The best websites for searching Star Alliance award availability

With 28 member airlines and over 670 million passengers carried annually, Star Alliance is by far the world's largest airline alliance. It includes some of the most well-known airlines in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and beyond. Some of its largest members are United Airlines, Air Canada, ANA, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss and Brussels Airlines.

If you're new to the points and miles world, airline alliances are a group of airlines that band together to operate codeshare flights and share reciprocal frequent flyer benefits. One of these benefits is the ability to earn and redeem airline miles across all alliance member airlines. For example, since Air Canada and United are both in the Star Alliance, United members can earn and redeem miles on Air Canada and vice versa.

Redeeming across different alliance members is a great way to maximize your points and miles. In the case of United miles, you can redeem miles on partners that offer a better inflight experience or fly to a destination that United doesn't serve. On the other hand, if you have transferable points from a travel rewards credit card, you may be able to leverage one Star Alliance transfer partner to book tickets on another carrier. For example, you may opt to transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles to book low-cost United Airlines domestic award tickets.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

One of the major hurdles in redeeming across alliance partners is finding award space to book. Star Alliance award space is easier to search than with other airline alliances; most of the major Star Alliance airlines have good search tools that show most Star Alliance availability. However, each website has its own quirks, upsides and downsides that you should keep in mind when searching for award space.

We'll show you the best Star Alliance search tools and give you a look at how to use them.

If you’re looking for tips covering SkyTeam and Oneworld, be sure to check out the other two guides in this series:

• The best websites for searching SkyTeam award availability
• The best websites for searching Oneworld award availability

Star Alliance basics

Despite being one of the easiest alliances to find award space with, Star Alliance is the quirkiest airline alliance when it comes to redeeming your airline miles. Many of the airlines in the alliance hide award space from partner bookings. Likewise, some airlines will only release award space to partners within a certain amount of time before departure. Here are a few things you should be aware of when searching for award space.

Related: How to search award availability for the major airlines

Expanded United availability with a credit card

United Airlines operates hundreds of different routes, and I've found that the airline is usually pretty good about opening award space — especially in economy class. However, you can access even more award space when you hold a United cobranded credit card or have United Premier elite status. This added award space is only bookable with United miles, so you won't be able to book with partner miles. Regardless, it can be a powerful tool to have on hand when you're looking to use United miles to cover an expensive ticket.

Lufthansa first class only bookable at the last minute for partners

Lufthansa first class is one of the best first-class products on the planet, with top-notch service, an excellent hard product and complimentary access to the first-class terminal at Frankfurt (FRA). Unfortunately, the airline only releases first-class award space to Star Alliance partners 14 days before departure.

Those wishing to book further in advance must use Lufthansa Miles & More miles to book. These are some of the hardest miles to earn in the U.S., so for the bulk of us U.S. flyers, we're stuck booking our Lufthansa first-class tickets at the last minute.

Related: 6 tips for booking Lufthansa first-class awards

Singapore Airlines premium cabin long-haul only bookable with KrisFlyer

Most long-haul premium cabin award tickets on Singapore Airlines are only bookable through Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer loyalty program. We've seen some exceptions to this in the past, though — for example, the airline often opens long-haul award space to its non-alliance partner Alaska Airlines. But for the vast majority of bookings, you'll have to use Singapore's own miles to book your tickets.

This isn't the worst thing, though. You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One miles, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy points to KrisFlyer miles. Amex, Chase and Citi transfer to KrisFlyer at a 1:1 ratio while Capital One and Marriott transfer at a 2:1 and 3:1 ratio, respectively. Plus, you'll earn a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott points you transfer to an airline program (for a total of 25,000 miles).

Related: The best ways to book Singapore Airlines first class

Swiss first class only bookable by Miles & More elites

The most restrictive Star Alliance booking, though, is Swiss first class. It's been at the top of my travel bucket list for quite some time now, but it looks like I won't be able to book it any time soon. Why? Simple: Only Miles & More Senator and HON Circle members can redeem miles to book Swiss first class. Award space is never open to partners, and the one time it was erroneously opened to Aeroplan, bookings weren't honored.

United and Aeroplan show phantom award space

Finally, United and Air Canada's Aeroplan loyalty program both have a history of showing phantom award space. In short, phantom award space is when an award booking engine shows an available award, but you get an error message when trying to book the ticket. This happens because the award isn't actually available; instead, the booking engine is simply out of date.

You have two ways to avoid becoming a victim of phantom award space. The first is to use ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG's parent company, Red Ventures) to verify your award space before you transfer miles to book. I'll discuss how to do this later in the article, but in short, the tool's Award & Upgrade tool can be used to find and verify award space on several Star Alliance carriers with just a couple of clicks.

Another way to verify award space is to call United or Aeroplan before transferring miles to book your award ticket. Ask the agent to find the ticket for you over the phone; if he or she can find it, it's safe to transfer your miles and proceed to book the ticket. Just keep in mind that United charges a phone booking fee, so it's in your best interest to book the award online after verifying space.

Related: The phantom award space menace strikes again, stranding 240,000 points

United Airlines

While United is subject to phantom award space issues from time to time, I still think that United.com is one of the best search tools for Star Alliance bookings. I'd say 90% of the time, the awards I find through the website aren't phantom award space, and since you don't need to be signed in to search with United, it's easy enough to pop open a new browser tab, enter your search criteria and find award availability.

Further, United.com sometimes has an issue piecing together certain connecting award tickets. I've seen this get better over the years but still run into issues from time to time on multi-partner award tickets. You can often get around this by searching for your award tickets segment by segment.

For example, say you want to book Chicago O'Hare (ORD) to Frankfurt (FRA) in United Airlines Polaris business class and continue onto Prague (PRG) with Lufthansa. If you don't find a connecting award ticket the first time around, search ORD to FRA and FRA to PRG as separate one-way tickets. If you find space, you can call your airline of choice to book; just make sure the phone representative prices it as a one-way ticket instead of two one-way tickets.

Despite these downfalls, United shows award space for virtually all Star Alliance members and partners like Aer Lingus. Additionally, the airline has an intuitive calendar search option that you can use to view a month's worth of award space at once. I use this feature when my travel plans are flexible, so I can compare and contrast all available airlines and routes.

Related: How to redeem miles with United MileagePlus

Searching with United.com

Searching United for awards is simple — head to the airline's website and enter your search criteria at the center of the screen. Make sure to select the Book with Miles option to search for award travel. Additionally, I highly recommend selecting the Calendar Search option if you have flexibility in your travel dates. This will show you two month's worth of award space at once, making it easier to find award space on hard-to-book routes (like EWR-LHR and SFO-SIN). Once your search is ready to go, click the purple Find flights button to initiate your search.

As mentioned earlier, you don't need to be signed in to search United.com for Star Alliance award space. However, if you have United Premier elite status or a United cobranded credit card and plan to book with United miles, make sure you're signed in to view the expanded award space we discussed earlier.

You can also use the calendar to view availability on a monthly basis. Dates with a solid line have economy award space, while dates with a dotted line have business-or first-class award space. Click on a date you're interested in booking to view all available flights. You can filter out connecting flights by checking the "Show only nonstop flight availability" option underneath the calendar.

You can sort by price, the number of stops, duration and more by clicking on the labels at the top of the award search. Clicking once will sort in ascending order (lowest to highest price), while clicking twice will sort in descending order. This is a great way to find nonstop tickets as — when you sort by stops — nonstop flights will appear first.

Since United has started pricing awards dynamically, you need to search for saver award space if you plan on booking with another loyalty program. This is marked above the award ticket price across all classes of service, and you can see an example in the screenshot above. At this time, the airline doesn't offer saver space for premium economy awards, though, so these can only be booked with Mileage Plus miles for the time being.

Additionally, flights only available to United Premier elites and cobranded cardholders will be noted as such in the flight's listing in the award search. Remember, these flights cannot be booked with partners, so skip over them if you're planning to book your Star Alliance ticket with a partner loyalty program.

You can view more details of the available flights by clicking the Details button located to the right of the flight's total duration. When you click on this, you can view additional information like flight numbers and operating aircraft. Make sure to note the flight number of the flight you'd like to book if you plan on booking with another airline's loyalty program.

Related: Earning miles with the United MileagePlus program

ANA

ANA — short for All Nippon Airways — is the largest airline in Japan. Its Mileage Club loyalty program has managed to fly under the radar over the years, but I'm not sure why. It offers some of the best redemption pricing on tickets from the U.S. to Europe, accepts transfers from Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy and has a pretty solid online award search too.

In fact, I've found that ANA has the most accurate Star Alliance search of all the major airlines. I've never seen phantom award space when using the Mileage Club search tool, even when looking for obscure routes and flights on partner airlines. So if you want to be sure of an award search before you transfer your miles without calling an airline, ANA is your best bet.

Unfortunately, the search tool is still far from perfect. Since ANA doesn't allow its members to book one-way award tickets, you can't use the tool to search for them without adding a return leg. Further, the tool isn't very user-friendly from a design perspective either, but you'll get the hang of it after running a few searches.

Related: The ultimate guide to ANA first class

Here's a quick look at how to use the ANA Mileage Club search engine to find award space for your next Star Alliance flight. Before we start, though, sign up for an ANA Mileage Club account — unlike United, you must be signed in before you can use the search tool.

Searching with ANA.co.jp

First, head over to the ANA website and sign in to your account. Then, click the Award Booking button on the homepage to be redirected to the ANA Mileage Club search tool.

Right off the bat, you'll see that the ANA search tool isn't quite as refined as United's. The layout is a bit odd, but everything you need to search is right at the center of the screen. You'll also notice that there's an option to search for an open-jaw booking.

An open jaw is when you arrive in one city and return from another. For example, flying Chicago O'Hare to Frankfurt and returning London (LHR) to Chicago.

I highly recommend checking the "Compare seat availability +/- 3 days" button in the center of the search page too. This will let you view additional award space, making it easier to shop for flights when you have flexibility in your travel dates.

Once you've set up your flight search, click the red Search button at the bottom of the screen. If you select the "compare seat availability" button, you'll see a calendar view that shows a week's worth of flight availability at once for both the outbound and inbound legs. Select the dates you'd like to book and click the red Next button to view the available flights.

The outbound and inbound flights will be displayed side-by-side at the center of the screen. Important information like flight numbers and aircraft type are displayed directly underneath the departure time. You can also click the arrows to the left and right of the dates of travel at the top of the screen to scroll to view award space for the preceding and proceeding dates.

If you want to book with ANA, select your flights to view the pricing at the bottom of the screen. Do note that ANA passes on fuel surcharges on some award tickets, but you can avoid them when you fly on SAS, Avianca, and other airlines. When you're ready to book, click the red Next button and follow the on-screen prompts to process your booking. If you're booking on another airline, write down the dates of travel and flight numbers and call the loyalty program you're booking with.

Related: How to avoid fuel surcharges on award travel

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines is another popular Star Alliance airline. In addition to nonstop flights from San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX) and Newark (EWR) to Singapore (SIN), it also operates a handful of fifth-freedom flights from the U.S. like New York-JFK to Frankfurt, Houston (IAH) to Manchester (MAN) and others.

As noted earlier in the article, Singapore Airlines only lets its own KrisFlyer members book long-haul first and business-class award tickets. So if you plan on transferring your credit card points to Singapore Airlines to book Singapore Suites first class, you'll need to know how to search on Singapore Airlines' website.

Related: Ultimate guide to the new Singapore Suites

You can search for other Star Alliance awards using the Singapore Airlines website, but I've found that it doesn't show as many awards as United.com or ANA. Because of this, I only recommend using the Singapore Airlines website to search for award tickets operated by Singapore Airlines itself.

Here's a look at how to use the Singapore Airlines website to search for award tickets. Before you start searching, make sure to create a Singapore Airlines account — you'll need it to search for award space.

Searching with SingaporeAirlines.com

Searching for Singapore Airlines award tickets is pretty simple. Head to the Singapore Airlines website and sign in to your account. Then, enter your search criteria in the Book Trip box at the center of the screen. Make sure to select the Redeem Flights option to search for award space. I highly recommend keeping the Flexible travel dates box checked — this will let you view a week's worth of award space at once. Now, click the blue Search button to run your search.

If you keep the Flexible travel dates option checked, you'll be presented with the different tiers of award space that are available for the week surrounding the date you searched. Singapore Airlines offers two different award tiers, Saver and Advantage. Saver offers lower-priced and more restrictive awards, but these can be harder to come by. On the other hand, Advantage awards are generally easier to find and have increased flexibility but are considerably more expensive.

All available flights will appear at the center of the screen alongside their available award tiers and pricing. In the EWR to SIN example above, there is available award space at both the Saver and Advantage levels. You can book one of these flights by selecting the award you'd like to book and clicking the Next button at the bottom of the screen. If you need time to transfer in miles from a credit card, you can call Singapore Airlines and request that the ticket be put on hold.

If no award space is available in the award level you'd like to book, you may see an option to waitlist for a flight. Adding yourself to a waitlist will give you first dibs at the award when it opens. When space opens, Singapore Airlines will email you notifying you of the open award space and give you a number to call to finalize the ticket.

Unlike holding already available award space, you must have the miles in your account before you waitlist. This presents a problem if you're transferring miles to Singapore Airlines from a credit card. If you transfer the miles in and don't clear the waitlist, you cannot transfer your miles back to your credit card. With this in mind, only waitlist an award if you already have the miles in your Singapore Airlines account or have a backup plan to use the miles you transfer in.

ExpertFlyer

ExpertFlyer is a non-alliance search tool owned by Red Ventures, TPG's parent company. You can use the search tool to search for award space on several different airlines, including Star Alliance partners like United and Lufthansa. I've found that ExpertFlyer is the most accurate way to search for award space, making it well worth the monthly subscription.

One of my favorite features of the ExpertFlyer program is being able to set award alerts. If you want to book a seat on a specific flight, set a flight alert for the date and flight number you want to fly — the program will email you when an award ticket opens up. Make sure to check out our full guide to using ExpertFlyer for more info and a complete explainer on using the tool.

Honorable mention: Aeroplan

Aeroplan is Air Canada's loyalty program. While it was spun-off from Air Canada in 2002, the airline purchased it back in 2018. The loyalty program has undergone some changes recently — it completely overhauled its award chart and removed fuel surcharges. The airline also completely revamped its search tool, fixing many of its past fatal flaws.

You can find award space for most Star Alliance members on the Air Canada website, as well as award space with some of Air Canada's non-alliance partners. It's a relatively easy award search tool to use, so it can be considered a good alternative to United.com. Just note that you will see dynamic pricing for Air Canada flights without saver award space.

Related: Book this, not that: Star Alliance award tickets

Bottom line

With nearly 30 carriers worldwide, Star Alliance provides numerous options for redeeming your miles, and the above websites are your best bet for finding award options. Just remember that when it comes time to actually book the award space you’ve found, you’ll want to use the program which gives you the best price and/or most generous award routing rules. United is typically no longer this program due to the destruction of its open jaw and stopover policies, now replaced by the Excursionist Perk. While this can be valuable, it’s a bit complicated.

I’d recommend maximizing ANA’s award routing rules and redeeming ANA miles on Star Alliance partners that carry no ANA fuel surcharges; earn ANA miles by transferring points from American Express or Marriott.

Additionally, transferring American Express or Citi points to Avianca LifeMiles can also be a great way to book Star Alliance award tickets. LifeMiles charges less than United for most domestic U.S. tickets and offers attractive pricing on premium international awards; one great example of this is using just 87,000 miles to fly Lufthansa first class to Europe. For more info on which program to use, check out Ethan Steinberg’s Star Alliance booking showdown guide.

One last warning to heed: All of the above websites will price multi-segment itineraries at the premium-class level, even if only one of the legs has business- or first-class award space. You’d hate to book something like Chicago to Munich (MUC) to Prague and pay a significant premium for business class only to find out that the transatlantic portion is in economy class. Be sure to review the individual flights and ensure all of them (or at least the long-haul segments) are in business or first class.

Richard Kerr contributed to this post.