Tag Archives for united.
Award travel on United’s new Washington Dulles-Tokyo flight is only 45,000 Mileage Plus miles in coach between October 28, 2006 and March 31, 2007. You can start from other cities, but need to connect to and from the Dulles flight. (That tip to Flyertalk member Boazs.)
As revealed on Flyertalk, United Mileage Plus members booking business class transatlantic or transpacific award flights can only be booked in coach on Singapore connecting segments. S*MPI/STAR-AWARD RULES.R:**NOTE: X/I/O IS NOT OFFERED ON ALL ROUTES. FOR SQ BUSINESS CLASS AWARDS WITH CONNECTIONS/STOPOVERS TO/FROM A TRANSOCEANIC FLIGHT BOOK *I* CLASS FOR TRANSOCEANIC FLIGHT ACROSS THE ATLANTIC/PACIFIC AND *X* FOR ONWARD FLT EXAMPLE – SQ BUSINESS CLASS AWARD LAXDPS BOOK *I* LAX-SIN AND *X* SIN-DPS SQ AWARDS THAT DO NOT INVOLVE A TRANSOCEANIC SECTOR USE *I* FOR ALL SECTORS INCLUDING 2 CABIN AIRCRAFT Lesson is that if you fly Singapore on a business award you’ll want your onward connection on another Star carrier in order to remain in business.
I’ve been meaning to blog this but Upgrade Travel beats me to the punch: United is no longer allowing its partner Star Alliance Gold members to access economy plus seating (they’re not allowing full fare passengers access to these seats either, which is bizarre). Now economy plus is available only to United elites and those who ‘buy up’ at the airport. Economy plus is the same seat as coach with no additional services, just a few extra inches of legroom. It isn’t “premium economy” as the rest of the world understands it. But United sees the ability, presumably, to upcharge. Doesn’t make me happy one bit, even though it’s a seemingly small change.
United is offering 5000 to 15000 bonus miles for flying its new non-stop between Washington-Dulles and Tokyo between October 28, 2006 and March 31, 2007. 15,000 miles is for paid First Class and Paid Business Class (except for Z fares). 7,500 miles is for Z fare business class and expensive coach fares (Y, B, M, H, Q fares). 5,000 miles for less expensive coach fares (V,W,S,T,K fares). The bonus can be earned up to 3 times, and flights between December 20, 2006 and January 10, 2007 do not earn the bonus. Registration is required.
You do need to be a Toyota owner, though, since they ask for your vehicle identification number. Sign up here. You’re asked to enter a promo code, just click the ‘need help’ link beneath the promo code box and you’ll be given a code to enter. Miles apparently post within a couple weeks, at least according to reports on Flyertalk.
United has introduced Star Alliance upgrade awards — upgrades on most of their Star Alliance partners confirmed by redeeming miles. These has been available on other Star Alliance carriers for several months, United has just introduced them, but it’s notable that only Star Alliance offers this quite so broadly.United miles can be used for upgrades on ANA, Asiana, Austrian, LOT, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal and Thai Airways. (United miles could previously be used for upgrades on Lufthansa, but those were space available rather than confirmed.) Currently there are no upgrade options for other Star carriers such as Singapore, Air Canada, bmi, Swiss, Spanair, SAS, South African Airways, etc. Hopefully they’ll come in the future. Unfortunately you need to be buying nearly a full fare ticket in order to use this option. Y and B coach fares…
Got this last night by email: Convert your hotel points into Mileage Plus miles now through September 30, 2006 and earn up to 5,000 bonus miles that you can redeem toward travel, dining certificates, auction items, and more. Check out Mileage Plus Awards to view all of your redemption options.Here’s how to transfer hotel points and earn bonus miles: 1) Select a hotel points program that you belong to from the list below2) Transfer the amount of hotel points equivalent to 10,000–19,999 miles(exchange rates vary by hotel program), and you’ll earn 2,500 bonus miles 3) Convert the amount of hotel points equivalent to 20,000 miles or more(exchange rates vary by hotel program), and you’ll earn 5,000 bonus miles Select your hotel program: Marriott Rewards®, visit Marriott online or call 1-800-450-4442. Priority Club® Rewards, visit InterContinental®…
United’s GroceryMiles has a sweepstakes to give away miles:First prize: 340 people will win 25,000 miles Grand prize: 10 people will win 150,000 miles Register by July 31.
Here’s the biggest iDine bonus I’ve ever seen. If you spend $125 a month at iDine restaurants on qualifying dines during each of the last six months of the year you’ll earn 25,000 bonus United miles. Registration is required by July 25.
I’ve probably undercovered the introduction of the Mileage Plus Choices program (okay, I’ve undercovered everything since I haven’t had the time or brainspace to post for the last couple of weeks). The June 2006 issue of Inside Flyer calls the Choices program “The New Golden Egg” so it certainly warrants a mention, though I’m not nearly as high on it as Randy Petersen seems to be. United’s new bombshell, Mileage Plus Choices, means looking at the future of frequent flyer programs in a whole new way. The “Choices” program allows United Visa cardholders to use the portion of their miles earned through their credit card as a form of cash to buy airline tickets, hotel nights, or rental car days (along with a few specialty items) with their miles. The program is incredibly confusing at…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
