As I blogged about last week, United was in the process of rolling out one-way awards for travel on Star Alliance airlines. While they’ve allowed one-way awards on their own flights for about eight months now, the ability to book them on Star Alliance awards is a new development.
Apparently the official start date is November 1, but most people are already able to book one-way awards via reservations. While this does allow you to mix cabins of service, which is nice, my fear has become a reality — no more stopovers.
I realize many people don’t take advantage of them, but I always did. On United awards alone, I’ve visited Seoul while on my way to Bangkok, New Zealand while on my way to Sydney, Hong Kong while on my way to Ho Chi Minh City, etc. The stopover was invaluable to me.
Anyway, I realize 90% of people think of this as a positive change, so I won’t whine too much, and will respect those that want to celebrate this change. But I do have to ask, does anyone feel like I do? I know in an ideal world we’d be allowed stopovers and one-way awards, but if you had to choose one or the other, would anyone else choose stopovers?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.