United MIles/Star Alliance: One way Biz to Barcelona

[stevek2952]

I have 240,000 United miles banked (Star Alliance). I'm trying to book a one way Biz Class ticket to Barcelona. United won't let me do it, because they do not fly directly into Barcelona.

 

I can fly one way in Business on United and then buy a seat on British or Iberia to Barcelona. I then have to work through the terminal change and interline travel issues.

 

I do not see where I can buy a reasonably-priced coach or economy plus ticket and use the miles to upgrade.

 

Am I asking too much?! :confused:

[CruiserBruce]

I would look into UA LAX to FRA, then Lufthansa to BCN. I would also look at the United board over on flyertalk dot com. There is a wealth of knowledge there.

 

Edit- I just checked the UA site. You can't because it is one way. Hmmmm. Buy the one way fare, or waste the miles for a round trip? I would still do the FRA route, tho, just to stay within * Alliance.

[fbgd]

Doesn't matter that UA don't fly into Barcelona themselves, as long as another Star Alliance carrier does, of which there are plenty; Adria, Aegean, Austrian, SN Brussels, Continental, Egyptair, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, Swiss and US Airways.

[6rugrats]

It does matter that UA doesn't fly into BCN; OP wants to book a one way award ticket. OP - as you've discovered, this is impossible to do. All one way award tickets must be on UA metal, and UA does not fly to BCN.

 

If you want to use miles and book a one-way award ticket, you're going to have to find a city in Europe into which UA flies, and then purchase a ticket from there to BCN, or use more miles (not usually a good value) to get from that city to BCN.

 

Have you looked at the price for purchasing an upgradeable round trip ticket in economy, and seen if there are any flights that have availability for an upgrade? If it's less expensive than a one way ticket, you can just not take the return.

[fbgd]

Oh right, wasn't aware UA didn't offer oneways properly....like pretty much every other FFP! Don't I feel like a prat!

[stevek2952]

All--

Thanks for the updates.

 

I forgot to say that I'm looking to fly one-way to Barcelona on Saturday, October 23. United (and Starwood) don't let me do that....but I will go look at Lufthansa again. Working with RCCL's air provider, it has not worked to look at any upgradable coach fare they have. It's crazy to have 200,000 miles in the account that can't be applied here.

[AZjohn]

I can fly one way in Business on United and then buy a seat on British or Iberia to Barcelona. I then have to work through the terminal change and interline travel issues.

 

I'm not sure what you mean with "terminal change" unless you are talking about flying into LHR. UA has several other European airports that are closer to BCN and have more connection options (yes, you will have to pay $ to continue on to BCN).

Also, you may not see NC availability (Business class for miles/upgrades) to places like ZRH or GVA but they usually have First class available in a 3 class aircraft for miles.

Good luck,

John

[scottbee]

I have 240,000 United miles banked (Star Alliance). I'm trying to book a one way Biz Class ticket to Barcelona. United won't let me do it, because they do not fly directly into Barcelona.

 

I can fly one way in Business on United and then buy a seat on British or Iberia to Barcelona. I then have to work through the terminal change and interline travel issues.

 

I do not see where I can buy a reasonably-priced coach or economy plus ticket and use the miles to upgrade.

 

Am I asking too much?! :confused:

 

UA to Madrid. Then there's a connecting bus for €2 across town to the main train station "Atocha Renfe" and take the high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona Sants Station.

 

We just did the MAD-bus-train-Barcelona trip ourselves, and it was one of the highlights 300kmph train (that's 200 miles per hour); we paid about €80 with an advance purchase ticket on the train; booked on http://renfe.es/

[6rugrats]

UA to Madrid. Then there's a connecting bus for €2 across town to the main train station "Atocha Renfe" and take the high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona Sants Station.

 

We just did the MAD-bus-train-Barcelona trip ourselves, and it was one of the highlights 300kmph train (that's 200 miles per hour); we paid about €80 with an advance purchase ticket on the train; booked on http://renfe.es/

 

UA does not fly to MAD, but OP could book a one way award ticket on Aer Lingus, through UA's webpage, because it's treated the same as flying on UA metal. It's on Aer Lingus planes, and I have no idea what business class is like on them. I currently see no availability in C or F for 23 Oct, though that could change.

I have found it cheaper to fly MAD-BCN then to take the train.

[scottbee]

Didn't realize UA didn't serve Spain at all, but....

 

Aren't CO and UA the same thing now? CO serve both BCN and MAD from EWR....

 

Call UA's booking line directly (don't do it online); I suspect it's just not fully integrated yet

[AZjohn]

...Aren't CO and UA the same thing now? ..... I suspect it's just not fully integrated yet

 

Well, as of this moment they are not the same thing. Optimistically, they hope the two airlines gradually get merged throughout 2011. The mileage programs are for sure going to be separate until Dec 31 2011. So, for right now no award travel between the two. But who knows what happens in the real world:rolleyes:

John

[njhorseman]

Well, as of this moment they are not the same thing. Optimistically, they hope the two airlines gradually get merged throughout 2011. The mileage programs are for sure going to be separate until Dec 31 2011. So, for right now no award travel between the two. But who knows what happens in the real world:rolleyes:

John

 

There's award travel between the two because they're both members of the Star Alliance. I just used CO points to book a trip to Europe with a total of four flights on two different Star Alliance airlines. None of my travel is on CO, but I was able to book the trip on the CO Web site using CO miles.

[6rugrats]

There's award travel between the two because they're both members of the Star Alliance. I just used CO points to book a trip to Europe with a total of four flights on two different Star Alliance airlines. None of my travel is on CO, but I was able to book the trip on the CO Web site using CO miles.

But OP wants to book ONE way award tickets, and he can't do this on CO using UA miles. Currently, the ONLY way to book a one way ticket to Spain (MAD) using UA miles is on UA's webpage and booking on Aer Lingus.

[AZjohn]

There's award travel between the two because they're both members of the Star Alliance. I just used CO points to book a trip to Europe with a total of four flights on two different Star Alliance airlines. None of my travel is on CO, but I was able to book the trip on the CO Web site using CO miles.

 

Did you book any UA flights with CO miles? UA does *net blocking which makes it real hard. I tried many times to book CO with UA miles and no luck.

[njhorseman]

But OP wants to book ONE way award tickets, and he can't do this on CO using UA miles. Currently, the ONLY way to book a one way ticket to Spain (MAD) using UA miles is on UA's webpage and booking on Aer Lingus.

 

I wasn't suggesting the OP could book a one way reward ticket. I was responding to a blanket statement that there was no reward travel between CO and UA because the merger isn't complete.

[njhorseman]

Did you book any UA flights with CO miles? UA does *net blocking which makes it real hard. I tried many times to book CO with UA miles and no luck.

 

My recollection is I could have used some UA flights as long as I was willing to make a 12 hour trip (including connecting time) into a 25 hour trip...or something on that order. There was certainly no UA flight that made any sense for me to use.

[AZjohn]

My recollection is I could have used some UA flights as long as I was willing to make a 12 hour trip (including connecting time) into a 25 hour trip...or something on that order. There was certainly no UA flight that made any sense for me to use.

Understand. Please keep in mind your CO miles are worth more than UA miles (for reasons explained above). It will be interesting to see what happens when the two FF programs merge a year from now (if it happens then). I hope they get rid of starnet blocking for everyone and then it will be easy for us UA people to book star aliance flights.

John

[stevek2952]

Thanks for the commentary in this chain. Several of the ideas in here proved to be really helpful. For example, that aer Lingus was considered United Airlines "iron".

 

Some 20 years ago I was a travel agent, so I'm pretty comfortable working my way around an OAG (I'm dating myself--and I'm not that old) :p. I had been noting on my calendar when airspace was going to show up online. So when I went in a couple of weeks ago, I was disappointed when nothing showed up. I then tried to go through Royal Caribbean's travel agency to see what they could do.

 

The big problem is the one way travel. United offers one-way award tickets but doesn't fly directly into Barcelona. Continental was of no help because they don't do that yet.

 

Because of the the chain posts, I called United International Mileage Plus Resevations. After the usual 5 minutes of telephonic questions and answers, I suprisingly was sent to an agent.

 

WITHIN 1 MINUTE, she came back and quoted Los Angeles-Munich-Barcelona Business Class seats on Lufthansa! Perfect.

 

AMAZINGLY, these seats were available as "Saver Awards". Meaning they are half-the "price" of the normal 105,000 miles for one-way award travel.

 

The total price for the two tickets was 105,000 miles and $102.50 in fees. What a deal.

 

Lesson Learned: Don't rely on United's website, particularly for award travel.

 

Happy New Year. I hope yours starts off this well too!

[frugaltravel]

Oh right, wasn't aware UA didn't offer oneways properly....like pretty much every other FFP! Don't I feel like a prat!

 

Not sure what "pretty much every other FFP" means to you, but I know DL doesn't offer one way awards at all (well, I guess they do if you pay the round trip mileage level!). And Alaska Air only offers one way awards if traveling on their metal, not partners, which sounds much like United.

 

Lesson Learned: Don't rely on United's website, particularly for award travel.

 

This is usually true for most airlines. So many people are bitten by the "do everything online" bug and really miss out by either using tens of thousands more miles than needed or getting extremely poor routing options/availability. Rarely is it best to use an airline's website for award travel since pretty much no airline website shows all partner award availability.

[NHBob]

I agree with previous poster - except for domestic trips you are better off calling UA to book award travel, even though it will cost a few bucks. Same goes for Delta and American. On at least three occasions helpful UA, DL and AA phone reps found me a seat when websites were showing nothing available.

 

Of course that doesn't change the fact that UA will issue 1-way award tickets only for UA and United Express operated flights. When UA first announced 1-way awards I contacted them to see if they planned to expand program to permit 1-way awards on Star Alliance and/or code shares, as AA did from the beginning. Typically, the non answer was simply to confirm what I already knew - not available.

 

I'll keep hoping that the United and Continental schedules will be integrated by December '11 so I can get a 1-way award ticket EWR-LIS non stop, currently operated by Continental and therefore unavailable with UA miles.

 

Bob

[frugaltravel]

I agree with previous poster - except for domestic trips you are better off calling UA to book award travel, even though it will cost a few bucks. Same goes for Delta and American. On at least three occasions helpful UA, DL and AA phone reps found me a seat when websites were showing nothing available.

 

With DL, unless you are very informed about the quirks of their website and how to laboriously check for domestic award tickets, you will save tens of thousands of miles most of the time if you call for domestic award reservations. I book lots of DL awards and it literally takes an hour or more of research for each ticket to find the low level awards (which are often there, but very hard to find). Not sure how the United website is for domestic award travel. The Continental and American websites seems to do a good job with domestic award travel.