Thai Airways awards wide-open exclusively through United

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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