United Airlines miles

Hi there,

I've looked through and cannot find this covered. I ahve approx. 65,000 United Airlines miles, but cannot seem to find a way to move these to Virgin. Can anyone help with a route to do this via another partner perhaps.

Graham.

[preiffer]

Hi Graham, and welcome to the site [y]


I've tried before - pretty much impossible to my knowledge, I'm afraid. (Certainly not without losing a LOT in the process).

[Nottingham Nick]

Further to what Paul has said above.

According to The Webflyer Mileage Converter, your best bet is to convert them to Diners Club miles and then to FC points. Your 65K become 30K in the process.

This is okay if you are a US resident as Diners Club are only a VS partner in the US, if I remember correctly.

If you are in the UK, then I think you are struggling. [:?]

Nick

[mcmbenjamin]

Well you could buy me a ticket, joke. Or maybe a Singapore Air ticket using a Star Award.

Thanks a lot - I'm pretty much where I thought I was [:(!]

The only other thing I could see was moving them to Hilton Honours and out, but not sure how easy that would be.

G.

[Nottingham Nick]

I have no experience of United miles but, according to the converter I have linked to above, you can't transfer direct from United to Hilton. It has to be done by a circuitous (benefit sapping) route, i.e. Diners etc.


Nick

[ChuckC]

Hmmm. Maybe do a little variant of Ben's idea, and fly an SQ/VS codeshare flight?

Chuck-

[mcmbenjamin]

Take a look at the Star Alliance Award chart for UA. Europe (UK) to Africa is 60K. Fancy a trip to Cape Town?

Now we are talking I'm not entirely clear with the way spending rewards and earning works out, but I will have a read. It seems stupid to loose so many in converting the United ones to Virgin. So I guess I'm best to use them.... I'll have a look around united site and see how I can spend them and earn more (virgin ones) at the sametime.

Thanks for all your help guys!

G.

[mcmbenjamin]

Hmmm. What is your confusion? I am quite good at spending my Dad's United miles on the Star Alliance (herein *A); mainly SQ, AC, and LH.

Pretty much just figure out where you what to go and when then call your local United awards desk and they will help you out and search for available dates. Maybe looking at the *A website to see which airlines are in the *A and the *A route structure. Maybe also check out *A airlines websites to see if you would rather fly one airline over the other. IIRC LH does not have IFE in each seat in economy in all aircraft. Possibly check out airliners.net's trip report section and FlyerTalk.com's trip report section or even VF's own to research other travelers opition of there flights. If all is available, they simply book the flights and charge you for the taxes and other 'fun fun' fees plus (aleast in the USA) a $15.00 booking fee (wavied for high status people).

Maybe in the future use BMI FFP card to earn on *A as they allow mile plus money (herein MpM) awards and VS awards. Sadly they do not allow MpM awards on VS. MpM awards normally allow people to get awards with a mix of money and miles which is a good deal IMHO.

I really do not mean to talk down to you per se but it is a simple process. It can be confusing too. Please ask any questions you may have as I am sure others have them too.

Thank you GrahanN for joining VF as a paid member. Welcome

[Scrooge]

Slow down a little BEn,you have to remember that not everyone is a s wise to the workings of airlines as some of us on here,just take a look at some people trying to work the self check-in terminals now doted all over the landscape.

[mcmbenjamin]

Cool Dave. Added some more.

Honestly Graham; I and everyone here is happy to help. I have a boring day ahead of me so ask anything.

I understand it now, had a little read - I think there was confusion when I contacted United once before, but I think I am clear.

Thanks again for all your help. Looks like I shall go with using the points on a star alliance flight rather than migrate them.

G.

[mcmbenjamin]

You're welcome. Be sure to write a TR with your flight experience.

I promise one day I will not miss-up there, their and they're and your and you're. Hey, I have too, two and to down.

I wonder if the new link-up with Air China will make this easier for me [:?]

G.

It will soon be possible to use miles from one Star Alliance airline FFP to buy upgrades on other Star Alliance member airlines.

Up until now, you could only use miles on most other airlines to get pure Award tickets, and not upgrade awards, but that is changing over the next couple of months.

It looks like the first airlines in Star to offer this will be UA, US, AC, SQ, LH, OS, and LX.

Cheers,
Mike

Hi Mike,

Where did you pick up that piece of news? That's extremely interesting to me since I have a stack of BMI DC miles that I'd like to use with the likes of SQ! At the moment, as you know, that means a straight miles-plus-money ticket or a full-reward ticket. Do we have any indication on what the mileage costs will be for a cabin upgrade?

Cheers,

Darryl

[preiffer]

Randalf,

*A announced it a while back (I think it was on their site, but can't find it [:I]). BD are not part of the upgrade program, and so far have not indicated that they intend to be... [:?]

[mcmbenjamin]

Originally posted by preiffer
Randalf,

*A announced it a while back (I think it was on their site, but can't find it [:I]). BD are not part of the upgrade program, and so far have not indicated that they intend to be... [:?]

I was interested in this. Went to FT and found a link to UA's site. Coming soon Ð Star Alliance Upgrade Awards

Mileage Plus¨ is thrilled to announce that you will soon be able to use your Mileage Plus miles to upgrade from qualifying fares to first or business class on participating Star Alliance¨ member airlines. Initially, you may use your miles for paperless upgrades on ANA, Asiana, Austrian Airlines Group, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Thai Airlines, and TAP.

Would be good to upgrade Y to C/J on SQ.

[mcmbenjamin]

LH currently allows there membership to upgrade on other Star carriers, including SQ. LH Miles and More

Also according to FT, you can upgrade on SQ using DL SkyMiles.
Delta'a Award chart for SQ

I transferred my UA miles to Hilton Honours a few years ago but they have stopped that now. To stop them expiring I donated 1,000 miles to their charity and as this acts as a transaction it keeps the remaining miles active for another 3 years, hopefully I will have found a way to use them by then.