A couple of weeks ago I read Loyalty Lobby’s post that asserted that United has “special access to Thai Airways award availability that isn’t accessible through other Star Alliance programs.” I finally got around to checking this myself and found that Loyalty Lobby was right. United has far more access to Thai business and first class award space than other programs. On some routes, United seems to have access to business class award space nearly every day of the year.
Seats.Aero
I used a few different tools to help figure out whether Loyalty Lobby’s claims were true. First, I turned to Seats.Aero. There, I used the Explore function compare the number of non-stop business and first class awards available flying Thai Airways. I checked first through United and then through Air Canada. There are a number of reasons that this information isn’t perfect, but I figured that it would be directionally correct. Here’s what I found:
- Over the next 11 months, United has access to far more Thai Airways business class award flights from Europe to Asia than does Air Canada:
- United: Nearly 1,100
- Air Canada Aeroplan: 14
- When looking at a single route, Istanbul to Bangkok over the next 11 months, United has access to far more Thai Airways business class award flights than does Air Canada:
- United: Nearly 200
- Air Canada: 3
- When looking at first class award flights between London and Bangkok, United had some available whereas Air Canada had none:
- United: London to Bangkok 16 first class flights
- United: Bangkok to London 3 first class flights
- Air Canada: 0 in either direction
The data above was pretty compelling but I decided to verify with another tool…
AwardTool
AwardTool has a “Mega” feature that lets you search for award flights across 35 days. I used this to see which programs had access to Thai business class seats between March 1 and April 4th. AwardTool showed award space available to United nearly every day, but none available to Air Canada, Avianca, or Turkish.
United & Air Canada
As shown above, I searched United for business class awards from Istanbul to Bangkok and found that awards were available nearly every day of the year (I can’t prove that all available dates were flying Thai Airways, though). I then picked a week where I confirmed Thai availability through United every day, and then reproduced the search on Air Canada’s website. Air Canada had access to only 2 of the 7 awards that United had access to.
Not Phantom
To test whether these were phantom awards, I picked a flight that was available through United and not through Air Canada and I booked that award through United. The booking completed without issue and I soon received my booking confirmation via email. I then cancelled the flight because I don’t plan to actually fly it.
Conclusion
United has access to far more Thai Airways award space than does Air Canada and probably any other Thai partner. I don’t know whether this means that other partners have less access to award space than before, or that United has more than before, or some combination thereof. Either way, it’s a shame because United sometimes charges nearly double the price charged by Air Canada or Avianca LifeMiles for the same itinerary. If you’re flush with United miles, though, it’s worth checking for Thai Airways award space through United MileagePlus because you’ll probably find it.
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Does anyone know about a way to search for TG award seats that are available to book with lifemiles/AC as well and NOT just on UA?
I’m European, so I don’t have any United miles. When I search on lifemiles, I get all these Thai seats, but all of them give me an error when trying to book.
Cant do it! Sorry. Its “real” availability but only bookable through United. Per this article no one really know why — is Thar exclusivly posting partner awards to United? Is it a bug? (if you have been on the Thai site its not modern IT so a bug cant be ruled out!!)
I’m planning a family trip to Thailand around Thanksgiving this year (2 biz class from East Coast; 6 prem econ from East Coast). Is the IAD-FRA-BKK route the best? What else might I look for? I’d prefer to fly out of DC if possible, but would consider NY if need to. Thanks.
Hi – I booked this same flight for family. I did ALOT of research and this seems to be the most efficient way there. I was selecting biz class only.. ( I added a leg from CLT to IAD since we live there). The other routes I was considering was. connection through Doha on Qatar. Also looked going west but never found anything I really loved.
Thanks!
I also thank you for this post which opened a lot of options for me. I visit BKK twice a year and only considered flights to/from the west coast of the US and YVR. I did a search on the UA site from BKK to other US airports and found flights to JFK and others on Thai for 110k in June.
Just to clarify, flights “to JFK” weren’t on Thai. I’m sure there were segments on Thai, but Thai doesn’t serve any US airports. The map near the beginning of the post shows the Thai route network. United can obviously sell you a ticket for travel on United or a partner that connects you to some of this Thai space though.
Thai Airways premium cabin award availability via United was there even since early November last year. I booked a business class award ORD->FRA->BKK on Lufthansa and Thai Air flights (110,000 MileagePlus points one way). It seems that married segments with an American origination or destination can still be found through the next couple of months but dries up considerably later this year.
I think this might be the case for Copa too. Plenty of award seats are available through UA, but not via other Star Alliance partners.
Hi Greg, I can confirm this based on my personal experience. I booked and flew IAD-FRA-BKK on United Polaris (1st leg) and Thai Airways Business (2nd leg) around Thanksgiving last year. The itinerary was available through United but not via Air Canada Aeroplan. I had been checking regularly beforehand and noticed that while United had availability for Thai Airways, Aeroplan did not.
Is that routing for one award flight or did you have to pay separately for both legs ?
One saver award for 100k miles total (would have been 110k if I didn’t have the United credit card).
Thanks for the post. I just booked one of these as well on United. Just a heads up lifemiles will show it but only if you choose Thai on the drop-down, however it’s not bookable so technically a phantom award on lifemiles but not phantom on United.