Star Alliance and FF

[myfavouritescar]

Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question but I've been googling for days and haven't found the answer. I'm a newb to FF points. I went on a RTW ticket last year and signed up for United's Mileage Plus FF program on the advice of my TA. I've accrued around 25,000 points and I'd like to try and use them to fly to NZ from Sydney return on Air NZ. The thing I don't know, is how to actually find out how to use them, I've looked at both Air NZ and United's website and I'm at a loss. ?

Thanks in advance!

 

[JohnK]

Did you try looking through the Mileage Plus website?

I am not a United Mileage Plus expert but it would appear that one would require 35,000 miles for an Australia/New Zealand saver award in economy according to the United Star Alliance Award Chart.

Hope I am not reading the chart wrong.

 

[anat0l]

Your points are with UA, so you will need to deal with UA to book your award.

First stop is the UA Mileage Plus website. After some digging around, you can find this link:

United Airlines - United Saver / Star Alliance Award Rules on united.com

According to the information on the page, if your award is with UA, you can book it online, but if it is with another Star Alliance carrier, you'll need to call UA directly. There appear to be ticketing charges if you have to call them up.

If you're still confused, best thing to do is to call UA and confirm the procedures with them (i.e. can I book online or only through the phone?)

If you're going to make arrangements over the phone, it's best to do some research first as to where you'd like to fly, which flights would you likely take (and have some backup options in case your first choice is out of award seats).

 

[Egg]

The main problem you're likely to encounter is that Air NZ does not offer much availability to its Star Alliance partners in my experience.

I noticed that United recently added a feature to its website so that when searching for availability for points redemption, it gives you the option of looking for Star Alliance availability as well. Using it seems problematic however when you enter a route that United does not service.

Finding availability of seats for Star Alliance partners can be difficult. Alot of ppl join ANA's frequent flyer program which allows its members to check online for seat availability for Star Alliance flights, including Air NZ. The seats that show as available to ANA generally are available to all *A partners. There are a few tricks to using it now though and I am probably only confusing matters, so I agree that calling United seems to be your best option.

I assume that the Awards Table lists points required for a return journey, so your 25,000 points might get you a one-way ticket if you can find a flight....