Last year, Star Alliance announced intra-alliance upgrade awards, a system that allowed frequent flyer members of one airline to use their miles on another Star Alliance member’s flight. It’s a great concept, and a great option for those looking to draw down their frequent flyer balances, though the “cost” in miles isn’t always cheap.
But United Airlines frequent flyers won’t be able to participate any longer. Though the airline is one of the founding members of Star Alliance, and though UA offered Star Alliance Upgrades for several months, that feature is gone.
The United website’s page for Star Alliance Upgrades now reads:
Effective May 31, 2007: We will no longer accept Star Alliance Upgrade Award requests at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Is this yet another Mileage Plus program devaluation, or more evidence of problems with intra-Star Alliance cooperation? Other programs don’t appear to have shut down their upgrade functionality, so the problem seems to rest with United.
Readers have been reporting mixed information from United on the intra-alliance upgrade front. Reader Samuel says he bought a flight on Singapore Airlines, and that United told him he could request an upgrade if he booked the ticket in Q class or higher. But Singapore didn’t accept United miles for upgrades, even when the program was functional. (See the chart below, taken from the Star Alliance website, obviously out of date at this point.) Samuel’s problem is emblematic of the confusion over this now-defunct benefit.
So why are the upgrades kaput? Unclear. United has the largest frequent flyer program within the alliance, so perhaps other programs were getting flooded with upgrade requests from United members. The bottom line is a further downgrade of Mileage Plus.
I’ve contacted United and Star Alliance to inquire why UA is no longer a participant. We’ll see if there’s anything to report, and I’ll post whatever I learn.
Hat tip to Benet Wilson for pointing out the changed web page!
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
July 10th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
I bet part of the problem is that Singapore Airlines is simply embarrased to be in the same alliance as United. I flew United international first class last week (PEK to SFO) and it’s not even as good as Singapore’s old business class!
July 11th, 2007 at 7:50 am
At least you can stil use your miles for an upgrade on UA. I have both UA and CO status. On CO without paying a hefty fee and buying an expensive fare class you are sitting in the back of the bus. People can b!tch about UA all they want but unless you are ponying up for full fare biz/first tickets, UA is still one of the best programs for lowly coach fare passengers to upgrade into premium cabins for international travel.
July 11th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Regarding Upgraded: Free wireless calling
So does this mean that I could carry my wireless router outside the country and set up my own US Domestic phone number in Japan?
July 11th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Fair enough, but that shouldn’t “excuse” removing a benefit with no warning. And if you’ve ever flown some of the other Star Alliance member airlines in a premium class, you know that those seats are more desirable than their United counterparts. At least for now. UA is upgrading their seats. We’ll see if their service is updated commensurately.
July 11th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Alohastephen,
I think you posted this comment on the wrong thread. I’ll reply at the original post, here:
http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2007/07/09/upgrades-and-downgrades-july-9-2007-changes-but-will-they-do-you-good/
July 11th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Coincidentally, Air New Zealand has joined the *A mileage upgrade scheme today and despite listing United as a participant, it is currently not possible to upgrade on United with Airpoints.
Personally I think the problem is not that other airlines are worried about United Mileage Plus members taking all the upgrades (although that is a problem given how freely Mileage Plus miles are handed out and the sheer size of the program). Rather, that like awards there is a net imbalance in the system. Mileage Plus redemptions (and upgrades while they were available) on other airlines likely far outweigh redemptions and upgrades made by other programs on United. For that United Mileage Plus has to pay hard cash to the other programs. I see these developments as merely an extension of the restrictions Mileage Plus imposes on award redemptions, for the same reason. They don’t want to be paying other Star Alliance airlines too much money.
This really comes back to the vast supply of Mileage Plus miles. As long as almost all redemptions are on United flights they can easily control the cost of the miles by restricting availability or changes in award costs and rules. Now with awards and upgrades on Star Alliance airlines being more attractive, Mileage Plus is probably finding it hard to keep control of the cost and thus resorting to these kind of brute measures.
July 12th, 2007 at 11:26 am
I am not at all unhappy about this. Upgrades were far too easy to get for Mileage Plus members in comparison to other airlines and considering that UA’s product was so bad, tons of Americans were hogging C and F seats on Lufthansa, SAS, SQ and the likes.
December 26th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Not all Mileage Plus members are Americans. It is more probable that those hogging European flights are Europeans. The vast majority of American members do most of their flying domestically.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I am a Lufthansa Miles and More card holder with Frequent Flier (Silver) status. I have tried to upgrade from eco to business on international UA code share flights – with no success – more then 10 times this year.
I’ve heard the same thing from many of my colleagues, 5 of whom have Senator (Gold) status. UA doesn’t seem to be accepting any upgrade requests from other Star Alliance partners either.