It really depends on how far out you are trying to book. For example, a couple of months back, I was easily able to book Jan 09 OZ flights (F & C). However, Dec 08 flights were blocked (despite being available via the ANA tool). Luckily, we wanted to fly out after New Years vs before, so it wasn't an issue.

I checked LH flights last week, and it seems that all 08 flights are still being blocked (and probably will remain blocked), but 09 flights were okay.

This basically means that despite the no change fee (for 1Ks), your award tickets are basically inflexible, since UA will likely refuse to switch once you're within the 2-3 month time period. Yeah, you could use only UA and have more flexibility, but that severely limits the destinations you can go to.

Oh, I would've thought their SFO/LAX-AKL would be more difficult to get. Ah well, thank goodness I was look for the latter.

Its not a matter of "more difficult" UA completely blocks the LAX-LHR NZ flight for awards.

as UA flies the same route.

Quite a bit of exaggeration, eh? If * is letting AI and MS into * they won't be kicking UA out any time soon. Not to mention UA is still a founding member and boasts the highest RASM in the US.

That has no relation to them completely blocking the route.. There are numerous routes with *A partners that you can redeem miles on where UA flies the exact same route.

Just ran into PEK-CGO on CA being filtered, of all routes. I booked a couple of tickets using US miles and watched the X bucket decrease from 4 to 2 on ExpertFlyer. Then I called UA and they can't see the flight. A 400-mile flight to a provincial Chinese city! This is ridiculous.

I admit, *A doesn't have very high standards for their member airlines now, it seems. So, perhaps you are right.

But, this isn't about quality of service etc. This is about redemption of miles. That is the primary objective of an airline alliance, no ?

It appears that in this instance UA wants to push folks onto their own planes, on one of the many routes it flies into LHR,. Not on others such as FRA, NRT routes, which I am grateful for.

Another case where domestic routes with no alternate Star access have been filtered, vs. ANA tool availability: All NZ domestic during certain holiday dates (e.g. 12/30 and 12/31, although 1/1 is OK)

During christmas time, there were 4 seats on FRA-BLR by LH on US but not one on UA.

This puzzles me as others have mentioned similar stories as well. If US arguably a much worse airline than UA, and UA was a founding member of the *A, why does US get better aviailability for Star awards? :confused:

UA chooses to filter *A availability while US chooses not to (or hasn't gotten around to it).

For booking *A awards US miles are definitely more valuable than UA miles (although the fees for booking with US are higher). Because of this I've moved most of my credit card spend from my MP Visa to my SPG AMEX, which can convert 1:1 into US miles. And if US starts filtering there are several other *A airlines that have 1:1 conversions with SPG as well.

If it weren't for the elite benefits I'd also start crediting my flights to another *A program. But based on where I live and my travel patterns UA has me for now.

Thanks. Why are US's miles seen as more valuable than UA's? I know why foreign carriers' are worth more. :D

Called in the early evening.

7 consecutive calls to DTW :rolleyes: I attempted to book with one agent. He told me nothing was available for the flights I wanted. :rolleyes: tried again

Got another faux 1K desk agent out of DTW. She sounded friendly enough, booked most of the flights i wanted, but it took her FOREVER AND A DAY. She told me she wasn't able to find anything in F on OZ nor was she able to put me on NRT-ORD-LAX because it's backtracking. Fine, whatever, got a temp. reservation set up.

Called again later in the night. Got an 1K agent from HNL, the real deal. Asked her if I had any other options on OZ. She replied "Why yes, in fact, I found you a first class seat on the flight leaving later in the day"

:rolleyes: to the max

OMFG. Why weren't any of the faux 1K agents able to find what the REAL 1K agent found me? And, the 1K agent happily offered to rebook me on NRT-ORD-LAX.

In the end, here's my result:

ANA showed LAX-NRT, SQ C available, UA BLOCKED.

However, I was able to book:

1. OZ TPAC F
2. Intra Asia F and C on SQ

and....

3. NH TPAC F!!!!!!

woooohoooo!