AWARD SPACE BACK On United For Star Alliance Partners To Europe
Intro
A little bit while back, I wrote about how United Airlines wasn't releasing many business-class awards on partners when heading from the USA to Europe and Vice Versa. Well, as I was planning a trip to Portugal this morning, I came across plenty of award space on Swiss Airlines and Lufthansa out of multiple destinations. I guess it seems that United is either releasing award space now or Star Alliance carriers have released the inventory. Whichever one it is doesn't matter much; all that matters is that it is there!
Award Space Wide Open
For the past few months, we have weirdly seen award space dry up for Star Alliance carriers in Business. While Lufthansa would release First Class seats to United at the last minute, business was very difficult to find.
Checking through a couple of dates, I have come across plenty of availability in the month of March from all over the US.
Roughly half of the month of March has seats open from various airports around the USA. Of course, in the chart displayed below are the lowest fares indicating United Airlines operated (4.50 GBP), but most of these dates have partner awards available (such as March 1st).
However, don't get all too excited yet if you are planning a summer vacation. Looking forward to the summer schedule, I do not see that much availability in terms of partner awards. There are a couple of seats in London with "IN" inventory, but not many on LX or LH.
Final Thoughts
If you are heading to Europe and want to use points on a Star Alliance carrier, there are many ways, ranging from Lifemiles (I know, devaluation) to Aeroplan and United (to name a few). However, for the past while, United had pretty much blocked off (or the partners weren't releasing space) business-class redemptions from Europe to the US. That has now changed, as I see plenty of dates available!
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