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

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Old Oct 14, 2013, 4:55 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: NewbieRunner
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.

------------------------

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

 
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Old Sep 5, 2013, 8:13 am
  #17881  
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,559
Originally Posted by michaelpowell44
Is this real? Why won't US Air let me have this? In business that is.

SQ 777-300ER is not bookable on US miles in biz or first. Says it right on the partner award chart. It appears that UA has no such restriction though!
FLLDL is offline  
Old Sep 5, 2013, 5:28 pm
  #17882  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: HKG
Programs: DL, CX
Posts: 223
It is a restriction that USDM made itself, because it does not want to pay for the SQ Biz and First. US also does not issue RD, either. Although the chart says is is "temporarily unavailable", it was never possible to redeem on RD using miles.
USDM has a contractual issue (pricing) with RD. Qatar is another example of such case.


Originally Posted by FLLDL
SQ 777-300ER is not bookable on US miles in biz or first. Says it right on the partner award chart. It appears that UA has no such restriction though!
deltaflyinglawyer is offline  
Old Sep 5, 2013, 6:35 pm
  #17883  
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: PDX
Programs: AA Plat + SPG Plat
Posts: 235
Originally Posted by FLLDL
Varies wildly depending on your dates and origin, but I still see plenty of availability across the whole range of different carriers in the spring.
Do tell...(via PM if you prefer) Are you using ExpertFlyer, ANA, or UA.com? I thinking of modifying my existing award but having trouble seeing much.
coastalguy is offline  
Old Sep 5, 2013, 7:10 pm
  #17884  
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: SYD
Posts: 2,903
Originally Posted by deltaflyinglawyer
It is a restriction that USDM made itself, because it does not want to pay for the SQ Biz and First. US also does not issue RD, either. Although the chart says is is "temporarily unavailable", it was never possible to redeem on RD using miles.
USDM has a contractual issue (pricing) with RD. Qatar is another example of such case.
Thats interesting as I thought SQ themselves blocked partner awards in C & F on their long haul aircraft?! If US made the restriction themselves, how would they differentiate flights on routes where both long haul and mid haul aircraft operate the same route? I've used DM miles multiple times to fly in Biz on routes where I couldn't get a seat on the -ER flight, but could on another aircraft. Were these any cheaper than the ER and A380 flights?

goodo
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Old Sep 5, 2013, 8:17 pm
  #17885  
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,559
Originally Posted by coastalguy
Do tell...(via PM if you prefer) Are you using ExpertFlyer, ANA, or UA.com? I thinking of modifying my existing award but having trouble seeing much.
Mix of UA and awardnexus.

United has gotten much better for partner searches but award nexus is the best for quickly searching a range of dates and different origins. Much more efficient than piecemeal searches over ua and ana so you can run down all kinds of options very quickly.

Paid service but I think they have a free trial of sorts of FTers.
FLLDL is offline  
Old Sep 5, 2013, 10:53 pm
  #17886  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: OKC (Oklahoma City), Oklahoma
Programs: Marriott Gold; IHG Platinum; Insomnia Cookies
Posts: 514
Has anyone recently tried to book Air China from PEK to the US? I'm trying to find a ticket involving PEK-ORD around January 23, 2014. United and Air Canada and ANA show business availability on CA 985 PEK-SFO and CA 995 PEK-IAH, but US Airways can't see either.
ramolnar is offline  
Old Sep 6, 2013, 9:58 am
  #17887  
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Thousand Oaks, Ca., USA
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat; Bonvoy Titanium Lifetime Elite;Hyatt Globalist; HHonors Diamond; United Silver
Posts: 8,302
Originally Posted by beachfan
SQ wouldn't budge. I spoke to them myself, and got a helpful USAIR rep who called SQ three separate times and spoke to three separate people (one of them a supervisor), all of whom said there was nothing they could do.

So I guess I lose a night in the Maldives. If this was within 90 days, I'd be screwed because of the cancellation penalites. As it is, it's a bummer - I can get there if I'm will to take an extra stop in CMB, but LAX-HKG-SIN-CMB-MLE-transfer to island seems too much.
Tried one more time to get SQ to move my dates (via USAir). Had to call USAir twice to get someone who would be willing to call SQ, but Voila! it worked.

So if it doesn't work the first time (with SQ on USAir award), wait a couple of weeks and try again.
beachfan is offline  
Old Sep 6, 2013, 11:00 am
  #17888  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,401
Originally Posted by beachfan
Tried one more time to get SQ to move my dates (via USAir). Had to call USAir twice to get someone who would be willing to call SQ, but Voila! it worked.

So if it doesn't work the first time (with SQ on USAir award), wait a couple of weeks and try again.
glad it worked out! unfortunately it's not uncommon for SQ to have some inflexible ideas. but it usually comes good in the end!
LHR/MEL/Europe FF is offline  
Old Sep 6, 2013, 12:38 pm
  #17889  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: HEL
Programs: *G, used to be with TK but left due to their corruption and political ties
Posts: 4,404
Question How to marry my segments?

I found availability CPH-FRA-JNB on LH in March. ANA shows availability when searching CPH-JNB but not FRA-JNB, so it is a question of married segments.

However, I talked to two US-agents now and neither could find the award seats even though they searched CPH-JNB.

Any advice on how to make them see it?
Gnopps is offline  
Old Sep 6, 2013, 4:45 pm
  #17890  
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 352
One of my flights on a complicated award itinerary moved by 30 minutes... makes the connection 30 minutes longer.

Any chance this change allows me to change things around a bit?
cactus47 is offline  
Old Sep 6, 2013, 4:51 pm
  #17891  
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Anywhere I need to be.
Programs: OW Emerald, *A Gold, NEXUS, GE, ABTC/APEC, South Korea SES, eIACS, PP, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 16,046
Originally Posted by FLLDL
SQ 777-300ER is not bookable on US miles in biz or first. Says it right on the partner award chart. It appears that UA has no such restriction though!
Good luck finding I space...
AA_EXP09 is offline  
Old Sep 6, 2013, 5:55 pm
  #17892  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: AU
Programs: former Olympic Airways Gold (yeah - still proud of that!)
Posts: 14,401
Originally Posted by cactus47
One of my flights on a complicated award itinerary moved by 30 minutes... makes the connection 30 minutes longer.

Any chance this change allows me to change things around a bit?
for free? probably not.

of course worth a try... but generally if it's a simple case of 'accepting changes' then it doesn't open the way for anything free of charge.
LHR/MEL/Europe FF is offline  
Old Sep 7, 2013, 1:34 am
  #17893  
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: SEA
Programs: Alaska MVPG 100K, IHG Ambassador, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 1,704
Originally Posted by cactus47
One of my flights on a complicated award itinerary moved by 30 minutes... makes the connection 30 minutes longer.

Any chance this change allows me to change things around a bit?
You may try. Several times when my itinerary was moved by 15 minutes, they let me change things around or cancel the award without paying the change fee or redeposit fee.
buschoi is offline  
Old Sep 8, 2013, 11:24 am
  #17894  
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: SEA
Programs: Alaska MVPG 100K, IHG Ambassador, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 1,704
Add me to the list that US can't see the LH availability ANA can see. Trying for a few days to book a C seat on MUC-HKG on Nov 14. ANA shows it available, but several US agents don't see it.

Reserved ZRH-PEK-HKG on LX and CA instead.

Last edited by buschoi; Sep 8, 2013 at 3:40 pm Reason: Added "LH"
buschoi is offline  
Old Sep 8, 2013, 12:59 pm
  #17895  
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 117
Schedule Change & Award bookin

I had a schedule change on my itinerary that results in an illegal connection in FRA (and probably impossible at 50min). My booking on US air is technically illegal (has a stopover and an open jaw). My question is do I risk calling them to rebook flights, and have then cancel my booking as its "illegal" or do my best to try and make the connection, and when I don't have LH rebook me as they "caused the missed connection"

Thanks for your help.

Flight is 12/28/13 MLA-FRA (arrive 4:10p) on LH, then FRA-YYZ (depart 5pm) on AC. All in J.
Pinser555 is offline  


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