Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[dzinh]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Anyone know how Eva availability is redeeming with lifemiles? Looking for 2 LAX/SFO - TPE in Jan for J!

 

[vitagen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Looks like they BR has cut availabilty to t-14 as well. Used to see availabilty wide open

 

[seritonin]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Seems to be the trend @ *A, LH, SQ, BR... Who's next? TG? ... gasp ...

 

[anat0l]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Looks like they BR has cut availabilty to t-14 as well. Used to see availabilty wide open

Why the hell would they do that? I mean yes it looks like a nice product, but really?

 

[boomy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Why the hell would they do that? I mean yes it looks like a nice product, but really?

Royal Laurel is a great product, one of the best premium cabins I've been on.
The question is why airlines like LH who offer an average J product do that?

 

[anat0l]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

The question is why airlines like LH who offer an average J product do that?

Rather simple in a way. Thinking of the carriers with J class or more in *A which cross the Atlantic, more specifically between North America and Europe. The choices are: LH, LX, LO, OS, SN, UA, SK, TP, AC and TK... and SQ if you wish. Between North America and Europe, the most popular redemptions used to be on the Lufthansa Group, especially when they were still allowing F to be booked outside of Miles and More. Sure LH J doesn't all have full flat seats, but that is changing, and many flights going back to North America were day flights. With better food (at least in times gone by), drink and service (unless you were a UA 1K or GS), people would put up with a slope. TK was also a large forerunner too, but sometimes that's too out of the way for some people.

Now with LH cost cutting and with more M&M currency in the pool with a large base let alone those trying to go for the seats in, say, the USA, it's no surprise that they've cut down redemptions considerably, and restricting it more to Miles and More. However, I thought it was still possible to get LH J generally (i.e. not only within 14 days)? It was LH F which needed to be booked only within 14 days (for obvious reasons now), but now that option is gone.

 

[boomy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I had problems finding availability long haul on LH so I thought they have similar policy like SQ of limiting availability to T-14 on some routes.

 

[anat0l]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I had problems finding availability long haul on LH so I thought they have similar policy like SQ of limiting availability to T-14 on some routes.

I haven't tried LH J availability recently. They do tend to release more availability closer to departure (e.g. 14 days), but as a matter of procedure I'm not aware that they did this for J, only for F.

That doesn't mean it is any easier to find LH longhaul J availability, which was hard enough to find to start with.

 

[JessicaTam]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I had problems finding availability long haul on LH so I thought they have similar policy like SQ of limiting availability to T-14 on some routes.

I was able to book LH J EU-US for a flight in October. Booking was made in early August.

 

[boomy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I was able to book LH J EU-US for a flight in October. Booking was made in early August.

I didn't think it was totally impossible to book LH J in advance. My feeling was they have very limited to no availability on some routes until the last minute, similar to SQ.
That was my experience searching flights using LM.

 

[dzinh]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

damn, T-14 won't work as I was planning a quick few days LAX - TPE in Jan and with SWMBO so I can't really pull it out last minute as we want to finalise a few flights and hotels for America

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

A friend booked LH J last week for January 2015. So no 14 day restriction was in place then.

 

[seritonin]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

T-14 on J restrictions are not for all routes. Availability for few US cities, South America, some Asian cities are wide open either from MUC or FRA..

 

[anat0l]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Now hold on.... using ANA I can see BR availability on LAX/TPE for the next two months (i.e. up until the end of November). Searching for two people in Business Class. Definitely better availability going from LAX rather than from TPE, but in any case it appears to be sometimes only availability on one of the three flights going in either direction (sometimes is other flights, but rare - not sure if it's better availability if searching for only one person).

Just went to the AV LM site and I can grab two Business seats on BR11 LAX-TPE (afternoon departure, late night arrival) for 28 November.

Everything beyond the end of November (even going months into next year) is starkers for BR availability. Or at least right now that is the case.

 

[Alanslegal]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

FWIW I can find BR J awards TPE-CDG for like April 2015.

 

[Flashback]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I'd definitely go TG F over SQ J, even if it was TG's 346 F seat.

Food may be about par so SQ J wins purely based on class disposition, but I've had my fair share of very ordinary SQ J meals, like really ordinary (using premium ingredients, too, like Berkshire pork). I've heard TG's catering has slid down quite a bit of recent times, however.

I can be a lot more comfortable in TG's F seat rather than SQ's longhaul J seat, though I haven't tried the latter's new longhaul J seat.

Finally, ground service wise TG F does win, even if we disregard the buggy service.

I guess the only real consequences here are that is one prepared to pay extra for TG F when the original comparison wasn't really a fair one to start with.

Parents arrived into LHR the other day on the A346 in F, even had a buggy pick them up and take them through! Plane door to standing on the curb was 10-15 minutes or so, including collecting bags. Unheard of for LHR...

 

[dzinh]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Now hold on.... using ANA I can see BR availability on LAX/TPE for the next two months (i.e. up until the end of November). Searching for two people in Business Class. Definitely better availability going from LAX rather than from TPE, but in any case it appears to be sometimes only availability on one of the three flights going in either direction (sometimes is other flights, but rare - not sure if it's better availability if searching for only one person).

Just went to the AV LM site and I can grab two Business seats on BR11 LAX-TPE (afternoon departure, late night arrival) for 28 November.

Everything beyond the end of November (even going months into next year) is starkers for BR availability. Or at least right now that is the case.

hmm strange! maybe I'm looking too far out! Hear LAX - TPE is a high sought route but I guess I'll have a look next month for open seats!

 

[anat0l]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Well I bit the bullet and the credit card took the fall for the sake of 150k AV LM miles.

I know that they'll be auto-indexed by at least 10% come a couple of weeks, though overall still a reasonable proposition for most travel and I figured next year I'll need them for something.

Only wish LH F fares were still obtainable on AV LM, but ah well. (Yes I realise there are reports saying they can still be got in very small doses using black magicks, but do I look like I have the time and CAPTCHA patience....)

 

[Stanman]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Im trying to book a flight PER-TOR feb 4 2015

i keep getting an error when i choose my flight schedule.

Can someone please try get past the flight selection point and let me know if it works?

driving me crazy!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Im trying to book a flight PER-TOR feb 4 2015

i keep getting an error when i choose my flight schedule.

Can someone please try get past the flight selection point and let me know if it works?

driving me crazy!

I'm not even getting the system to recognise Torrington municipal Airport in Wyoming! So you got further than me in selecting flights!

Edited: I'm just thinking do you mean Toronto (YYZ)? If that's the case I'm also getting the error message.