any tricks for transferring FF mileage?

[mlfrancis]

Does anyone have any experience moving miles into United's Mileage Plus program? My mileage is all on USAirways and they don't have the flights available that I want, but UAL does.

UAL doesn't belong to points.com, otherwise I could do it that way. I'm tempted to move my USAir miles to AMEX membership rewards via points.com, then move them from there to UAL - but I'm very nervous about doing it.

Any tricks that anyone has come across? Maybe some programs like points.com that I'm not aware of?

Thanks a bunch!

Mary

[myip]

Call USAIR and you can booked United flight with US FF. They are partner.

[Jimster]

Points.com is a big rip off. Avoid them except to get rid of a few orphan miles. As per above, just call US Air and tell them you want to book United with US Air miles. BTW call them-spend the $20 or so because it is better than trying to do something on line. You only pay if you book when you call. It may be possible to get the right info and book on line later, but if you try on line first there may be a wealth of possibiliites you are unaware of.

[mlfrancis]

calling USAir doesn't help - they only have what United gives them to "sell" and it isn't the full inventory - e.g., I can only get one First Class seat, not two, and only one flight shows in their system. But at united.com and over the phone with United, they have much more inventory to choose from.

You can't book it online unless your miles are with the airline you want to travel with - so I have to do it over the phone, which is ok.

What's wrong with points.com? Seems like a no-brainer to me. The USAirways agent actually recommended that I try that route, but United isn't a member.

Thx.

[Jaybee]

Did you really look to see what kind of exchange rate points.com offers? You think it's a no brainer? Well, so do I, but only in an extreme emergency.

[Jimster]

If you have 25K US miles you'll be lucky to get 2K United miles from points.com. Does that sound reasonable to you? You can also become a gold member and they will do for you exactly what mileport does for you for free but they will charge you a fee. That also doesnt sound reasonable. They also do not service non-gold members in the same way as general members so it makes you think being gold is valuable when in fact it is not. You would be better off trying to find someone to exchange with although it is really illegal to do so in most cases. Yes, US does have restrictions on what they get from United. They are filtered. Why not try another star alliance partner besides United if that is a possibility. The simple truth is that these are loyalty programs and they want to reward you for being loyal. Booking with other airlines does not smack of being loyal, so they make it difficult to do so. This is true with US Air and everyone else. Some flyers want to use their points everywhere since they see it from only their perspective, but the airlines did not create these programs to give the flyer an alternate form of currency; they created them to reward loyal customers. So transferring points is never going to be easy.

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I love my Starwood Preferred American Express for just that reason. They transfer points to most airlines and for every 20,000 you transfer, they add another 5,000 bonus points.
Liz

[mlfrancis]

I didn't look so far as to the exchange costs when I saw that United wasn't a partner. I have moved miles from my Marriott account to airlines and they don't charge any fees to do that, even for express service.

I have used my USAir miles on United for years and never had any problems - used to be Gold on both airlines when I worked a marketing job and flew all the time. United has the best deal - they don't charge premium miles. Delta and American are like USAir - they're looking for about 140K for 1 first class ticket; UAL is only looking for 75K for the same ticket.

I'll just keep calling both airlines every day. Thanks for all the input.

[SuzanneSLO]

Not sure when your travel dates are, but you may need to book what is currently available using US miles and then try to change to better flights later. It is very likely that FF inventory will open up later on UA. My family just got 2 coach seats for August going to Kauai and are right now trying to switch a connecting FC award seat to NS returning. The NS was unavailable when we booked in April but just became available today.

If you have any flexiblity with your dates and AA miles, AA has a very flexible change policy on award tickets, so you can book less than preferred dates than switch to better dates if they come available. UA charges a fee for a change in award tickets if it involves change in connection city or from connecting to NS, for example, but AA does not.

As an aside, not sure how you found 140,000 miles for one FC ticket to HI on AA. If saver awards are available, the cost would be 75,000 miles. On all other dates, it would be 150,000. -- Suzanne

[mlfrancis]

USAir is looking for 140K; Delta and American are looking for 150K for one ticket. United has lots for 75K but USAir can't get at them.

My dates are fairly flexible - +/- a day on each end of a two-week stay. They're there ... I just have to figure out if and how I can get my miles into my United account. Ugh.

[dlpearson]

mlfrancis,

I sent you a TUG Private Message. Maybe we can help each other out......

-David