Okay, I'm asking this question here because dealing with both United (I'm Premier Executive) and Air New Zealand on this question has been murky at best.

For those of you who are Star Alliance (on in my case, UA PE), when you have gone to Tahiti on Air Tahiti Nui (a "co-operation/codeshare" partner of Air New Zealand but not United), how have you been able to get those miles credited back to your UA account? Do you have to sign up with Air New Zealand Airpoints in order to get the miles transferred back to United?

Anybody have been successful at this, can you share your experience? Thanks!

Okay, update...I think I found an answer, although I'm still hoping I can get some miles out of the LAX-PPT trip (the SFO-LAX portions are thru United, which by the way, is Regent Travel set up, not mine)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=712541

AL,

I don't think you stand a chance of getting anything other than the SFO-LAX leg(s) credited to your MileagePlus account.

I wouldn't bother joining Air New Zealand's mileage plan in an attempt to get miles either as the flight operated by ATN is not in conjuntion with any other NZ flights as was the case with the guys on FlyerTalk.

When I flew ATN to Tahiti two years ago there was no codeshare between ATN and ANZ.

:( (( I know...sounds like it won't work...I think the agreement with Air Tahiti Nui and Air New Zealand is very recent.. but I'll continue to ask with both airlines...guess it doesn't hurt to ask and I'll report back.

A big part of what determines whether or not you can get credit for LAX-PPT-LAX flights is whether Regent put you on the flight using a Air Tahiti flight number or a Air NewZealand flight number. If it's Air Tahiti, no chance of you getting the flight credited to United. If Air NewZealand, some chance but I'm not sure of all the UA rules whether or not a Star Alliance flight number actually operated on an external airline's aircraft qualifies.

In any event, you should be able to get credit for the Air Tahiti flights into an Air NewZealand account. However, you will not be able to transfer it over to United afterwards. There isn't any airline's frequent flyer program that will let you do this even if its within the Alliances. The only way that could work, but not with Air NewZealand, is through www.points.com but at a drastic devaluation. All this said, I would still sign up for Air NewZealand's program, since you can credit future United flights to that program and you could end up getting a domestic award on United using the Air NewZealand account miles. Be careful to watch the Elite Qualifying Miles for your United status though before throwing credits to Air NewZealand.

Thanks for the info, Peteropny!

Dealing with Star Alliance and Regional Partners to get miles credited is a bit of a pain...I just flew TACA to Tikal (from Guat City) and from Guatemala to Costa Rica, and while the checkin in Guatemala told me I had to save all my boarding passes etc. to get the miles credited. the TACA desk in Costa Rica cheerfully took my UA PE card and swiped it!

I just checked the paperwork we have received for the cruise air (flights/seats have been assigned) and it is Air Tahiti Nui flight/fight numbers.

I love reading Peter's responses - may not apply to me for flights BUT you know "he's the guy" :ch: :ch: :ch: Peter - Joanna

Hi Peter,

You really are the air "go to guy." I have a question pertaining to Star Alliance, please.

I see on UAL's website that UAL will no longer accept Star Alliance upgrading. I called and asked if they are discontinuing upgrades on Star Alliance partners. They said that they were, with the exception of Lufthansa.

Could you please enlighten me? Thanks, Peter. As always, your assistance is greatly appreciated.

You are correct - you cannot upgrade flights with miles on other airlines (even within alliances). However, there are a few exceptions out there - like Lufthansa (and perhaps in the future Swiss since Lufthansa has bought Swiss and is in the process of integrating them in) with United - I believe this is due to Lufthansa owning a significant chunk of United.

Thanks so much, Peter!

One last question - Do you have any information on the likelihood of redeeming Alaska Air miles for Air France flights? Air France now has direct flights from Seattle to Paris. An AS agent told me reedming AS miles for AF flights was on the horizon.

Peter, I appreciate your ff mile expertise. You post valuable and credible information. Thanks! Sometimes, I don't even understand the questions but after your answers, I finally figure it out.

I haven't heard that but then I don't pay much attention to AS - perhaps you can check the AS froum on Flyertalk - they might have some answers. Would not surprise me though - since AS seems to be "in bed" with everyone (other airlines).

Oops - I just looked through the thread again and saw Suzanne's post about not getting credit for Air Tahiti flights on the Air NewZealand program unless you're perhaps connecting on another Air NewZealand flight. I was not aware of this but could be true - there are strange rules out there like with American and British (you can credit flights to either program except for trans-atlantic flights - I guess they don't want passengers to defect).

But my advice on signing up for Air NewZealand's program still stands, I don't get on a plane without getting miles (unless its an award ticket). You might want to check with American and Northwest also, I know they allow you to redeem miles for Air Tahiti flights not sure about mileage credit though.

Thanks, again, Peter. I did check on FT AS board. Talk of AS miles redemption with AF coming "soon."

We want to use our AS miles for a trip next year and then close out our accts., focusing on our UAL accts., where we have the bulk of our miles.

To me, this is the biggest problem with the Alliances; not being able to upgrade partners. We really get hit now as there is only one flight a day on DL but many flights on NW, CO, KE, AF, and KL from Tokyo. I was hoping SkyTeam would follow United's path in allowing upgrades on partners but, now the UA is going backwards, it will probably never happen. I never have understood why partner upgrades weren't allowed; it should be a wash between partners as is the provision of "free" seats. It sure would be nice to be able to do this at least on codeshare flights.

Totally agree, Marc.

Peter, I didn't think Northwest and ATN had an alliance any more through Skyteam. Too bad, since I have some miles with NW, and would love to accrue more if I return to Tahiti.

For the most part, I'm Air Canada, Star Alliance. Since I don't travel on business much, I'm still desperate enough to work on getting a single flight for two somewhere. It appears to me, as a tyro, that you can't buy an upgrade with points on AC, you have to "earn" one. I've also heard from travellers that they have never been able to actually redeem an upgrade certificate. Pretty sad. I would switch to another airline, but in Toronto, it doesn't make much sense. Is that how upgrades with points work on other airlines and plans?

Air Tahiti isn't in any alliance and there are several odd partnerships out there that cross Alliance boundary lines (ie Delta which is in SkyTeam and Singapore which is in Star Alliance). I just double-checked and you cannot earn miles on NW for ATN flights but can redeem NW miles for ATN flights (we did for PiP). However, you can both earn and redeem for ATN flights on American's program (see http://www.aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/V...temDesc riptor=AAdvantagePartnersContent ).

Hmm interesting! This is the clearest policy I've seen yet! I also believe you can use AA miles to upgrade on ATN (although I understand it is pretty tough)...we are still considering this option as we have a pool in the family (e.g. my MIL has a ton of them), its just that individually Peter and I have AAdvantage accounts but no real miles or status with AAdvantage.

I'm not sure you can upgrade ATN flights with AA miles (upgrades are another animal that doesn't usually even work within Alliances). If you're thinking of using your MIL's miles - perhaps you should go ahead and use them for the flights totally not just the upgrade. At least I think we've found a way to earn miles for the ATN flights if you choose to "pay" for them.

Okay, I was thinking, "what can I do with AAAdvantage", since I live in Canada. I checked, and the program participates in points.com, so if I earned points I could swap them to Aeroplan. So, does anybody know if you are eligible for points collection when you book a flight with Regent on ATN (it works for Air Canada, but may not work everywhere?)

Hi Wandra,

since I'm continuing to dig for information regarding this topic, I found this late yesterday on the ATN FAQ section, regarding AAdvantage. Actually the FAQ section is pretty helpful

http://www.airtahitinui-usa.com/faq/article.aspx?id=10814

Thanks, interesting. Too bad they don't acrrue WorldPerks, I already belong to that, and have a chance of accruing more, and I like KLM. Oh well, I guess I'll have to join AAdvantage before our Tahiti trip next year.

So, latest update:

- You cannot use AA miles to upgrade to busines sor first class on a purchased ATN ticket.

- You can use AA miles to get a seat in Biz class (125K miles pp) or First (145 miles pp), subject to availability of course.

- You can still purchase an upgrade to Business Class or First Class DAY OF flight, however, first come, first served and subject to availabililty.

For upgrade from LAX to PPT coach to business $700 USD per person

For upgrade from PTT to LAX coach to business XPF60,000

For upgrade from LAX to PPT coach to first is $1600 USD per person, same amount PPT to LAX

That's good to know. We've not had luck with that so far, although we haven't always tried.