Unable to book TG or SQ awards using United miles

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Hopefully this is just a temporary glitch, rather than a deliberate move by United!

Apparently it's not currently possible to book any TG or SQ award flights using United MileagePlus miles. The article below seems to think this has been the case since 15 January.

United Airlines Mileage Plus Now Unable To Book Singapore Airlines & Thai Airways Awards Until Further Notice

This is really quite concerning as many of us use MileagePlus miles to fly on Thai (especially) or Singapore Airlines (on regional routes where there is availability).
 
It effectively cuts Australia off from direct flights to/from S. E. Asia, using MileagePlus miles, which really devalues the currency. Apparently TAP Portugal is also currently excluded from award tickets.

To get from SYD to BKK now, for example, you would have to take a very round about route, including AKL/HKG, if you want to do it at the published mileage rate. And don't even think about getting a business class award.

Not a good look for UA, and a huge disincentive to crediting miles to MileagePlus.
 
This is annoying not only for booking with United but United has always been my site of choice for searching for availability even when using points for other *A partners, e.g. as per Mattg's helpful guide at Guide to Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus Awards. Can I ask what people in general are using now instead, as I assume I'm not the only person in this position.
 
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This is annoying not only for booking with United but United has always been my site of choice for searching for availability even when using points for other *A partners, e.g. as per Mattg's helpful guide at Guide to Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus Awards. Can I ask what people in general are using now instead, as I assume I'm not the only person in this position.

The Aeroplan website is probably the next-best for Star Alliance award availability searches.
 
The Aeroplan website is probably the next-best for Star Alliance award availability searches.
Thanks Matt, it also seems SQ may be more useful too when they implement the feature to search by a week.
 
I have reports from SQ agents that United are not making domestic (at least) inventory available to SQ Krisflyer. The agents were not able to articulate the issue precisely, but two different agents said 'no inventory given to us by United' rather than 'no seats' and 'this is new'. These were on fairly popular routes, for next May, so I can't completely rule all the Award seats being taken.

However, the reason I called is on the SQ website, looking for 'partner awards', I kept getting the message : 'That route is not bookable as a redemption' - didn't even get to the flight listing screen.

The routes I was looking at were LAX-DFW; SFO-DFW, ORD-JFK and some lesser ones, in May.
 
Any word on this returning? I'm sitting on a swagger of UA Miles, and would hate to lose SQ/TG as TG particularly was my plan for them!
 
I contacted United to ask what's going on. This is the response that I received:

Some partner award tickets are not being confirmed by select airlines’ reservations systems. In order to minimise the impact to customers, we’ve temporarily removed the ability to book on these specific carriers until this is fixed.
 
Hopefully it gets fixed. I'd hate to lose the ability to use TG and SQ - that was my plan for UA miles I'm sitting on.
 
Thai, TAP and ANA awards are back online. SQ awards are still unavailable for the time being.
 
Excellent news. Very glad to see it a temporary issue. A little part of me hopes that they open up 777/A380 J SQ Awards as opposed to just regional/older aircraft.
 
Actually really helpful because it shows potential routings which we can now try and replicate with Lifemiles :) Looks like they also restored Turkish Airlines to the display (I had completely forgotten they exist as a Star airline!)
 
I've also noticed that United clearly marks award availability that's only being offered as an extra to members with Mileage Plus status.

Screen Shot 2019-02-28 at 6.29.24 am.png

It would be helpful if Qantas did the same thing for seats that are only available to Gold+ frequent flyers!

Excellent news. Very glad to see it a temporary issue. A little part of me hopes that they open up 777/A380 J SQ Awards as opposed to just regional/older aircraft.

I can't see this happening as it's a restriction imposed by SQ, not UA.
 
What is the routing with extra availability? But seems only in coach? or does it extend across all cabins?

QF does the same, although it doesn’t mark it specifically.
 
What is the routing with extra availability? But seems only in coach? or does it extend across all cabins?

This particular example was NRT-GUM-HNL, although they do the same on lots of other routes. The extra availability was in both Y and J.

QF does the same, although it doesn’t mark it specifically.

I am aware of this. My point was that it would be helpful if QF marked the extra seats as such on their website ;)
 
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I see the SQ embargo is still ongoing.

Can I ask what the availability is like when using UA points for TG or SQ awards?

Whilst not exactly the same, I was thinking to move AmEx MR points to TG (or even VS) and doing *A awards from there. I note mattg's article relating to Thai Royal Orchid and the bit about availability on SQ worries me. So was wondering about the availability of *A awards between FFP's in general.

I reckon it'll be very hard to get SQ J/F until April 15, 2022.
 
Can I ask what the availability is like when using UA points for TG or SQ awards?

I think they are pretty good both SQ & TG, but be aware that SQ awards are regional J... dont even think about F.

SQ awards - I've booked a few of them on their new 787 using UA, but yet to actually take one due to changed plans.
TG Awards - again, yet to actually take one, but I have got active booking CMB-BKK-MEL for later in the year which I picked up quite late.
 
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