Author Topic: Star Alliance Award Search Tips  (Read 830744 times)

Offline theyankel

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2220 on: February 18, 2019, 12:06:54 PM »
what is better option TLV-EWR for 85k united?

Tel Aviv, IL (TLV - Ben Gurion) to Warsaw, PL (WAW)
LO 152 | Boeing 737-800
Warsaw, PL (WAW) to New York/Newark, NJ, US (EWR - Liberty)
LO 11 | Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
$59.34

or

Tel Aviv, IL (TLV - Ben Gurion) to Vienna, AT (VIE)
OS 860 | Airbus A321 - fake j
Vienna, AT (VIE) to New York/Newark, NJ, US (EWR - Liberty)
OS 89 | Boeing 767-300

$74.24

Offline hvaces42

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2221 on: February 18, 2019, 12:36:44 PM »
what is better option TLV-EWR for 85k united?

Tel Aviv, IL (TLV - Ben Gurion) to Warsaw, PL (WAW)
LO 152 | Boeing 737-800
Warsaw, PL (WAW) to New York/Newark, NJ, US (EWR - Liberty)
LO 11 | Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
$59.34

or

Tel Aviv, IL (TLV - Ben Gurion) to Vienna, AT (VIE)
OS 860 | Airbus A321 - fake j
Vienna, AT (VIE) to New York/Newark, NJ, US (EWR - Liberty)
OS 89 | Boeing 767-300

$74.24
Transatlantic segment 2-2-2 on LO with big seats vs every seat having aisle access on OS.
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Offline theyankel

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2222 on: February 18, 2019, 12:53:15 PM »
Transatlantic segment 2-2-2 on LO with big seats vs every seat having aisle access on OS.
thx
which has more comfortable bed?
and is there a better option using less miles than 85k united? aeroplan taxes are over $300CAD for austria flight

Offline shapsam

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2223 on: February 18, 2019, 12:57:18 PM »
thx
aeroplan taxes are over $300CAD for austria flight
And much less (about $110) for LO.

Offline hvaces42

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2224 on: February 18, 2019, 12:58:46 PM »
And much less (about $110) for LO.
And 2500 miles less.
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Offline theyankel

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2225 on: February 18, 2019, 05:17:23 PM »
does a3 charge yq on swiss? jfk-gva in j?

Offline hvaces42

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2226 on: February 18, 2019, 05:47:27 PM »
does a3 charge yq on swiss? jfk-gva in j?
Yes
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Offline TAVI

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2227 on: February 24, 2019, 09:25:02 PM »
Seeing availability on united.com for biz class seats on LOT. confirmed availability on Expertflyer as well, but for some reason Aeroplan is not showing the seats available.
Trying to figure out if this is Phantom or not before transferring points.

anyone seeing similar situation and can advise?

Offline davidrotts63

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2228 on: February 24, 2019, 11:38:54 PM »
Aeroplan isn't the place to search LOT...
(Quit) pulling out the flowers, and watering the weeds. -Peter Lynch

Offline lubaby

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2229 on: February 25, 2019, 07:41:37 AM »
Aeroplan isn't the place to search LOT...
But is it available if you call in?

Offline hvaces42

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2230 on: February 25, 2019, 07:58:21 AM »
But is it available if you call in?
They have been having issues with LOT on and off for the better part of 2 years now. YMMV Call and ask.
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Offline yg99

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2231 on: February 25, 2019, 08:26:44 AM »
So what's the best way to book LOT with Amex points?

Offline hvaces42

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2232 on: February 25, 2019, 08:39:11 AM »
So what's the best way to book LOT with Amex points?
AC if they can see it. LM. Or SQ with YQ
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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2233 on: February 25, 2019, 10:03:23 PM »
Yep, Aeroplan couldn't see any LOT availability, even though i HUCAd 3 times.
UA saw the space and was able to book.

Offline NOOCH

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2234 on: February 26, 2019, 07:29:49 PM »
can all star alliance airlines book on all others? im trying to book a turkish flight with aeroplan. Or what other options are there for booking turkish?

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2235 on: February 26, 2019, 07:31:15 PM »
can all star alliance airlines book on all others? im trying to book a turkish flight with aeroplan. Or what other options are there for booking turkish?
If there is saver availability you should be able to book that
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Offline NOOCH

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2236 on: February 26, 2019, 07:34:06 PM »
Update: ANA has partially blocked their Star Alliance search function. See either of these 2 posts for info on how to work around it:
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=2569.0
http://www.dansdeals.com/forums/index.php?topic=2569.msg34269#msg34269


-The Star Alliance is the largest airline alliance which gives great options for using miles on partners.

These are the 27 current member airlines:
-Adria
-Air Canada
-Air China
-Air New Zealand
-ANA
-Asiana Airlines
-Austrian
-Blue1
-Bmi
-Brussels Airlines
-Continental Airlines
-Croatia Airlines
-Egyptair
-LOT Polish Airlines
-Lufthansa
-Scandinavian Airlines
-Shanghai Airlines
-Singapore Airlines
-South African Airways
-Spanair
-Swiss
-TAM
-TAP Portugal
-Thai
-Turkish Airlines
-United
-US Airways

-A great search engine is ANA.
-You need to first signup for an ANA account:
https://cam.ana.co.jp/psz/amc/jsp/regist0_e.jsp

-You can then use this link to search for Star Alliance award flights:
https://aswbe-i.ana.co.jp/p_per/sky_ip_per_en/preAwdSearchLogin.do

-Click "Use Star Alliance Member Airlines"
Perform the search, for example type in JFK to TLV.

-By default only nonstop flights are shown, for this route the Continental flights from EWR to TLV are shown.
Click "connecting flights" to display more flights.
Each leg will have:
- Which means that the class selected doesn't exist
x Which means awards are not available
OK Which means awards are available

-Click on the arrows above the flights to go back or more forward a day.
-Click "search again" to change the dates.

-ANA search is far from exhaustive, it does not search all possibilities.  To really search all options do a regular fare search on Orbitz and find all of the Star Alliance options.  Then enter in each leg separately into ANA.
For example search for JFK-IST and then IST-TLV to go on Turkish via Istanbul, or JFK-MUC and then MUC-TLV to go on Lufthansa via Munich, etc.

-If a flight is found on ANA it can be booked with the miles from any Star Alliance carrier.  The only exception is United which intentionally blocks availability when they feel like it, this is called Starnet blocking.  The mileage rate will be whatever the carrier you are redeeming with charges, not what the airline you are flying on charges.

-ANA is the best Star Alliance search engine, but it is worth also using Continental.com.  There are definitely times that Continental.com finds an option that ANA doesn't You do not need to be logged in, just enter the cities and click "reward search." 

-Once you find flights that work you need to call up the carrier on which you have the miles to book the ticket.  Tell them that you called in earlier and already found flights that worked for you, and ask if you can give them the flight numbers.  Sometimes they will let you do this other times they'll want to find the flights themselves. 

-Many agents are unfortunately incompetent and don't know how to properly look for partner availability.  When you get an agent like this just politely hang up and call again (repeat as necessary)

-Every ticketing airline has their own stopover, connection, and routing rules.  They are not always enforced.  Air Canada and USAirways are both pretty lenient and allow for multiple connections/stopovers.  United is pretty strict.

There's lots more, but that's all I have time for now...post your own tips here!




is there an updated version of this info?

Offline NOOCH

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2237 on: February 26, 2019, 07:35:10 PM »
If there is saver availability you should be able to book that

any idea if its doable online or do i need to call?

Offline hvaces42

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2238 on: February 26, 2019, 07:37:45 PM »
any idea if its doable online or do i need to call?
Turkish should show on AC if available. How do you know its available at saver level?
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Offline theyankel

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Re: Star Alliance Award Search Tips
« Reply #2239 on: February 26, 2019, 11:06:53 PM »
can a3 book LH F FRA/MUC- JFK? one way?