After performing my daily search for LH award space from FRA-NRT last night, I was surprised this morning to find this message today:

The Partner Flight Award search function is not available for passengers who do not have any mileage balance.

It seems that ANA got tired of thousands of Star Alliance flyers clogging up their servers when they had no intention of ever throwing business at ANA.

Let not your heart be troubled, though: there are workarounds.

Hawaiian Airlines will begin daily service from Honolulu to Tokyo Haneda this October, after winning approval for the new route from the DOT on Friday.

With the "Open Skies" pact signed by the US and Japan last December, Hawaiian, Delta, and American plan to begin service from the United States to Haneda, a more convenient way to get to Tokyo than the hour-long train ride from Narita.

JAL is retiring all 747s from its fleet this year, and will soon switch from a 747 ...

We continue our discussion of Star Alliance Awards this week looking at Aeroplan, Asiana, ANA and using your American Express Membership Rewards miles for redemption. In addition we discuss:

• ANA's website and using their Star Alliance award search as a "tool" for your award booking
• Aeroplan's award chart and using American Express miles for awards
• Asiana's award chart to Europe
• Continental's connection to Amex
• and our own Matt's recent wedding and award to Asia - congrats Matt!

Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

Award inventory is shared among Star Alliance carriers in what is known as the StarNet system.

United Airlines, in an attempt to save money and funnel travelers to flights on UA metal has instituted a system of StarNet blocking in which they selectively filter out certain flights from partners including Thai Airways, Air New Zealand, and Lufthansa (for example).

Such a policy had understandably irked United Mileage Plus members who find it impossible to use their miles to ...