Oct 14, 2013, 4:55 pm

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Update 08APR2014: Star Alliance Awards must have been booked by March 30, 2014. They are no longer available through US. This thread is mostly useful for historic purposes, and discussing issues such as schedule changes/route changes that affect FTers existing *A awards booked before 3/31/2014.

Discussion on using US miles to book oneworld awards is available here.

If you are looking for discussion on US's new partner awards that use various partners not in oneworld (many of whom are former *A partners), see the devoted thread on using US miles to book NON-oneworld partners here.

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Update 07JAN14: American Airlines award tickets bookable online on usairways.com or through reservation.

Award travel must be wholly on American Airlines or a combination of American Airlines and US Airways.
American Airlines awards cannot be combined with any of our current partner.
American Airlines award travel chart (PDF)

Please see the devoted thread on using US miles to book AA here.

Star Alliance Award Bookings Using US Airways Miles - FAQ and Help Thread [MERGED]

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Oct 3, 2013, 3:10 pm

#18166

eponymous_coward

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot

Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite

Posts: 20,392

Oh, you want 3 C BOI-BKK? That's a little bit different.

NRT-BKK in E+ (or on TG, maybe on the A380?) doesn't sound like the worst thing ever if the TPAC hop is in C.

And truth be told a long layover isn't quite so bad on those midafternoon departures from the USA, as far as I am concerned. I've never really been able to convince myself it's time to go to bed for 8 hours at 3 o'clock in the afternoon PST. A long enough layover en route gets you into a hotel bed...

Oct 3, 2013, 3:24 pm

#18167

pmat2009

Join Date: Apr 2010

Location: San Francisco

Programs: Hilton Gold; Marriott Silver

Posts: 118

New to US airways award travel. Have a simple award question.
I want to go SFO-PVR(destination)-SFO(stopover)-OGG (UA/US)

Is this a valid round trip?
Would it be priced at US to Mexico (35K) or Hawaii to Mexico (40K)?

Any other ideas to optimize it.

Oct 3, 2013, 4:18 pm

#18168

wheresmybagba

Join Date: Jan 2005

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!

Posts: 2,349

Quote:

Originally Posted by pmat2009

New to US airways award travel. Have a simple award question.
I want to go SFO-PVR(destination)-SFO(stopover)-OGG (UA/US)

Is this a valid round trip?

No.

This is not a valid open jaw because the distance SFO-OGG is > SFO-PVR.

Even if it was a valid open jaw, a stopover is not permitted on an open jaw itinerary.

Oct 3, 2013, 4:20 pm

#18169

eponymous_coward

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot

Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite

Posts: 20,392

Quote:

Originally Posted by pmat2009

Not remotely close to valid since:

- you're asking for a stopover at your origin (which makes this a round-trip with an extra segment). This isn't AA where you get to tag on extra segments at the international gateway.
- stopover and open-jaw cannot be in the same award. Read the first post of the thread.
- the unflown segment on your open jaw (OGG-SFO) is the longest segment of the award, making it an invalid open-jaw anyways.

Oct 3, 2013, 4:30 pm

#18170

pmat2009

Join Date: Apr 2010

Location: San Francisco

Programs: Hilton Gold; Marriott Silver

Posts: 118

Thanks guys. Spent last 2 years learning AA award rules. Just trying to get a hang of this.
All the new bonuses are so tempting...

Oct 3, 2013, 8:24 pm

#18171

grlmopz

Join Date: Apr 2010

Posts: 437

FRA-PHL on January 12th: available but unbookable?

Hi all,

A follow-up on a post from a few days ago:

I have the following itinerary on hold, and ready to ticket:

PHL-FCO-IST-OUA // ACC-FRA-YOW-PHL

I would really prefer to fly FRA-PHL non-stop and the AC, NH and UA search engines all show that there is a Business Class ticket available on LH426 on January 12th. However, US Airways cannot seem to access this inventory.

I know this used to happen in the past, but I thought the days of Starnet blocking were behind us. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

Oct 3, 2013, 8:56 pm

#18172

wheresmybagba

Join Date: Jan 2005

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Programs: Flying: VA; Buying: AA, AS, AV, BA, UA!

Posts: 2,349

Quote:

Originally Posted by grlmopz

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21492249-post18031.html

Oct 4, 2013, 6:19 am

#18173

drzoidberg

Join Date: May 2008

Posts: 4,396

Quote:

Originally Posted by drzoidberg

So I planned the following itinerary; IAD-IST (stopover) - ICN (Seoul) - ORD - IAD

I was expecting an expenditure of at most 90K miles since Seoul is the destination, but the agent said that the stopover in Europe necessitated 100K points.

HUACA?

Thanks guys! Only had to HUACA twice to get them to correctly price it at 90K. woohoo, my first RTW!

Oct 4, 2013, 7:39 am

#18174

PHLisa

Join Date: Dec 2012

Location: Philadelphia

Programs: HH Diamond, IHG Plat, SPG & Marriott Gold, CC Silver

Posts: 541

Quote:

Originally Posted by Air Rarotonga

Since when can USDM members decide how much miles an award ticket should cost?

Since reading the award chart? I was flying to North Asia, and I got a rate of 90k miles including the European stop on the return. I actually never had an agent try to tell me it would be 100k miles, unlike what others often mention, but obviously that wouldn't be a rate I would want.

Oct 4, 2013, 9:33 am

#18175

drzoidberg

Join Date: May 2008

Posts: 4,396

Does United ever open up business class awards availability on their PEK-EWR or ORD flight?

Looking for travel next July, as an alternative to the Air China PEK-IAH routing, but not seeing anything yet.

Oct 4, 2013, 10:21 am

#18176

PVDtoDEL

Join Date: Oct 2010

Location: SEA/ORD/ADB

Programs: TK ELPL (*G), AS 100K (OWE), BA Gold (OWE), Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Plat, IHG Plat

Posts: 7,763

Can anybody tell me what 25MPM is for BOS-VIE? I'm out of town and don't have access to my GDS. Thanks in advance.

Oct 4, 2013, 10:31 am

#18177

KVS

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Worldwide

Posts: 12,949

Quote:

Originally Posted by PVDtoDEL

Can anybody tell me what 25MPM is for BOS-VIE? I'm out of town and don't have access to my GDS. Thanks in advance.

There you go:

[KVS Availability Tool 7.3.0 - Reference: Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]: BOS-VIE]

Code:

                                                                
         GI       M      5M     10M     15M     20M     25M     
MPM      AT    4850    5092    5335    5577    5820    6062     
MPM      PA   12625   13256   13887   14518   15150   15781     
MPM      PA   12625   13256   13887   14518   15150   15781

Oct 4, 2013, 10:38 am

#18178

HMPS

Join Date: Feb 2010

Location: ORD

Programs: US Air, UA BA LH AI DELTA MARRIOTT CHOICE SGP

Posts: 9,883

Pvg sin ygn bom pvg

Hello

Cannot put together PVG SIN YGN BOM PVG in J award

Have ORD PVG as paid ticket. Trying to attend the Jan 16 20 SIN DO also.

Thanks

Oct 4, 2013, 10:46 am

#18179

Air Rarotonga

Join Date: Mar 2009

Location: ZRH/SFO

Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA

Posts: 3,666

Quote:

Originally Posted by HMPS

Cannot put together PVG SIN YGN BOM PVG in J award

That's correct. *A does not fly to Greenway Sound, British Columbia, Canada (YGN)... And if, it would exceed the MPM for sure

Oct 4, 2013, 2:28 pm

#18180

UA Fan

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 2006

Location: DFW

Programs: AA 1M

Posts: 31,475

I have an award going ORD-ARN-CPH. If I ask the agents at ORD to put me on the direct ORD-CPH flight, would there be any chance of it messing up my entire reservation (the rest goes to India).?