New US Star Alliance/Partner Award Charts Released - Effective 1/6/10
 

/from the mods:
With sincere thanks to HedgeFundie for pointing out the newly released chart, we're going to include a few items in this first post that will likely be of interest to those with US miles. HedgeFundie's original post is immediately below the "/not from the mods:" text and is otherwise unchanged.

The new chart (PDF) can be directly accessed here (quoted amounts are for round trip travel): http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cach...wardtravel.pdf

The old/current chart (PDF) useful for reference can be directly accessed here:
http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cach...wardtravel.pdf

Major highlights of the new chart:

• Rates effective from 6 January, 2010.
• The average increase across all changed rates was 21%.
• Increases to/from Hawaii for many regions (averaging 19% across all award changes).
• Increases from North America/Hawaii/Caribbean to Europe/South America.
• Increases in intra-region transport for Middle East, Caribbean/Latin America, South Pacific (coach only) and Europe.
• F intra-Europe is still not available (despite UA and TK operating F cabins intra-Europe).
• C/F intra-Caribbean/Latin America is now available.
• Russia still assigned to North Asia region.
• No increases from North America to South Pacific, Asia (North, South, or Central), Africa, or the Middle East.

/not from the mods:

Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for:

http://www.usairways.com/goawards
Click on: "View GoAwards partner award travel chart (pdf)"

I see changes. Specifically US - Europe business is now 100K, but was 80k.

I guess the old chart is still here:

http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cach...wardtravel.pdf

while the new one is here:

http://www.usairways.com/pv_obj_cach...wardtravel.pdf

I was looking at US to Europe

Old new
coach 50K 60K
bus 80K 100K
First 125K 125K

so coach and business are higher, but still 5K less than UA and CO.

Well that's too bad. I mainly travel North America - North Asia and those rates haven't changed. I guess I just got too excited at the prospect of still being able to book SQ C at highway robbery rates.

Could a moderator edit the title of this thread please?

Hawaii-South Pacific costs more now too which I find amusing since HNL-AKL is shorter and in a lower qualify C product than LAX-AKL or LAX-SYD.

Good to know that Asia and South Pacific, at least from North America, aren't changing. In fact it looks like they primarily changed the requirements for regions that US also serves.

And now far less reason to not book Europe in F. I'm always booking for 2, so a pair of C for 160 was better than 250. Now the gap is closer, it'll be LH, LX and TK F whenever possible. And Off topic, but I wish US allowed C redemptions on VS. CO does and can be booked online too in addition to *A routes.

Too tired to do a full comparison tonight but there are a number of notable devaluations - over 25% in several cases. Hawaii is particularly hard hit.

Are these round trip or one way awards? The charts do not specify.

They are roundtrip awards.

Roundtrip.

It 's lots better than expected, only very few market increased.

^^^^

It could have been much worse. In several star alliance awards, it is still better than UA/CO.

Just the changes for travel originating/ending in the western hemisphere and forgive any mistakes. Old requirement first, new second.

N. Am-HI
Y 35K 40K

N. Am-Carib/L. Am
Y 30K 35K

N. Am-S. Am
Y 50K 60K
J 80K 100K

N. Am-Eur
Y 50K 60K
J 80K 100K

HI-Carib/L. Am
Y 35K 40K

HI-S. Am
Y 50K 60K
J 50K 100K

HI-Eur
Y 50K 80K
J 60K 100K

HI-S. Pac
Y 75K 80K
J 95K 120K
F 120K 160K

HI-MidEast
Y 75K 80K
J 115K 120K
F 140K 180K

Within Carib
Y 15K 20K
J N/A 40K
F N/A 80K

Carib-S. Am
Y 50K 60K
J 80k 100k
F 100K 125K

Carib-Eur
Y 50K 60K
J 80K 100K

Carib-MidEast
Y 75K 80K
J 115K 120K
F 140K 180K

Jim

That's an excellent observation.

There are a couple others, however minor. South Pacific regional award goes up 5K to 25K in Y, but C and F remain the same. 30K for PER-AKL-PPT on NZ in C is still a sweet deal.

I've tried to compare all of the regions from old to new chart, here's what I've come up with (sorted by % increase in descending order - highest increases first):

http://www.biatphotography.com/ft/mi...-increases.jpg