (Class S)
HNL - GUM (Class S)
GUM - NRT (Class W)
HND - SFO (Class W)
SFO - PAE (Class W)

I've already booked through UA and all flights are on UA metal. The UA app is telling me that my accrual will be:

8,370 - miles
14,305 - PQM
6 - PQS
$1,674 - PQD

My question is this - I currently have 0 UA miles and I do not plan to fly with them in the near future. I'm based in the PNW so almost all business travel is on Alaska and most personal travel is on Delta or a partner. However, I do currently hold 13K miles with OZ from a trip to Vietnam that I took in 2017.

Considering I never fly UA and do not plan to start accruing with them, should I switch my credit for this upcoming trip to OZ so that I can continue to build with them? It is probably more likely that I will fly to Asia in the near future than it is that I will redeem 8k UA miles. Does anyone have an idea how I can find out how many miles I would accrue if I credit OZ instead of UA?

I would appreciate any insight into this and what the FT community thinks.

skylane

50% RDM for S and 75% RDM for W on OZ:

https://www.wheretocredit.com/united-airlines/s

SEA-SFO-HNL-GUM is 6878 -> 3439 OZ miles
GUM-NRT-SFO-PAE is 7392 -> 5544 OZ miles

So 8983 OZ miles versus 8370 UA miles.

Combing your new OZ miles 8983 + with existing 13000 gives 21983. You can use your OZ miles to book a domestic one way on UA.

WineCountryUA

OZ miles can expire after 36 months of inactivity -- sound you travel *A infrequently, so posting to OZ would have the added benefit of keeping the 2017 miles alive.

bishj5

Sounds like there are more reasons to switch my credit to OZ rather than UA. How would I go about doing this? Just call up UA and ask them to change award accounts?

VWang1111

dvs7310

Unless I'm reading something wrong, OZ miles are a 10 year expiration. Silver is the basic level of membership for adults
https://flyasiana.com/C/US/EN/conten...piration-dates



As for whether OZ miles are more valuable for the OP than UA miles depends on how you will use the miles. UA offers quite cheap intra-regional flights in economy (8000 miles for flights under 800 miles), however domestic USA awards are more expensive. OZ charges quite a bit more in miles for those short distance intra-regional flights. So there's really no right or wrong answer as to were to credit these flights, just depends on how you'll use them The OZ Star Alliance award chart is here: (prices quoted on a round trip basis)
https://flyasiana.com/C/US/EN/conten...ileage-tickets

WineCountryUA

I believe that is true for an active account but saw a reference OZ considers an account inactive if there is no activity in 36 month period. -- but can not find that reference at the moment, so may be in error.

bishj5

Would I be able to book an award flight with OZ miles from SFO to MEX? I know OZ probably doesn't fly that route but it appears as if I can't book that route on a partner airline like UA either? Unless I'm using OZ's website incorrectly.

WineCountryUA

Yes, OZ miles can be used to book any UA flight if their is award space (released to partners) available. Note UA releases more space to it Mileage Plus members than it releases to its partners (the same can be said of most *A partners also).

bishj5

Ahh ok. So if MEX isn't even an option to put in as a destination on OZ website then it's safe to assume that either there is no space available or they just haven't released space yet? I'm trying to search for Feb 2020.

WineCountryUA

Odd the website will not allow the use of MEX as a destination, then you will probably need to talk to an OZ agent.

bishj5

Yeah that's what confused me as well. I will call an agent to get some more info. Thank you for the replies! Just curious, why *A instead of UA?

WineCountryUA

Sorry, don't understand the question.

truncated

You can only book *A awards with OZ online via the Korean site: https://flyasiana.com/I/KR/EN/Redemp...egistTravel.do (see also this thread for more info: Star Alliance Bookings Online). The search tool is very clunky and sometimes you just have to call in to book, and most people use UA/Aeroplan/NH to find availability before trying to book with OZ

Also FWIW OZ is probably the easiest way to get *G — 40k miles in 24 months, so your trip basically takes you ~25% of the way there, if that counts for anything.

And OZ miles expire after 10 years, not 36 months

lhrsfo

The best use for OZ miles, and the tricks in finding availability, are explored in far greater depth in the Asiana forum

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/asiana-asiana-club-614/