Har Australien Business Traveller missuppfattat tabellerna. Enligt dem så blir det betydligt billigare mellan Australien och Asien (andra sträckor går upp). Se nedan.
New United Airlines, Star Alliance award rates a boon for Aussie travellers - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller
New United Airlines, Star Alliance award rates a boon for Aussie travellers
New redemption rates for United Airlines' Mileage Plus frequent flyer scheme come into effect this weekend – and they pack some good news for Australian travellers.While the changes generally see United's core membership of US residents lose out through a massive hike in redemption rates, trips from Australia to most of Asia using United's Star Alliance partners such as Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways are now substantially cheaper than before, even in first class.Flying to the USA and Europe is likely to cost you more points, although they still stack up well against equivalent award travel on Qantas and Virgin Australia.We've crunched the numbers below – get ready to be surprised!
Also read: How to get Star Alliance Gold frequent flyer status with a single flightAustralia to South Asia
A dramatic drop in the number of points needed for a free award flight makes this the new sweet spot for Mileage Plus.Consider a trip from Melbourne to Bangkok on Thai Airways, or from Brisbane to Singapore with Singapore Airlines: under the old redemption table that would cost 30,000 miles for a one way economy ticket, 45,000 for business or 60,000 for first class.As of February 1 these rates fall to just 17,500 miles for economy, 30,000 miles for business or 40,000 miles for first class.Yes, you read that right: it's now cheaper to trade your points in for a
first class ticket than it used to be for business class.There are plenty of other appealing routes in the ‘Australia to South Asia’ category of Mileage Plus such as flights to Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, amongst other destinations.And when compared to the standard redemption rates offered by Qantas Frequent Flyer and Virgin Australia's Velocity Frequent Flyer for journeys of a similar distance, the new rates are quite competitive.
http://www.ausbt.com.au/photos/view.../united-mileage-plus-australia-south-asia.png
[Click on the tables in this article to enlarge them]The only caveat: Singapore Airlines flights
can’t be booked on United’s website – these are now only available over the phone at an additional charge for non-elites.
Australia to North Asia
Flights from Australia to China, Mongolia, South Korea and Taiwan – including Star Alliance partner Air China’s daily Sydney to Beijing service – are classed as ‘North Asia’ and will carry the following revised costs:
http://www.ausbt.com.au/photos/view.../united-mileage-plus-australia-north-asia.png
The current Mileage Plus redemption rates for North Asia are 35,000, 50,000 and 65,000 (respectively), making this another genuine improvement.
Australia to Japan
Interestingly, flights to and from Japan have their own unique redemption rates in Mileage Plus.The changes see a marginal improvement for economy redemptions (currently 25,000 miles), though a slight increase for first class – currently 55,000 miles, while there’s no change for passengers in business.
