In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to find United Airlines (UA) benefits on many Star Alliance partner airlines. Lately, it seems to have gotten even worse…and by design.
Dan’s bargain information has been published detailed post This indicates that United appears to be preventing Star Alliance partners from viewing and booking a significant portion of their Saver award space. Dan looked at United’s nonstop flight saver availability on various routes and cross-referenced it with Aeroplan, Turkish Airlines, and Avianca’s LifeMiles. They found that most of the saver benefits that United offered to its own members could not be booked on any of its partner sites. Instead, I only found more expensive connecting itineraries. Currently, whatever blocks are present seem to primarily affect economic awards.
United certainly wouldn’t be the first airline to restrict access to partner benefits, but this would be a marked departure from how the airline has operated in the past. For many, the limited availability of UA benefits will be a clear blow to the attractiveness of partner programs such as Avianca LifeMiles and Aeroplan.
As this appears to be a recent occurrence, Dan’s Deals contacted United to find out if it was a bug or indicative of a deliberate policy change. They received the following response:
All fare inventories, including rewards and revenue, are dynamic and constantly changing. I have nothing more to share at this time.
That’s not encouraging.
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