clifford
Established Member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2004
- Posts
- 3,083
- Qantas
- Platinum
- Virgin
- Platinum
- Star Alliance
- Gold
Yesterday I called UA’s Sydney reservations centre about redeeming a Mileage Plus “Star Alliance” award and was told that UA has just changed the rules to require significantly more miles for awards on certain routings. What they have done (very quietly) within the last week or so is to superimpose on top of the Star Alliance award chart the requirement that each award be within the maximum permitted mileage for any given city pair. In effect, this brings UA’s Star Alliance awards more in line with QF’s awards where the actual mileage to be flown determines the number of miles required to redeem an award.
For example, I wanted to go Sydney-Tokyo-Sydney, which according to the Star Alliance Award chart, should be 50,000 miles in economy. When I enquired a couple of weeks ago, I was told by UA that as there were no direct Star Alliance flights between SYD-TYO, I could be routed via Singapore or Bangkok at a cost of 50,000 miles. Fair enough I thought. However when I tried to book the flights yesterday, I was told that because of the new maximum mileage rule, I would have to book two awards, one to SIN/BKK and then another one to TYO (a total cost of 90,000 miles).
Thus, applying this new maximum mileage rule, it will now cost a minimum of 90,000 miles for a Mileage Plus redemption to fly from Australasia to Japan, Indonesia or the Philippines, as well as numerous other places I haven't even thought about. This seems to be a stealthy way of increasing award redemption mileage requirements and will make a whole range of trips unattractive for Mileage Plus redemptions (it's worth noting that you can fly from Australasia to the Caribbean business class for 90,000 miles).
For example, I wanted to go Sydney-Tokyo-Sydney, which according to the Star Alliance Award chart, should be 50,000 miles in economy. When I enquired a couple of weeks ago, I was told by UA that as there were no direct Star Alliance flights between SYD-TYO, I could be routed via Singapore or Bangkok at a cost of 50,000 miles. Fair enough I thought. However when I tried to book the flights yesterday, I was told that because of the new maximum mileage rule, I would have to book two awards, one to SIN/BKK and then another one to TYO (a total cost of 90,000 miles).
Thus, applying this new maximum mileage rule, it will now cost a minimum of 90,000 miles for a Mileage Plus redemption to fly from Australasia to Japan, Indonesia or the Philippines, as well as numerous other places I haven't even thought about. This seems to be a stealthy way of increasing award redemption mileage requirements and will make a whole range of trips unattractive for Mileage Plus redemptions (it's worth noting that you can fly from Australasia to the Caribbean business class for 90,000 miles).