Star Alliance award availability question

[prf31]

Hi all,

I just tried and failed to book an economy itinerary using Krisflyer miles on Air NZ. Process was as follows:

- Searched for and found economy availability on Air NZ flights using United search engine. To me this meant there were Star Alliance award flights available for any Star Alliance partner.
- Called Krisflyer to see if they could see the flights; however they could not, so the whole thing came to a screeching halt.

I asked the Krisflyer agent why this was the case and she indicated that the award availability I could see was only able to be booked through United using Mileage Plus points.

I thought availability that one Star Alliance airline opened up to their partners would be available to book through any of those partner’s loyalty programs. Is this not the case? Is award availability allocated per program?

Cheers,

prf31

 

[Mattg]

I've had the same problem with Air New Zealand. NZ seems to release different availability to United than it does to SQ, although the UA website can give a bit of an indication.

What route were you looking for? If it was a Pacific island route, I don't think I've ever been able to find any NZ availability that is bookable through SQ, even if the flight shows on the United site.

 

[prf31]

I've had the same problem with Air New Zealand. NZ seems to release different availability to United than it does to SQ, although the UA website can give a bit of an indication.

What route were you looking for? If it was a Pacific island route, I don't think I've ever been able to find any NZ availability that is bookable through SQ, even if the flight shows on the United site.

Interesting... I was trying for BNE-PPT via AKL which I have no doubt is hard to land. Also tried from SYD with no luck. I had a bit of a scout around and found a suggestion to cross reference the UA availability calendar with AC (Aeroplan). I did so and found availability in economy on both calendars with Air NZ, so called SQ again and was given the same answer: can’t be seen.

 

[burmans]

I've had the same problem with Air New Zealand. NZ seems to release different availability to United than it does to SQ, although the UA website can give a bit of an indication.

What route were you looking for? If it was a Pacific island route, I don't think I've ever been able to find any NZ availability that is bookable through SQ, even if the flight shows on the United site.

After having this exact same problem, I started using Aeroplan to search, works wonders.

 

[prf31]

After having this exact same problem, I started using Aeroplan to search, works wonders.

burmans, were you able to see the flights on Aeroplan, then call SQ and have them book for you? Did SQ initially insist they couldn’t see them?

 

[dajop]

There seems to be some phantom availability issues with UA award booking ... not sure if this is the root cause of your problem or not.

A few weeks ago I tried to book an NZ trans tasman flight connecting to another NZ flight in AKL, using UA points. It went right through to booking and after submitting CC details or came up with an error. Called UA and they said the problem was no availability on the trans tasman sector.

On the weekend we booked SIN-PVG return on SQ using UA miles as well, it took about 36 hrs for an email to arrive telling us that the seats had not been confirmed by SQ .... (and given they were only selling top two fare classes I am not surprised , suggests that there are some phantom availability problems).

 

[Plutonus]

I've always been able to book anything I saw available on ANA's website - albeit never searched for Air New Zealand.