United Mileage Plus Launches New Integrated Star Alliance Award Redemption Program

6 August 2002

United Airlines' (NYSE:UAL) Mileage Plus program announced that tomorrow, the carrier will launch a new integrated award redemption program called Star Alliance Awards. Star Alliance Awards allow United Mileage Plus members to redeem miles for travel to more than 700 destinations using any combination of the 14 Star Alliance member carriers. The program is simplified through a geographic-based chart, with consistent redemption amounts regardless of the carrier flown, offering Mileage Plus customers a substantial saving in miles.

For example, if a customer is planning an award trip from North America to Europe, they can use Mileage Plus miles on any of the eight Star Alliance airlines serving that region, in any combination. Customers can now fly United to Frankfurt, Lufthansa to Copenhagen and SAS back to the United States all for just 50,000 miles. Previously, to fly a similar itinerary, a Mileage Plus member would have redeemed multiple awards on a single carrier, such as Lufthansa, for 70,000 miles. 

"This new product is designed to make the award redemption process easier and more convenient for our customers," said Chris Bowers, senior vice president of marketing and sales for United Airlines. "It also provides customers with more options for their award miles, more flexibility and better accessibility to flight awards. Now, no matter which Star Alliance carrier a customer flies to a particular region, the award levels are the same and vary only by class of service, giving Mileage Plus members the best award redemption structure of any U.S. based frequent flier program."