Help with United awards
 

I have been trying for two weeks to find out how many miles are needed for business class travel to Asia on a partner airline using United miles, or, how many miles are needed to upgrade from a coach ticket on a partner airline. I have tried to pull this info up on United's site but it doesn't work. United insists there is nothing wrong with their site but I have tried using three different browsers, over the course of two weeks and I cannot pull up the page. (it's a PDF file and yes, I have an Adobe Acrobat Reader). I have called United and spoken to their web support people, who were useless, and nobody at United can either email me the info or snail mail me a brochure with the information! When I try to call the Awards desk, I get a constant busy signal. I have never encountered less helpful people in my life and I'm about to SCREAM!!!!

I'm now counting on the Fodors community to come to my rescue. Does anyone have the info I'm seeking and, is there another web site that can give me the award information? Thanks.

I have no problem downloading and viewing the Star Alliance PDF file. It's the same mileage: 90K for business class US to North Asia or South Asia. [Same rate on Air China.]

I don't see a chart for upgrade awards on partner airlines.

It's probably something wrong with your computer's setting, so that it's not opening PDF file correctly. Try right click on the link to save the file first, and then use Adobe Reader to open it.

Funny, I don't have a problem opening any other PDF files. Thanks for the info though.

Laurie, note that while United has advertised that you can use award miles for upgrades on partner airlines, this arrangement is not yet in place. To upgrade from coach to business on United is 30,000 miles each way.

Laurie,

You probably already know this, but the price of the upgradeable ticket on UA used to be about $200 extra, over and above the lower priced economy ticket. Now, it's more like $500 more.

I'm a very frequent flier on UA. While I book a lot of my USA trips with UA on line, I also use my TA for those more complicated long distance routes when I want to try for upgrades. I find that trying to use the site to do this is very very difficult!!!!! I've also called the UA premier exec phone number for help. That was OK too, but I still have not received my mileage credit for a ZRH to ORD flight that I made on Apr 19. I've sent in my boarding pass (which got "lost" by UA) but they are trying to resolve this thing for me. Grrrrr..... They say I should allow 90 days. 4k miles isn't such a big deal when I will have more like 65k total this year, but still... I am a very frequent UA flier and I do like my miles!!!

The UA site is not really all that wonderful, sorry to say. Just try looking at options for ORD to BKK. All you get are the route options that go through FRA or London!! You really almost have to "confuse" the site with a multi-stop ticket in order to get the ORD-NRT-BKK and reverse. It's crazy! (but I'll still keep flying my 50+K miles a year with them, and other star alliance partners)

Carol

I finally got it all straightened out. I downloaded a new version of Acrobat and now I can view the file. It's odd because I view PDF files online all the time and never have a problem with it. I also finally got someone at United who was somewhat helpful (after 5 previous calls). I'm a little annoyed though since I only got 50% of miles flown on Thai from JFK-BKK-CGK. It wasn't a cheap ticket either and I was told when I booked the ticket that I would be getting full mileage. It's enough to make me want to go back to American Airlines. I guess the bottom line is, all airlines suck.

Are we asking too much from our airlines?

Say if one flies ORD-NRT-BKK twice a year in the cheapest coach and nothing else, you spend about <$2,500, and because of Premiere level, you get E+ seating, and earn close to 50,000 Mileage Plus points.

Since UA only charges 90K for business roundtrip, you can earn one of them every 2 years, or <$5,000 paid.

So, you can go to BKK 5 times, including one in Business Class, every two years, spending just $5,000. A regular business class roundtrip fare will cost that much or more.

Are we're complaining?

Yes, we are. I was told the ticket, which was quite expensive, was going to yield 100% of miles flown. Instead in yielded 50% of miles flown. I think I have a right to feel cheated.

If you are interested in partner awards you HAVE to use the phone, the website only supports award travel on United flights. If you don't find the person helpful just call back again - we all do it.

AS Kathie says they have announced the idea of partner upgrades but nothing definate yet. When they do arrive United may have access to very little inventory.

I know alot of people save their miles for upgrades but I haven't found it to be worthwhile. We usually use miles for a business seat or ocassionally for an expensive economy route, I can often upgrade on domestic flights.

Consequently we fly a mix of economy and business internationally, sometimes we fly economy to London and then business from London, for example to delhi. Because I always want the full mileage credit and mileage bonuses we fly United almost all the time. I have to say there service to Asia really is inferior....even in economy plus...no videos on the back of the seat? On an Asian route in 2006!

Recently the gap between upgradable tickets and discount economy tickets has grown ridiculously. I'm paying $1300 SFO-BKK in July, I was quoted almost $900 more for the upgradable ticket - crazy!



Good luck, where are you thinking of going?

I'll give you that one of the shortcomings of ual.com is that they don't list all the % mileage and EQM earned for its partner flights, unlike AA, DL, CO or others.

So, that's a legitimate complaint.

We like to call it www.united.bomb.

By the way, I don't have the *A chart in front of me, but I believe that North Asia biz awards (Asia, etc.) are 120k miles and Southeast Asia biz awards are 90k. Unless something has changed, they are not both 90k.

reading from the chart:

60K for Economy seat
90K for Business
120K for First Class Tix
From N. America to N or S Asia r/t

Aloha!

I just state what I read on the most current PDF file. 60/90/120 for both North and South Asia. "Central Asia" is 80/120/160 - India/Nepal/Pakistan via Atlantic.

Thanks everyone. You guys are much more helpful than the folks at United, that's for sure! We have more than enough for free economy tickets, more than enough for upgrades to business from economy, but short for outright free business class tickets. We could always buy the miles needed but thanks to getting 11,000 less miles for our last trip, we'll need to buy more than I had hoped. I was told by agents at both United and Thai that we would get 100% miles and to now find out it's only 50% is very annoying. Anyway, for our next trip, we'll probably blow my American miles and go to Japan. I have enough for two free coach tickets or we could upgrade from coach. American charges 25,000 miles each way PLUS $250 each way to upgrade to Japan. If I can get a cheap enough ticket, we may do the upgrade. But then again, it's only a 13 hour flight so perhaps the free trip makes more sense for this one.

Laurie, I'm guessing your Thai flight was a V or W booking class ticket (deep discount). Effective January, 2006 they only earn 50% mileage. The date you fly is what matters in the rules, not the date of purchase. If you bought your ticket before January 1 then the reps would have accurately told you all economy class tickets on Thai earn 100% mileage. I also would not expect Thai's employees to know the intricacies of United's frequent flyer program rules. United's reps, yes...but new rules are often not well known by the phone reps, especially before they take effect.

Thanks Kim. I actually bought my ticket in February or March so they should have known better. We could have saved hundreds of dollars flying a different airline but we thought we were getting 100% miles. We also did want the non-stop but I may have opted to save money if I had known.

laurieco - Bookmark this page for future reference:

flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=445613

I just bookmarked that. Thanks, it's a good reference. Why do we have to depend on third parties to get the info the airlines themselves should be giving us? (it's a rhetorical question, no answer necessary).

You shouldn't have to. But let me say that Star Alliance airlines are already better in giving out miles to partners than oneworld and Skyteam. And I just look up USAirways' website. TG's V and W class don't earn any thing on them. [They do earn 50% Air Canada Aeroplan.]

You don't have to:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,,1194,00.html