Can someone give a little advice on award on SQ?

[JonNYC]

Id like to redeem UA miles either NYC-xSIN-CHC. Or, if that's too tall an order, I'll just fly CX to SIN and would like to redeem SIN-CHC on SQ. Obviously would prefer the former.

Any guidance anyone can offer on searching for availability? Any way to do so on-line? Even to get a rough idea? And, is it still the case that seats that might be available through (every?) other *alliance partner might not be available through UA?

Again, assuming the NYC-SIN in J or F might be very very tough, any thoughts on if SIN-CHC should be particularly difficult? For this summer.

Thanks for any guidance, I'm a total *noob.

[rrgg]

Do you have any ANA miles? Their website will search for SQ awards. This year people were reporting seeing F. I have seen FRA-JFK personally but in Y.

[scchris]

From my understanding, the ANA award search is the best option for searching for *A awards. They recently changed it so that you not only need an NH account, but also need miles in the account in order to be able to do a partner search. Here is an FT thread which discusses it:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ad-merged.html

Also, Starnet blocking is alive and well at UA, so even if you manage to find SQ availability, UA still may prevent you from redeeming for it.

[JonNYC]

I saw that thread the other day-- bad timing for me! Can I assume ANA site was the only site that showed SQ availability? I feel like if i find a seat, I can transfer or otherwise obtain non-UA *alliance miles.

[MiamiBeach]

There is a workaround described here, I just tried it and it works for me with 0 miles in my ANA account.

[rrgg]

Originally Posted by JonNYC

Can I assume ANA site was the only site that showed SQ availability?

No. I've seen SQ awards on the Aeroplan site too, but I haven't used it much.

[cstead]

UA does not allow USA-Australia/NZ awards to route via SE Asia. While this sorta makes sense for something like LAX-AKL via BKK, it does totally suck for those who want to go to PER.

For your desired routing, you will need to shell out 2 awards: NYC-SIN; SIN-CHC, and of course oneways only on UA metal, so SIN-CHC will have to be a return or open jaw - of course you can throw the return away, but it's still a hassle to find the availability in the first place.

[JonNYC]

Originally Posted by cstead

UA does not allow USA-Australia/NZ awards to route via SE Asia. While this sorta makes sense for something like LAX-AKL via BKK, it does totally suck for those who want to go to PER.

For your desired routing, you will need to shell out 2 awards: NYC-SIN; SIN-CHC, and of course oneways only on UA metal, so SIN-CHC will have to be a return or open jaw - of course you can throw the return away, but it's still a hassle to find the availability in the first place.

All that considered, I think I'll restrict myself to the SIN-CHC-SIN award- (if available)- i fully expected it would be more than one award, but I did totally forget about that one-way awards are not universal outside of AAdvantage. I could easily live with two one-way awards NYC-SIN + SIN-CHC, but not once coupled with throw-away of returns-- would get very expensive very quick. I love one-way awards and can't "go back" to long-haul r/t awards-- to boring and difficult too deal with when itin changes on the fly.

So, thanks for the clarity- I'll go back to CX F-award to SIN and then see if there's anything I can do to get to CHC on SQ. Or, of course, just fly CX all the way into AKL (2 awards as well, of course).

[JonNYC]

If any one has top-level phone agent access on UA (or CO for that matter) and wouldn't mind doing a favor, could you possibly inquire as to availability SIN-CHC any time July 30, 31, Aug1, 2? Return date can be 10 days later, or whatever.

[JonNYC]

Thanks to a VERY helpful member who called CO for me and found the *exact* seat I wanted. As well, I have my AAdv CX award on hold-- but will wait till tomorrow to see if I can beat the expedite fee!