One of the best web sites for looking Star Alliance award availability

Star Alliance’s 26 member airways join passengers to 1,300 locations on round 20,000 each day flights. In case you maintain miles in a Star Alliance program like United Airways MileagePlus or Air Canada Aeroplan, you should utilize your miles to fly on any of the Star Alliance carriers, assuming there’s award area.

And if in case you have transferable factors from a bank card, you could possibly leverage one Star Alliance switch companion to e book tickets on one other provider. For instance, you could switch American Categorical Membership Rewards factors to Avianca LifeMiles to e book low-cost United Airways home award tickets.

So how do you seek for Star Alliance award area? As we speak, we’ll cowl the most effective web sites to make use of when in search of award availability inside Star Alliance.

Star Alliance overview

This is the record of the 26 airways which can be a part of Star Alliance. Juneyao Airways is a connecting companion of Star Alliance:

• Aegean Airways.
• Air Canada.
• Air China.
• Air India.
• Air New Zealand.
• All Nippon Airways.
• Asiana Airways.
• Austrian Airways.
• Avianca.
• Brussels Airways.
• Copa Airways.
• Croatia Airways.
• Egyptair.
• Ethiopian Airways.
• EVA Air.
• LOT Polish Airways.
• Lufthansa.
• SAS.
• Shenzhen Airways.
• Singapore Airways.
• South African Airways.
• Swiss.
• TAP Air Portugal.
• Thai Airways.
• Turkish Airways.
• United Airways.

The fundamentals of utilizing Star Alliance miles are easy (use miles with airline A to fly airline B), however lots of the carriers within the alliance restrict award area for companion bookings. Likewise, some airways will solely launch award area to companions inside a sure time earlier than departure. You have to be conscious of some issues when trying to find award area.

Associated: Your final information to looking award availability for the main airways

Expanded United availability with a bank card and standing

United Airways bank card holders and Premier members can entry further award area on United flights. In case you have a United bank card or standing, log in to your MileagePlus account earlier than trying to find award area.

Lufthansa firstclass

If award area is offered, Lufthansa does not launch its personal first-class awards to its Star Alliance companions till 14 to 30 days earlier than departure.

These wishing to e book additional upfront should use Lufthansa Miles & Extra. These are among the hardest miles to earn within the U.S., so we’re usually caught reserving our Lufthansa first-class tickets on the final minute.

Associated: 6 ideas for reserving Lufthansa first-class awards

Singapore long-haul, premium cabins

Most long-haul, premium-cabin award tickets on Singapore Airways are solely bookable by way of Singapore Airways’ personal loyalty program, KrisFlyer. We’ve seen some exceptions to this up to now, although — for instance, Singapore Airways has launched its long-haul enterprise class to Air Canada Aeroplan and its non-alliance companion Alaska Airways. However for many bookings, you’ll have to make use of Singapore’s personal miles to e book your tickets.

For reference, you may convert American Categorical Membership Rewards, Chase Final Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy factors and Capital One miles to KrisFlyer miles. Amex, Chase and Citi factors and Capital One miles switch to KrisFlyer at a 1:1 ratio, whereas Marriott factors switch at a 3:1 ratio. You’ll earn a 5,000-mile bonus for each 60,000 Marriott factors you switch to KrisFlyer.

Associated: It does not get significantly better than this: Singapore Airways’ A380 in enterprise class from Frankfurt to New York

Swiss firstclass

Except you are reserving the Swiss fifth-freedom flight from Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza Worldwide Airport (EZE) to Aeropuerto Internacional de Sao Paulo-Guarulhos (GRU), you will not be capable of e book Swiss firstclass utilizing miles except you are a Miles & Extra Senator and HON Circle member.

Award area is rarely open to companions, and the one time it was erroneously opened to Aeroplan, bookings weren’t honored.

Phantom award area with United and Aeroplan

Lastly, United and Air Canada Aeroplan each have a historical past of displaying phantom award area. In brief, phantom award area is when an award reserving engine reveals an obtainable award, however you get an error message when making an attempt to e book the ticket. This occurs as a result of the award isn’t really obtainable. Or, to place it otherwise, the airline web site reveals award availability even when it does not exist.

We advocate utilizing ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG’s dad or mum firm, Purple Ventures) to confirm the award area earlier than you switch miles to e book. We’ll talk about how you are able to do this later within the article, however in brief, you should utilize ExpertFlyer’s Award & Improve instrument to confirm award area on most Star Alliance carriers.

Associated: The phantom award area menace strikes once more, stranding 240,000 factors

United.com

United.com reveals real-time award availability on all of the Star Alliance carriers, so it is an ideal web site for trying to find award area. Whereas nonetheless one thing to pay attention to, phantom award area has grow to be much less frequent on united.com during the last a number of years.

It is simple to seek for award area on United’s web site. First, log in to your MileagePlus account and enter your itinerary. Be certain to pick out « E-book with miles. »

On the following web page, you may see the obtainable award area. Choose « Enterprise (lowest) » to point out the least costly business-class awards.

Observe that United’s web site will not show the obtainable award seats. This is the reason it is vital to enter the proper variety of vacationers in the beginning of your search (i.e., should you seek for three passengers, the entire displayed flights can have at the least three obtainable seats).

In case you have versatile journey dates, it’s also possible to choose « 30-day calendar » to see award area in your required cabin.

As well as, you do not even must log in to seek for award flights on united.com — although it does assist if in case you have elite standing or a United bank card (extra on that beneath).

Observe that Star Alliance standardizes saver-level award fare courses throughout all member airways:

• Economic system: X.
• Enterprise: I.
• First: O.

Because of this, should you see awards on united.com in one among these courses — just like the TAP Air Portugal flight above, obtainable in each X and I — they need to be bookable utilizing any Star Alliance member’s frequent flyer program.

Nevertheless, this does not apply to United-operated flights which can be solely obtainable to United Premier members and cobranded card holders. When that is the case, you may see the dearer award costs crossed off and a notice displaying « Particular member pricing. »

Most significantly, these flights is not going to seem in these commonplace fare courses famous above. As an alternative of X for financial system, you may see XN.

These flights can’t be booked with companion packages, so skip over them — or plan to make use of MileagePlus to ticket them.

Associated: Flights, bank cards and extra: How you can earn miles with the United MileagePlus program

Singaporeair.com

Singaporeair.com must be your go-to search engine should you plan to make use of miles to journey in a premium cabin on a long-haul Singapore Airways flight.

You can even use singaporeair.com to seek for different Star Alliance awards, however the web site may not present all of the Star Alliance award area. Because of this, plan on utilizing united.com should you’re trying to find award area on a Star Alliance provider apart from Singapore Airways.

To seek for Singapore Airways award area, go to singaporeair.com and log in or be a part of KrisFlyer (notice that you will must create a free KrisFlyer account to seek for award area).

Enter your search standards, ensuring you choose « Redeem flights. »

On the following web page, you may see the Singapore Airways award availability on the saver and benefit ranges.

Saver award area is usually tougher to come back by however prices fewer miles to redeem and permits one stopover on round-trip bookings. Benefit award area is dearer however simpler to come back by and contains as much as two free stopovers on a round-trip ticket.

Choose the flight you need to e book and comply with the on-screen prompts. In case you want time to switch miles from a bank card, name Singapore Airways and ask it to carry an award ticket.

If no award area is offered on the flight you need, you may even see an choice to waitlist for a flight. Your KrisFlyer mileage steadiness should have the miles required for the flight with a view to be a part of the waitlist. In case you switch miles to Singapore Airways from a bank card, this presents an issue.

In case you switch the miles in and don’t clear the waitlist, you can’t switch your miles again to your bank card. With this in thoughts, you need to solely waitlist an award if you have already got the miles in your Singapore Airways account or have a backup plan to make use of the miles you are transferring.

If award area turns into obtainable, Singapore Airways will notify you of the open award area.

ExpertFlyer

ExpertFlyer is a search instrument owned by Purple Ventures, TPG’s dad or mum firm. You should use it to seek for award area on a number of airways, together with Star Alliance companions like United and Lufthansa. I’ve discovered that ExpertFlyer is essentially the most correct solution to seek for award area, making it nicely well worth the month-to-month subscription.

Certainly one of ExpertFlyer’s greatest options is setting award alerts. If you wish to e book a seat on a particular flight, set a flight alert for the date and flight quantity you need to fly — this system will e-mail you when an award ticket opens up.

Take a look at our full information to utilizing ExpertFlyer for extra info and a whole explainer on utilizing the instrument.

Associated: How you can use ExpertFlyer alerts to snag a greater seat

Low-cost Star Alliance awards

As soon as you have situated Star Alliance award area, you may be able to e book your ticket. Air Canada Aeroplan is usually a fashionable choice as you may add a stopover for simply 5,000 factors. Moreover, Avianca LifeMiles is usually a nice go-to for mixed-cabin awards. Listed here are a few of our favourite one-way Star Alliance awards:

• 45,000 Turkish Airways Miles & Smiles miles to fly from america to Europe in Turkish Airways enterprise class.
• 7,500 Turkish Airways Miles & Smiles miles from the U.S. to Hawaii in United financial system class.
• 63,000 Avianca LifeMiles from the U.S. to Europe in enterprise class on United, Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, SAS, TAP and Brussels Airways.
• 6,000 Aeroplan factors for United financial system class flights beneath 500 miles.
• 75,000 Aeroplan factors for United, Air Canada or Air New Zealand enterprise class to Australia or New Zealand.
• 75,000 Aegean Miles+Bonus miles for Lufthansa firstclass from the U.S. to South Africa.
• 88,000 ANA Mileage Membership miles for round-trip, business-class flights from the U.S. to Europe.

Remember to evaluate the mileage charges throughout loyalty packages that companion with the main transferable currencies, together with any gasoline surcharges, as these can differ dramatically by program.

Associated: E-book this, not that: Star Alliance award tickets

Backside line

With almost 30 carriers worldwide, Star Alliance has quite a few methods to redeem your miles. Redeeming your Star Alliance miles on companion carriers could make your miles extra beneficial. In case you have United miles, log in to your MileagePlus account earlier than starting your award search — that means, if in case you have standing or a MileagePlus bank card, you may see all of the choices.

Keep in mind to solely use the above web sites to seek out availability, not essentially to cost out your award ticket. The miles required will likely be decided by this system you employ to e book your flight.

To study extra about maximizing your transferable factors for Star Alliance flights, confer with our guides for the most effective methods to make use of Capital One miles, Chase Final Rewards factors, Citi ThankYou factors and American Categorical Membership Rewards factors.

Extra reporting by Richard Kerr and Andrew Kunesh.