We don’t
have a ton of United miles or Ultimate Rewards points to transfer to United, so
booking directly with United was out. We do have a ton of Membership Rewards
thanks to us getting in on the 75,000-point Business Gold signup bonus. There
are two Star Alliance transfer options with Membership Rewards: Aeroplan and ANA.
Since we were flying into one airport and out of another, Air Canada’s Aeroplan
was out because they don’t allow open jaws and the price for two one-ways is
higher than the price for a roundtrip.
The search
I admit I’ve
only had experience with ANA as an award search engine, never for actual
booking. I actually prefer Aeroplan’s site for searching for United and US
Airways tickets because they present all the options for those two, whereas ANA
can sometimes just show direct flights. I found our flights on Aeroplan and
then entered them segment-by-segment into the “Flight Search” part of the ANA
site to price them out. Since ANA charges miles based on roundtrip distance, I
expected the tickets to price out at 20,000 and 22,000 miles. They did.
The transfer
I
transferred 42,000 Amex Membership Rewards points to ANA. The Amex website said
it could take 5-7 business days, but I had read on other blogs that it usually
takes more like 48 hours. I’m not a patient guy by any stretch of the
imagination, so not having the transfer be immediate was killer. What if someone
else took our seats while we were waiting for the transfer?!
Much to my
delight, the transfer ended up taking about 36 hours, from 10pm on Monday night
to sometime Wednesday morning.
The booking
After
verifying that the seats were still available on the flights we wanted, I
proceeded to book her ticket. It went off without a hitch, and ANA actually
presented a United confirmation number when the process was complete. I logged
into the United site and was able to pull up the itinerary and choose seats
without any problems. Truly seamless integration between partners. Amazing.
My ticket
cost was 22,000 miles instead of 20,000 because my flight distance was in the
2,000-4,000 bracket instead of the lower one she was in. Altogether my flights
were going to come in around 2,600 miles, leaving 1,400 extra miles to stay
within that same price. It just so happens that this is about the roundtrip
distance between DC and Chicago. I looked on the Aeroplan site for flights I
wanted, but when I tried to find them on ANA they didn’t come up. The problem
was that ANA only up to 20 flight options for any one leg of your journey, sorted
by departure time. Because my Friday night flight was late, it didn’t make the
first 20, and there was no way to bring it up. I chose to book an earlier
flight and then just take the risk of trying to call and change it later.
To my
surprise, the two itineraries priced out at 22,000 miles, and I was able to
book without issue. I immediately called the ANA North America customer service
line, and after a 30 minute hold, a phone agent very quickly and easily changed
my flight to the one I wanted. All she needed was the flight number, and she
had me rebooked within 30 seconds. The new flight showed up on United’s site
under the same confirmation number.
My take
Overall this
was a ridiculously positive experience. I didn’t like having to wait for my points
to transfer to ANA, but once they did the process was actually easier than
booking on United’s own site. I also loved
being able to add in a free roundtrip ticket. How amazing is that?!
Here were my
keys to success:
- Search for United and US Air space on Aeroplan
- Enter exact segments on ANA
- Call customer service if your desired flight isn’t showing
up
It appears you
can’t do more than two roundtrips on one itinerary with ANA’s site. But hey,
next time I need to book on United, I’ll more than happily tack on a second
trip free!
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