To buy or not to buy

[joannanewnham]

I’m looking at going to Europe in December next year and have the opportunity to buy LifeMiles on their current offer at 140%.
I’ve read up on the booking process and it seems rather convoluted.
I’m unsure if it’s worth buying them and attempting to book online or if their is a simpler way to achieve the same result?
I think I’d need around 175000 pts for return business class which would cost $2406 USD.
My dad can get AA points 250000 for $4700 USD.
I’m unsure which way to go?
I was hoping you might offer some guidance, I’ve tried to do a little research and there so much information out there I’m starting to get confused.

 

[Feka742]

There are a range of quirks with the Avianca booking system and I've found it's best just to accept its limitations in exchange for its great value. It can be reasonably straightforward to make an AV award booking if:

• Your itinerary is non-stop.
  
• If not non-stop, then one-stop. The AV booking engine will show some multi-stop itineraries, but not most. Rule of thumb - as simple as possible is best.
  
• Any connections you make are < 8 hours. AV doesn't show itineraries with an 8+ hour connection.

These should all be possible to make online.

A useful way to work around the AV system's limitations is to search for availability through UA (keeping the above constraints in mind), find what you're after, then go and search for that same availability on AV.

One of the big drawbacks with Star redemptions to Europe is that many TG itineraries (where most of the F/J availability is) have long connections in BKK as a result of the recent TG schedule changes. This means AV's 8-hour rule disqualifies them and the system no longer sees them.

Some options that should show up on the AV system and allow an online booking include:

• SYD-BKK-CDG (all TG)
• SYD-BKK-IST (TG and TK)
  
• MEL-BKK-BRU (all TG)
• VIE-BKK-SYD (OS and TG)

If you're looking for availability that shows on UA and meets AV's rules, but still won't show on AV - search for the two one-way sectors (i.e. SYD-BKK, then BKK-CDG) on AV and email screenshots. This can usually be ticketed online via email too and is relatively painless.

Anything more complex, like multi-stops or long layovers - will require a phone call. And that is often extremely painful.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I’m looking at going to Europe in December next year and have the opportunity to buy LifeMiles on their current offer at 140%.
I’ve read up on the booking process and it seems rather convoluted.
I’m unsure if it’s worth buying them and attempting to book online or if their is a simpler way to achieve the same result?
I think I’d need around 175000 pts for return business class which would cost $2406 USD.
My dad can get AA points 250000 for $4700 USD.
I’m unsure which way to go?
I was hoping you might offer some guidance, I’ve tried to do a little research and there so much information out there I’m starting to get confused.

Further to Feka's exdellent summary, the other thing to remember is that you don't need to buy the total amount of points to make a redemption - you only need 40% of the miles* at the time of booking and the rest can be topped up with cash.

Topping up with cash as part of the booking process - at any time - is 1.5c per mile (not the standard 3.3 cents). So a good way to minimise any potential losses is to buy the 40% base.

*the 40% minimum incurs a slight penalty with topping up miles, you actually want around 42% of the base miles and top up frm there. on an award of 85K miles to europe you'd aim to buy around 36K base miles under the 140% promo, then top up at time of purchase.

 

[joannanewnham]

Thankyou both for your great insight!
I've been looking at the life miles site and cannot for the life of me seem to be able to find a flight out of AUS to the UK direct, I tried breaking it up as suggested by Feka and can find some flights, but the layover looks to be 8+ hrs. Which I am guessing would mean booking two seperate flights and having to pay the extra USD $25 fee, the second flight being in economy.
I'll have a bit more of a fiddle and see what I can achieve, otherwise I might have to search out other options...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thankyou both for your great insight!
I've been looking at the life miles site and cannot for the life of me seem to be able to find a flight out of AUS to the UK direct, I tried breaking it up as suggested by Feka and can find some flights, but the layover looks to be 8+ hrs. Which I am guessing would mean booking two seperate flights and having to pay the extra USD $25 fee, the second flight being in economy.
I'll have a bit more of a fiddle and see what I can achieve, otherwise I might have to search out other options...

No no - you can book it all as one ticket. But a waste to book part in economy.

It's quite often the case that LM doesn't how connecting flights... so a search AUS-UK might show nothing.

Break the search down... try AU-BKK first, then BKK-Europe. There are lots of options for the latter. Take a screenshot of the availability on both sectors once you find it... the 8 hours doesn't matter.

Then you send those to lifemiles with a 'here are the two sectors individually - can you please add them together as one'.

Lifemiles then makes the booking and sends you an email. You call them, and pay.

As long as your transit in BKK (or wherever else) is under 24 hours yuou should be fine.

Other options you can look for are SYD-ICN (Asiana) and then ICN-Europe on Asiana. You can fly Thai to BKK and then Turkish Airlines to Europe. Or catch Singapore Ailirnes to SIN and onwards frmo there on Turkish.

Also available from time to time is Air China. With F sometimes available via PEK all the way from SYD to Europe. But again - might require searching for two individual sectors.

The easiest way? Use United's award search on their home page. If it brings up SYD-BKK-Europe you can go back to LM and do the SYD-BKK and BKK-Europe separately and sned them off to be booked.