The information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. You can log in with your e-mail, Facebook information, or ExpertFlyer credentials. Write down the flight numbers, times, and dates for the itinerary you like. Hot Tip:Want to learn even more about the ins and outs of this tool? Further, the tool isn't very user-friendly from a design perspective either, but you'll get the hang of it after running a few searches. Phantom award space exists, especially on multi-segment flights. When your desired flight appears in the search results, click the icon with the exclamation point. Flights with Lufthansa must be booked into one of the following fare classes to qualify for a PlusPoints upgrade: B, C, D, E, G, H, J, M, Q, U, or Y. Copa Airlines You can fly to South America comfortably on Copa Airlines by using your PlusPoints. I've never seen phantom award space when using the Mileage Club search tool, even when looking for obscure routes and flights on partner airlines. 4x points for purchases made at restaurants worldwide, at U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on U.S. purchases for shipping. Even if you're willing to redeem an upgrade certificate, spend cash or use your miles, you typically can only clear an upgrade in advance if the airline has set aside seats in its "upgrade" fare class. Fixed-price upgrades when you check in online are available under the following conditions: The check-in for the relevant flight is open. **Codeshare flights are marketed and sold by one airline, under their own airline code and flight number, but operated by another airline. The myOffer Lufthansa upgrade option is available through the Lufthansa website after you have already booked your tickets. Improve earnings, maximize rewards and track progress toward dream trips. Searching through Aeroplan is just to help you locate award space so that you can then book through EVA Air directly using your miles. If upgrade space on ANA or Lufthansa is not available at the time of the request, travelers may have the option to be placed on the ANA or Lufthansa upgrade waitlist. ANA is definitely the most accurate, but also one of the more clunky search engines. Now though, I am wondering how I get the site to show me other Star Alliance carrier flights, as all the flights I am shown are Air Canada and the fees are very similar to the actual flight price Air Canada charges for that route. To upgrade to business class will set you back from around $3,134. Avianca LifeMiles availability isnt the same as other partners. The Yes/No message will only be displayed if you were asked for the number of award seats in the initial search area. Once you've set up your flight search, click the red Search button at the bottom of the screen. Well begin with our first choices for airline search engines, and then well break down what the costs and benefits are for the airline. Upgrades can be requested until 24 hours prior to departure. I tried the Aeroplan site and followed your instructions but neither the correct Turkish Airlines flights nor Eva Air points showed up at all. An open jaw is when you arrive in one city and return from another. (If the reservation has more than four travelers, you will need to call the operating carrier.) In the EWR to SIN example above, there is available award space at both the Saver and Advantage levels. I have been looking at booking EDI-FRA-HKG for October in C and was wondering if Senator 2 e-Vouchers would be enough to upgrade to F but can't find out about upgrade availability? If youre searching for an ANA flight and. If anyone on our team wouldnt recommend it to a friend or a family member, we wouldnt recommend it on The Points Guy either. 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? One last warning to heed: All of the above websites will price multi-segment itineraries at the premium-class level, even if only one of the legs has business- or first-class award space. If upgrade space is available at the time of the request and you choose to confirm the upgrade, United will automatically deduct PlusPoints from your MileagePlus account. Finally, leverage the above tools and strategies to maximize your chances at riding up front. Please view our advertising policy page for more information. Using Smart Search is a good idea if you want to see all of your options. At some of our airports, you can even secure your upgrade, subject to availability, at the last minute at a fixed price or by redeeming miles at the check-in/bag drop-off counter, ticket counter or at the gate. Type in your departure and return airports, Choose the number of passengers and class of service, If youve got a specific airline in mind for your route, you can choose from the drop-down box that says. Despite these downfalls, United shows award space for virtually all Star Alliance members and partners like Aer Lingus. any time. Unfortunately, the search tool is still far from perfect. Well start by detailing the process to search for availability. 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. This is marked above the award ticket price across all classes of service, and you can see an example in the screenshot above. In this guide, well be showing you how to use various Star Alliance airlines award search engines to pinpoint the exact flight to take. The Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex is a stacked card with a rewards rate that will help you earn bonus points on everyday and business-related purchases. One of these benefits is the ability to earn and redeem airline miles across all alliance member airlines. If you'd like to add a comment to this article and share your valuable feedback and opinions, please click here to leave your comment. As one of the most connected airline networks in the world, Star Alliance has a lot going for it. To get started with searching award availability with LifeMiles, follow these simple steps: Besides the fact that Avianca LifeMiles recently overhauled their IT system, there are several reasons why youd want to use Avianca LifeMiles to search for Star Alliance awards: Here are some things to watch out for when using LifeMiles for award searches: Bottom Line: Avianca LifeMiles is a generally reliable way to search for award availability. You may request PlusPoints upgrades for up to four people traveling on the same reservation. Please see the terms and conditions below for specific eligibility rules. Adding yourself to a waitlist will give you first dibs at the award when it opens. You can view more details of the available flights by clicking the Details button located to the right of the flight's total duration. Upgraded Points, LLC uses reasonable efforts to maintain accurate information on the site and prior to applying for any credit card offers found on UpgradedPoints.com, all visitors should review other features of such credit cards including but not limited to interest rates, annual fees and transaction fees, and should determine the suitability of such credit cards considering their own individual financial position. When you click on this, you can view additional information like flight numbers and operating aircraft. I was having none of it. Designate your trip type (round-trip, one-way, multi-city), type in your origin and destination cities, departure and return dates, the number of passengers, and select your cabin class. Plus, your own feed of TPG content. With this in mind, only waitlist an award if you already have the miles in your Singapore Airlines account or have a backup plan to use the miles you transfer in. eVouchers used are automatically deducted from your Miles & More account. Compare the cost in points or miles to cash, and see which option is best. In addition, you can enter passport and visa information, and enter details for the Secure Flight program. And, it can often get overwhelming when thinking about how to search for award flights. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Single interface for searching all Star Alliance flights, Can see seat maps and set up flight alerts, so you can automatically be notified of award space opening, Lots of results. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). (If the reservation has more than four travelers, you will need to call the operating carrier.) Receive 1 Free Night Award every year after your Card renewal month. No responsibility will be taken by the bank advertiser for these comments. At this time, the airline doesn't offer saver space for premium economy awards, though, so these can only be booked with Mileage Plus miles for the time being. Additionally, Avianca LifeMiles also has some of the best first class award costs. We take your comments very seriously as they really help us to improve the site. You can also click the arrows to the left and right of the dates of travel at the top of the screen to scroll to view award space for the preceding and proceeding dates. While they havent mentioned anything about devaluing partner flights, its still a dangerous precedent to set. How Can I Tell When Airlines Have Available Upgrade Space? Mileage accrual is based on the original ticketed booking class, not the upgraded class of service. Card Rating is based on the opinion of TPGs editors and is not influenced by the card issuer. 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. Click on a date you're interested in booking to view all available flights. Your comment to uncheck the compare to Air Canada.com was the unlock for me to actually be able to see any Aeroplan flights at all prior to unchecking that, I was redirected to Air Canada for every search I tried to make. Since United has started pricing awards dynamically, you need to search for saver award space if you plan on booking with another loyalty program. With nearly 30 carriers worldwide, Star Alliance provides numerous options for redeeming your miles, and the above websites are your best bet for finding award options. The layout is a bit odd, but everything you need to search is right at the center of the screen. Once your ticket has been issued, requests to upgrade with PlusPoints can be made through our online request form. Another way to verify award space is to call United or Aeroplan before transferring miles to book your award ticket. The first thing you should do is look at the specific rules of the upgrade you're trying to use to make sure your ticket is eligible (especially if you booked an award ticket or a basic economy fare). You'll earn 15 elite night credits each calendar year, and receive automatic Gold elite status. Likewise, some airlines will only release award space to partners within a certain amount of time before departure. The process is user-friendly, and the search engine is very accurate. Finally, United and Air Canada's Aeroplan loyalty program both have a history of showing phantom award space. Many of the airlines in the alliance hide award space from partner bookings. Any and all options, reviews, comments and analyses are the responsibility of the author(s) and not any Advertiser or credit card issuer. If you want to book a seat on a specific flight, set a flight alert for the date and flight number you want to fly the program will email you when an award ticket opens up. Ive been struggling with the aeroplan site to find any flights from YYZ LHR. While you can only request upgrades for one segment at a time, you may upgrade more than one eligible segment on the itinerary. If a Copa Airlines segment of your itinerary is canceled, the upgrade request for that segment will also be automatically canceled. Choose your fare classes, such as business or first. One of the biggest benefits is being able to set up flight alerts to notify you when award space has opened up. Next, you need to identify your airlines fare bucket for upgrade inventory in order to see if you'll be able to clear in advance. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). Simply click on Awards & Upgrades at the top left, enter your search criteria, select Lufthansa from the drop-down, and check the box for O first-class awards. Once he gets word of enough available seats, he should call to make sure he and his family can ride up front. What were basically saying is that if youre looking for award travel on any airline except for Singapore Airlines business and first class, start your award search at Aeroplan. Upgrade with miles:in this case, we use your accrued miles to pay for your desired upgrade. We'll run a soft credit check to find special offers, but it wont affect your credit score. Award availability isnt constant. The amount of PlusPoints required is listed per passenger for each itinerary and deducted at time of request; to upgrade additional people, youll need to use additional PlusPoints. The purchased upgrade is non-refundable and will be forfeited if . You can make upgrade requests for Lufthansa-operated flights beginning 331 days before departure until 10 hours before departure. Enter the requested information, then click Verify and Create and you'll be all set. There are tons of ways to earn lots of ANA miles too, which elevates the reputation of ANA Mileage Club. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone. United Airlines operates hundreds of different routes, and I've found that the airline is usually pretty good about opening award space especially in economy class. Not the most user-friendly in the beginning, Technically, you can search one-way flights, though youll have to enter a round-trip routing that. ANA may impose blackout periods where upgrades are not permitted. Note down your flight numbers, dates, and times. Even though American Airlines has 26 different fare classes, one for each letter of the alphabet, there are only two you need to pay attention to for upgrades: ExpertFlyer is a great tool to help in your quest for these upgrades. If his flight doesn't have upgrade space available, he can set an alert for his desired number of seats and receive an email if they open up. This link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. However, were here to tell you that ever since LifeMiles revamped their website and interface, this has completely changed.