Add ANA to the list of United MileagePlus Star Alliance partners that are currently not bookable using your United miles. This fix, however, will hopefully be quicker than the other partner award problems still present.
Last night, All Nippon Airways (ANA) award space disappeared from united.com. All of it, including domestic, regional, and longhaul flights.
I reached out to United to find out why and was told it was a temporary glitch.
We’ve been in contact with our partners at ANA who have confirmed that there is an issue with ability to send us award availability. We anticipate this issue being fixed in the coming days. During this time, award availability for ANA flights will not display on United.com or the United app.
The “good” news is that if you call United Reservations agents still have access to ANA space and can book it.
Of course I used the opportunity to ask for an update on the fact that Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, and Thai Airways are also not currently bookable online. A spokesperson told me:
We are working diligently with our partners on a solution. It is not our intention to limit awards, as demonstrated by our flexibility in booking channels, the Excursionist Perk and our lower short haul intra region awards. This anomaly requires time to fix , working with IT systems across multiple carriers, and it is our collective goal to have availability back in a manner that ensures the entire booking and ticketing process is in line with customer expectations.
I take that to mean that United wants to solve the problem once and for all with these carriers. While I hate that there is no specific timeframe proposed for restoration of this award space online (or even the ANA space, since “coming days” can mean weeks or months), I appreciate that United has gone on the record to say it is working on a fix.
Now, if you want to be a pessimist you could say that United never specifically says that this space will return online. But my conversations with United suggest that the plan is to restore all of this space to United.com and the United mobile app.
CONCLUSION
Hopefully the problems with these carriers will be worked out quickly. In the meantime, if you need award space on ANA (or Thai Airways), call United Reservations to book.
> Read More: United Blocking Award Space On Singapore, TAP, Thai Airways
> Read More: Still No Fix For Key Partner Award Redemptions With United MileagePlus
I had an interesting experience recently, re: MileagePlus SQ availability. My wife and I are on a F award ticket that includes MLE-SIN on SQ. When I booked, several months ago, only Y was available on that flight, but a couple of weeks ago, I received an Expert Flyer alert that C space had opened up. I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to get the seats because of the issues that UA and SQ are having, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. I called United…and the agent I spoke with was able to make the upgrade with no problem. I am exceedingly grateful
It might be worthwhile to remind those with a CSR that they can apply Chase points as cash (1.5 cents per point) towards the purchase of travel on any airline, include these 4 S* partners. I’ve found that MP’s partner redemption rates are usually higher than the CSR rate, even for premium travel. This is especially true for TAP, which has very reasonable transatlantic biz fares if booking early enough. For example, I paid $1,000/ticket (roughly 67K chase pts) for 4 J seats on LIS-SFO later this year. The lowest rate United MP charges for a one way J partner award with the same routing is 70K mi, but only 1 seat was available. So, CSR allows for potentially not only a better rate but also much better availability (paid fare avail much better than award avail). There is no way my family of four could’ve traveled together in transatl biz otherwise…
The problem is that TAP doesn’t have a “real” business class — it’s recliner seats, and service is pretty terrible. Most airlines do not offer fares like that — with LOT (which has lie-flat seats), I often see fares at $1500 one-way, $2500 round trip, at which point the UA mile rate is much more appealing. Sometimes during sales, one can get $1800 or $2000 round trip tickets, but those are specific sales… Sure, then it can make sense to book with chase points.
TAP will be using the A330-900 neo, with new “real” lie-flat business class seats, on the LIS-SFO route this summer. Here’s what the seats look like: https://onemileatatime.com/tap-air-portugal-a330-900neo-routes/
The first point I’m making is that chase points allow for better or similar redemption rates as the airline partner award when *discounted biz class fares* are concerned.
The other point is that chase pts make traveling in longhaul biz as a *4-person family* a possibility. Unless you look 330 days before the date of travel (and even then, it’s far from a sure thing), finding 4 biz award seats thru the airline is impossible. To reiterate, in this case TAP made only one biz award seat available on the date of travel.
TAP is just one example. Another is QR’s discounted biz class fare LAX-DOH-India in which RT biz fares were going for $2,300, or 153K chase points. Roughly 71K mi each way in biz on QR is similar to the 70K AA partner redemption rate for the same routes. In my case, I don’t have many AA mi, so chase has enormous value here to me as well.
Obviously someone traveling alone or who has a ton of cash or miles stashed away wouldn’t need to strategically use chase points. But there are many families who do.
Last thing – I’ve heard that TAP’s service in biz is bad, but I’m willing to put up with it given that the only other alternative for the 4 of us to fly together is in cattle class!
As a mostly AA flyer and Exec Plat – at the VERY least United is way ahead of AA. I mean, LATAM, a strong partner and one they want to move closer to in a relationship has never been bookable online for awards.
United and, to some degree, Delta, are leaps and bounds better with their ability to book partners on their sites.
not just the site …. the app too …. offering full partner booking and usually 15 mins max for partner ticketing unless it’s a tricky one
over last summer, it was after final night at Tomorrowland Belgium, 3am there, and i really wanted to go home instead of staying in Brussels one more day… saw saver econ space on Brussels Air nonstop back to the US on UA app, immediately booked it, zero fuel surcharge, and went packing (and bear in mind it’s packing my tent in close to pitch dark outside)
and by the time i headed to the shuttle bus at 3:45am, the ticket is more than ready for online check in, and i got my boarding pass before arriving at the airport …. for a flight departure at 10:35am the same morning.
Thanks again as usual for a needless defense of UA that has nothing to do with the issue at hand (removing MP partners from booking one at a time in case you haven’t heard)
hahhaha why are you still pretending to be HVF ? hahahahah the JFK T7 sUA gate agent is pretending he’s all on moral high horse when in fact he got fired for incompetence and still bitter till today.
seriously dude, you should do stand comedy for being such a joke ^^
You are a straight up troll. I am a 1.5MM 1K mosty biz traveler who is actually able to see flaws with UA.
You, on the other hand, seem to be a paid endorser for them.
I don’t know, I think it saves them quite a bit when they limit ability to book generous star partners. Can you actually book Singapore Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, or Thai Airways if you call in, I’m guessing not. No doubt they will fix this around the time they devalue the award chart.
Thai is available “with the right agent”: https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2019/02/05/united-airlines-partner-award-space-blocking/
Since January I’ve tried using lifemiles to look for some award space on ANA and haven’t found anything either.
lifemiles is a great choice for many but comes with its own set of issues. I use them but I find Aeroplan a bit more reliable. Have you used Juicy Miles? It will search out all the programs and is my go to now. It does cost per month to join but I’m finding’s it’s worth it thus far. Not for everyone of course.
Can UA awards be booked on the other carrier’s sites or s the problem just one-way inbound to UA?
I called UA MP and they could not book any Thai flights. How were you able to book Thai flights thru UA phone rep?
Hang up and try again. It takes the right agent.