The other week, I redeemed a last-minute award from S\u00e3o Paulo to Dubai, and it took a while to decide which alliance (Oneworld or Star) to use, and then from which program.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Ethiopian.png\")
<\/p>\n
There appears to be an issue with Ethiopian Airlines award availability that airlines in the Americas cannot see or have been blocked from accessing, as United, Air Canada, and Avianca were unable to find any.<\/p>\n I am vested in five Star Alliance program and usually check them all if I redeem to see what makes most sense when everything is factored in.<\/p>\n Note that I pulled up the United, Avianca, Aegean, and Air Canada example screenshots today, as I didn\u2019t save screenshots at the time, when I was researching options and issuing the ticket.<\/p>\n There were no options on United Airlines for the dates in mid-April I was looking at.<\/p>\n It seems that they can currently only pull up the Turkish Airlines inventory for flights between these city pairs (S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Dubai). Nothing was available on Ethiopian.<\/p>\n Air Canada always has plenty of options due to the number of partners it has, and flexible pricing on its own and Emirates awards.<\/p>\n They were offering some flights on Emirates and Air Canada, but at a very high price.<\/p>\n They were also not available to pull up the Ethiopian availability.<\/p>\n This airline\u2019s LifeMiles USED to be great, and buying their miles was worthwhile. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case anymore.<\/p>\n They also cannot pull up Ethiopian award availability, but do have access to Turkish Airlines inventory.<\/p>\n I was surprised that Aegean was able to find Ethiopian availability, but there was no business class available for the date I needed (business class is cheaper than economy using LifeMiles).<\/p>\n Also, the charges are very reasonable.<\/p>\n I have had issues getting anything worthwhile ticketed using Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, as the booking interface is awful and the surcharges are usually high.<\/p>\n Luckily, Brazil doesn\u2019t allow fuel or carrier surcharges, so the fees here are reasonable. I decided to pay more in KrisFlyer miles than in Aegean, as these would expire over the next 6 to 10 months (I had already paid to extend them once).<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n I find it quite interesting that none of the Star Alliance programs in the Americas (I don\u2019t use Copa\u2019s) have access to Ethiopian award inventory, but Star Alliance airlines elsewhere do, based on my sample of five.<\/p>\n There are some instances where these Aegean miles can make a lot of sense, and their program is not inflated with transferrable currency from various credit cards.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
United Airlines<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/UA-ET.png\")
<\/p>\nAir Canada<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/AC-ET.png\")
<\/p>\nAvianca<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/AV-ET.png\")
<\/p>\nAegean<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/A3-ET.png\")
<\/p>\nSingapore Airlines<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Singapore-Airlines-KrisFlyer-ET-GRU-ADD-DXB-Award-Success.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Singapore-Airlines-KrisFlyer-ET-GRU-ADD-DXB-Award-Success-CX-Fees.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/loyaltylobby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Singapore-Airlines-KrisFlyer-ET-GRU-ADD-DXB-Award-Success-Fees.png\")
<\/p>\n