Setting up your ExpertFlyer searches. The credit card offers that appear on the website are from credit card companies from which ThePointsGuy.com receives compensation. For example, say you want to book Chicago O'Hare (ORD) to Frankfurt (FRA) in United Airlines Polaris business class and continue onto Prague (PRG) with Lufthansa. Also, if youre going to use LifeMiles to book your award flight, youll have horrible luck doing it over the phone. If Last check in is more than 24 hours, there may be an issue with the device. Unlike holding already available award space, you must have the miles in your account before you waitlist. Whether your only goal in life is to try out Singapore Airlines first class suites or you want to fly on Lufthansas amazing first class product, Star Alliance has an answer to your award travel aspirations. Offer ends 5/3/23. Upgrades are valid only on Copa Airlines. Skip to content Requests for upgrades can be made after you have purchased your ticket. PlusPoints upgrades are not available through general selling agents. I did seem to find the info on upgrading with miles (the two sets of upgradable coach fares and the cost in miles) but nothing specific to Evouchers for Senators and what coach fares you can upgrade to business class with. Any input on this confusing topic would be appreciated. Here's a quick look at how to use the ANA Mileage Club search engine to find award space for your next Star Alliance flight. Before we start, though, sign up for an ANA Mileage Club account unlike United, you must be signed in before you can use the search tool. 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Please see the terms and conditions below for specific eligibility rules. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. Country and language selection; currently. I'll discuss how to do this later in the article, but in short, the tool's Award & Upgrade tool can be used to find and verify award space on several Star Alliance carriers with just a couple of clicks. If anyone on our team wouldnt recommend it to a friend or a family member, we wouldnt recommend it on The Points Guy either. You may request an upgrade using PlusPoints as early as time of ticketing in order to upgrade from Lufthansa Economy or Business Class to the next higher cabin. It certainly wouldnt hurt! You'll earn 15 elite night credits each calendar year, and receive automatic Gold elite status. You can reach them by phone at 1-800-645-3880, or by email at lufthansa.com/contact. These are some of the hardest miles to earn in the U.S., so for the bulk of us U.S. flyers, we're stuck booking our Lufthansa first-class tickets at the last minute. Although you cant search for months at a time via a calendar view, you can be fairly certain that your award search will be smooth using Aeroplan. *Any PQP you got for using your United MileagePlus credit card doesn't count toward earning more PlusPoints, unless you have the United Presidential Plus SM card or the . Unfortunately, the airline only releases first-class award space to Star Alliance partners 14 days before departure. Likewise, some airlines will only release award space to partners within a certain amount of time before departure. Related: Book this, not that: Star Alliance award tickets. Related: 6 tips for booking Lufthansa first-class awards. The following Lufthansa fare classes are eligible for PlusPoints upgrades: B, C, D, E, G, H, J, M, Q, U and Y. U.S. government fares are also not eligible for electronic PlusPoints upgrades on Lufthansa-operated flights. If youre looking for tips covering SkyTeam and Oneworld, be sure to check out the other two guides in this series: Despite being one of the easiest alliances to find award space with, Star Alliance is the quirkiest airline alliance when it comes to redeeming your airline miles. You can book one of these flights by selecting the award you'd like to book and clicking the Next button at the bottom of the screen. A device that can't check in can't receive your policies from Intune. Here are the instructions youll want to follow to search for award flights on ANA: ANA has a powerful search engine, and heres what we love about it: Here are the drawbacks of using ANA for your award searches: Bottom Line: Overall, if you want the most accurate search capabilities, look no further than ANA. There it was. Upgrade to Premium Economy Class On long-haul flights Searching for Singapore Airlines award tickets is pretty simple. Terms and Conditions Apply. One of the biggest benefits is being able to set up flight alerts to notify you when award space has opened up. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Disclaimer:Upgraded Points, LLC and its website, UpgradedPoints.com, provides information on credit cards, reward programs, travel information and ancillary information concerning travel and credit cards. Question: If I were to call Avianca LifeMiles and feed them the Turkish Airways flight information would they be able to book that award flight for me using LifeMiles? Adding yourself to a waitlist will give you first dibs at the award when it opens. To check availability online, simply log into your account and select the 'Book a Flight' option. It used to be that United was one of the best ways to search for award flights on Star Alliance partners. It offers some of the best redemption pricing on tickets from the U.S. to Europe, accepts transfers from Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy and has a pretty solid online award search too. In addition, as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Unfortunately Delta doesn't make it possible to search this upgrade inventory on the Delta app/website or through tools like ExpertFlyer, meaning that you'll need to call Delta and play a good old-fashioned game of guess-and-check to find upgrade inventory. If a waitlisted traveler is confirmed in the higher cabin, the ANA or Lufthansa reservation will reflect the upgraded class and United will send a notification to the email address provided at the time of the request. Upgrades can be requested until 24 hours prior to departure. How does one use an e-Voucher for an upgrade and check for Upgrade availability before booking a flight, do you have to book on LH direct to use this or can you book on a third party site like Expedia? When I checked a couple of months before the flight I didn't have the option to upgrade, but two weeks before the flight, eureka! For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit. Business class upgrades cost 1,500 euros (approximately $1,756 US dollars) for the economy class and 249 euros (approximately $268) for the business class. Finally, United and Air Canada's Aeroplan loyalty program both have a history of showing phantom award space. Despite these downfalls, United shows award space for virtually all Star Alliance members and partners like Aer Lingus. The Star Alliance consists of these airlines: Its a lot to handle, but the main thing youll want to take away is that there are a ton of different ways to search for award availability. Star Alliance is the biggest airline alliance in the world. Singapore Airlines offers two different award tiers, Saver and Advantage. I use this feature when my travel plans are flexible, so I can compare and contrast all available airlines and routes. While it was spun-off from Air Canada in 2002, the airline purchased it back in 2018. You can sort by price, the number of stops, duration and more by clicking on the labels at the top of the award search. We may be compensated when you click on links from one or more of our advertising partners. Hot Tip:Want to learn even more about the ins and outs of this tool? Swiss International Air Lines first class is nearly impossible to book. Finally, the free night award certificate with a redemption level of 35,000 points or less can get you hundreds of dollars in potential value each year. For an upgrade, you basically have three options to choose from. Lastly, ExpertFlyer is the single best tool, but it also requires a paid subscription. By logging into your account, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and the use of cookies as described therein. Some Star Alliance partners do not permit lap infants to travel in a premium cabin and if the infant is permitted, special ticketing may be required. Make sure to select the Book with Miles option to search for award travel. ANA is definitely the most accurate, but also one of the more clunky search engines. Because that will probably require making a new login with United to see the available award spaces. If youve already done your research and decided that youre flying on a Star Alliance carrier, the next step is to figure out what the award availability landscape looks like. Thanks! This happens because the award isn't actually available; instead, the booking engine is simply out of date. However, the credit card information that we publish has been written by experts who know these products inside out, and what we recommend is what we would (or already) use ourselves. Before departure, make the most of the benefits of our lounges and save valuable time with priority check-in and priority boarding. Of course, the actual amount you'd save will vary depending on your particular route, travel date and flight duration. United has a slightly more complicated set of upgrade fare codes. Upgrades are subject to availability and valid for paid, published fares only. PlusPoints cant be used to upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy on Lufthansa-operated flights. If you log in to your MileagePlus account and turn on "United Expert Mode," you'll be able to see a breakdown of available fare classes when searching for revenue flights, not award flights. You can filter out connecting flights by checking the "Show only nonstop flight availability" option underneath the calendar. Most long-haul premium cabin award tickets on Singapore Airlines are only bookable through Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer loyalty program. Click here to see a list of advertisers that we work with. Lufthansa first class is one of the best first-class products on the planet, with top-notch service, an excellent hard product and complimentary access to the first-class terminal at Frankfurt (FRA). You can use the search tool to search for award space on several different airlines, including Star Alliance partners like United and Lufthansa. Avianca LifeMiles availability isnt the same as other partners. Copyright 2021 United Airlines, Inc.All rights reserved. Its not the most intuitive, but the dedicated award traveler who gets the hang of it will be at a significant advantage. While American is quite stingy with its business class ("C") upgrade space, I find that first class ("A") is often wide open, especially on American's premium transcontinental routes. Make sure that the flight youre looking at isnt a waitlisted flight. The amount of PlusPoints required is listed per passenger for each itinerary and are deducted at time of request; to upgrade additional people, youll need to use additional PlusPoints. After logging in to your account, look for the "Awards & Upgrades" tool by clicking its label on the left-hand sidebar. Write down the flight numbers, times, and dates for the itinerary you like. Since ANA doesn't allow its members to book one-way award tickets, you can't use the tool to search for them without adding a return leg.