United has a number of partner airlines that aren’t in Star Alliance and not well talked about. Most are smaller and don’t show up on United.com, but they could still be helpful for 1) Getting to places you didn’t know you could go, 2) finding more availability, and 3) finding better connections and direct flights.
Here’s a post discussing who these partners are, what it means for people with United miles, and how to find award availability.
So Rapid Travel Chai recently wrote about how he wanted to do a trip to a couple of Caribbean islands and how he could technically use United partner Cape Air. However, the agent would not let him book a flight from Puerto Rico, when I assume there’s plenty of award availability.
It got me thinking. 1) How in the world would you find award availability for other partners? and 2) What’s the deal with the other partners, and with him not being able to book Cape Air?
As you may know, United is part of Star Alliance, which has 27 partners that fly all over the world. The relationship between airlines in the same alliance is typically great. It’s typically easy to earn miles on most any partner flight, and easy to redeem miles on any partner flight.
However, what you may not have known is that United has 7 other partners as well:
- Aer Lingus
- Aeromar
- Cape Air
- Great Lakes
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Island Air
- Jet Airways
The idea of an alliance or partners in general, is that you’ll be able to sell tickets to people who want to go places that the individual airline doesn’t actually go. If you live in Little Rock and want to go to Bali, Indonesia… you’re out of luck without partnerships. But luckily, you could fly United over to Hong Kong and then fly Thai Airways, for example, from Hong Kong to Bali.
Apparently United sees benefits in these other partners. The question is:
- Where can I fly with these partners?
- How do I find award availability?
- How many United miles could I earn on a paid flight?
Okay, so the main difference between a Star Alliance partner and these partners is the number of flights they share. See United already has flights to Puerto Rico, so United does not partner for flights from New York to Puerto Rico… in that way, they are competitors. So with these partners, United only partners on flights they wouldn’t be able to service.
See with Star Alliance partners sometimes overlap. Sometimes Lufthansa has flights right to the United hub, and United has flights to the United hub. But the idea is that they are partners all the way, and they’ll come out ahead. Again, with these 7 partners above, the relationships are much more restricted.
Aer Lingus with United Miles
Where can I fly with Aer Lingus when using United miles?
- Between North America and Ireland
- Between London and Dublin, Cork, Shannon or Belfast
- Between Dublin and Manchester or Birmingham
Flights between North America and Ireland would be Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), New York (JFK), Orlando (MCO), San Francisco (SFO).
The complete Aer Lingus with United miles route map would look like this:
Also note that Aer Lingus uses multiple airports in London; LHR, LGW, SEN.
How do I find Aer Lingus award availability?
For these specific routes mentioned above, United.com will search for and book Aer Lingus awards.
How many United Miles can I earn on a paid Aer Lingus flight?
Unfortunately, economy flights between North America and Ireland on Aer Lingus only earn 50% – 75%, and 250 miles for the shorter routes.
Aeromar
Where can I fly with Aeromar when using United miles?
United miles for Aeromar flights between Mexico City (its hub) and the US, and from Mexico City to other destinations in Mexico. Which… is everywhere they fly. And as far as I can tell, the only place they fly in the US is Austin (AUS).
There are other routes I could find easily, but upon searching I noticed other routes via PAZ, which didn’t show here. So this map is not complete.
How do I find Aeromar award availability?
Much to my surprise, you can search for Aeromar flights on United. I never noticed before, but it’s a small airline.
How many United Miles can I earn on a paid Aeromas flight?
100%.
Cape Air
Where can I fly with Cape Air when using United miles?
In theory, you can fly from SJU to these other destinations in the Caribbean. In practice, Stefan had so much trouble he eventually just paid cash for his hopper flight.
How do I find Cape Air award availability?
The site I had recommended when this post was originally started is now dead, although Gary Leff points out an alternative. It’s not nearly as good, but BCDTravel has a tool that gives a “yes” or “no” for award availability that searches Cape Air.
Oddly enough, their website says that you can book on United.com… which isn’t true. It doesn’t make much sense, and I don’t get why Stefan wasn’t able to book award flights with them. They are apparently close partners, and yet no agent could book a flight.
Stefan’s conclusion, about booking Cape Air with United Miles (here), was that it has to be a codeshare. So if it’s coded as a United flight, then you can book it.
How many United Miles can I earn on a paid Cape Air flight?
100%
Great Lakes
Where can I fly with Great Lakes when using United miles?
From Denver (DEN), Los Angeles (LAX) and Phoenix (PHX) to points in the western United States.
How do I find Great Lakes award availability?
Another case for which the BCDTravel has a tool giving a simple “yes” or “no”. Although I hope it’s not another situation where United is no good at booking the flights.
How many United Miles can I earn on a paid Great Lakes flight?
100%
Hawaiian Airlines
Where can I fly with Hawaiian Airlines when using United miles?
“Between Honolulu and the Hawaiian islands of Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Maui and the big island of Hawaii”
How do I find Hawaiian Airlines award availability?
United.com
How many United Miles can I earn on a paid Hawaiian Airlines flight?
100%
Jet Airways
Where can I fly with Jet Airways when using United miles?
From Mumbai, India, (BOM) to other destinations in India; from Hong Kong, China, (HKG) to Mumbai and Delhi, India (DEL); and between Mumbai and London, England (LHR).
How do I find Jet Airways award availability?
How many United Miles can I earn on a paid Jet Airways flight?
50% for discount economy of “Q” and “S”, the rest will earn 100%.
Conclusion
Airlines left out:
Left out from the list is GermanWings, although they are owned by Lufthansa which is part of Star Alliance, so I don’t know why it isn’t on the Star Alliance page, and they show up in United’s search results.
You can use Untied miles for Silver Airways “from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to points in Florida and the Bahamas.”
Dude, you write the best stuff out there and I want to support your work. Where are your credit card signup links? Your tab above just links to an outside website.
I totally agree with Tom — Drew is consistently the best and most original blogger writing today!
Tom: That tab above that goes to an “outside website” is what Drew has for affiliate links. There are a lot of limitations on what he’s allowed to say about them (can’t overtly mention, etc.), but just know that if you click that tab and sign up for a card, Drew is well compensated for it.
Another awesome post! Thanks and keep them coming.
I have only been on one of these airlines (Aeromar) from MEX-ACA. It was fine for a short hop, although the return sort of got hindered by getting stuck in the aftermath of a hurricane AND tropical storm crashing into ACA. My flight was delayed by 5 days but then when we were all in the evacuation center the day people could leave, everything handled smoothly and professionally, flight was just like a normal one. Can’t imagine it going so well on UA…
Thanks to all three of you! Tom, Rick and Dizzy.
5 days of delay. At what point do they say canceled? lol Maybe they’re more used to tropical storms, but good to hear it’s a small reliable airline.
Do they have their own award charts or do you just use the United award chart when doing a redemption? (I would assume the latter)
Yea, just use the United star alliance one.
As a general clarification I was surprised you can only fly inter island on hawaiin airlines using united airlines. On aadvantage miles I belive can redeem them on all hawaiin airlines flights even the cool ones serving the south pacific such as tahiti, new zealand, and australia. Thanks for your writeup as I assumed you could redeem your united miles on all hawaiian flights which seems not to be the case.
I think it’s largely because United has Guam as a hub and has routes via Hawaii. So United views them as a competitor but knows it’s lacking on the island flights. But you’re right, the end result is that there is not enough award availability with Air New Zealand to get to the south Pacific at all.
Great post, no surprise there.
How about Island Air? You listed it but did not talk about it at all. I flew them between Honolulu and Maui in April and I really enjoyed my flight on an ATR 72 type plane.
Didn’t see much of a need to mention both Island Air and Hawaiian in too much detail.
Good info, though the TATL routes will now all be in coach or at a huge premium in miles. However, a trip booked in C can still include partner flights at lower level of miles if partner flights are not the primary flight (eg. For TATL trip, the TATL flight) and if the partner flight is booked into Y.
I guess I don’t think about these things much, as I don’t often fly business. :-p
The rule regarding germanwings is you issue the ticket, then united has 24 hours to request the seat from germanwings which is a huge hassle.
Yea, seating on a lot of these can be a pain I imagine.
It appears you can mix alliance with non-alliance. Azul + TK works. Any special cases you cannot mix?