US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards

[sr81]

When I book I put the whole thing on a 72 hour hold then buy the points. When you place the hold you will get a booking number and you can then review the booking on the USAirways website via Manage My Bookings.

Some airlines (SQ) will not allow a hold. TG are great and can be placed on hold.

I called TG in Melbourne yesterday to get some seats assigned and the agent said that she had now seen quite a number of USAir bookings recently. She even sounded a little annoyed by it. Not sure why.

 

[anat0l]

I called TG in Melbourne yesterday to get some seats assigned and the agent said that she had now seen quite a number of USAir bookings recently. She even sounded a little annoyed by it. Not sure why.

Oh I think I know why. And the Lufthansa group similarly are feeling annoyed too.

 

[sr81]

Oh I think I know why. And the Lufthansa group similarly are feeling annoyed too.

I just find it strange that this has filtered down to the agents in the Melbourne office. Thai can always restrict their inventory but they don't. I think this idea that certain airlines are 'lessening' the brand buy having cheap rewards is rubbish. Either you are part of the alliance or you or not.

That said long may USAir be selling miles.

 

[bcworld]

I called TG in Melbourne yesterday to get some seats assigned and the agent said that she had now seen quite a number of USAir bookings recently. She even sounded a little annoyed by it. Not sure why.

I have to admit I have put a lot of people in touch with this offer who have gotten over their fears and gone ahead and booked flights. I'm sure some of them, more novice travellers, probably do regularly phone up the local offices bothering them what seatguru says, and they never got a ticket in the post etc etc etc....

I'm sure they will have noticed the surge in Australian DM members!

 

[anat0l]

I just find it strange that this has filtered down to the agents in the Melbourne office. Thai can always restrict their inventory but they don't. I think this idea that certain airlines are 'lessening' the brand buy having cheap rewards is rubbish. Either you are part of the alliance or you or not.

That argument is sort of circular. You are part of an alliance in that you provide the ability to redeem awards to other members in the alliance. It doesn't actually stipulate to what degree this can happen. In the moderate case, restricting the redemption of premium awards is one way, and you get enough people complaining that "I can see a seat, so why can't I have it" (a common USA-FFP-ism). In a more extreme case, the redemption may be unilaterally blocked for all but their own members, a la the case of SQ. In saying that, SQ probably "fulfill" their part of the alliance in that respect by providing redemption ability on some seats (namely cheaper J, old F and all Y).

I don't know whether it filters down to any particular degree or not. One could argue that perhaps there are TG FFP members who are not able to find or book awards that vehemently are complaining and the fact that they are being snapped up quicker by, say, US awards is the reason. That is a failure of the TG system for sure, but no less the reason why they could be annoyed (and the frontline staff are taking a beating from both sides; (a) from upper management and (b) from disgruntled customers). You can probably bet that if TG start taking a more serious stance on cross-FFP redemption, especially premium awards, many people will not be very happy at all about it (and when I say "not very happy", I don't mean from a point-of-view of "oh well, it was good whilst it lasted", but rather the point-of-view saying "this is injustice and anti-alliance behaviour"). And the practice is not about to disappear - for example, LH now restrict A380 J and F awards to LH SEN and HON members only. Whether these are "temporary" measures before they get more A380s (a la some of us are hopeful SQ will evolve KF redemptions in a similar fashion) or whether this is intended to combat against awards going too "cheaply" is very debatable.

Certainly there were cases of US members on US awards getting a bit of cold shoulder treatment by Lufthansa Group staff whilst overseas. It's not common, but there are reports out there.

Of course, it could just be a case of the agent thinking (in typical Aussie fashion), "Bl**dy hell, another one of these bl**dy US awards in TG F.... where the hell are they all coming from...."

 

[Alanslegal]

I think people already know this, but LH is commencing their A380 service between FRA and SIN from 31 October 2011 so it may be a gooooood time to get your skates on and book some flights in those F cabins Yes there are availability issues with LH on TATL segments but IME, no availability* issues with segments between FRA/MUC and Asia

* i should qualify ... no issues on non-a380 services

 

[anat0l]

I think people already know this, but LH is commencing their A380 service between FRA and SIN from 31 October 2011 so it may be a gooooood time to get your skates on and book some flights in those F cabins Yes there are availability issues with LH on TATL segments but IME, no availability* issues with segments between FRA/MUC and Asia

* i should qualify ... no issues on non-a380 services

I've checked a handful of dates in ANA in early October. Aircraft shows 744 (not 388 yet), but there is no F or J availability on FRA-SIN that I can find. On some random dates I can get a J seat to show up, but on all the dates I've tried there are no F seats.

On the other hand, I found a F seat next week on FRA-SIN, but of course it's a 744 and not 388. And you'd have to book your positioning rather quickly. (Seems that looking at short term time frames can yield potential goodness as well as the traditional far in advance).

I think on 744 cabins with 16 seats they have been starting to sell them as only 8 seats, i.e. everyone gets one "living" seat and a "sleeping" seat beside them, which is supposed to tide them over before they install new F in aircraft.

Now it may be a case that ANA can't see it but the US could force a seat (using whatever black magic it knows). I don't have experience with this, but at least from what ANA is telling me right now it ain't looking good.

 

[bcworld]

Now it may be a case that ANA can't see it but the US could force a seat (using whatever black magic it knows). I don't have experience with this, but at least from what ANA is telling me right now it ain't looking good.

If ANA doesn't show a seat I don't think US can force it. But if ANA does show a seat, and US say they can't see it (which seems quite common with LH/LX F) then they can try and force it (long sell) often with success. However not all agents know what a long sell is, and it seems US is getting tired of customers instructing their agents on how to do their jobs when it comes to the long sell and may be putting stop to long selling.

It astounds me sometimes when I hear how long people spend on the phone to US trying to book the most convoluted of itineraries...back and forward to the rates desk, is this legal etc...a lot of people talk about spending 2 hours on the phone! Imagine you came to work and all you did that day was book 4 award tickets! Hence the reason I think they might clamp down on the most exotic of itineraries (not that a transatlantic flight is exotic, but any extra work for the agent must add up).

Each time I've called flights have been reserved within about 10 minutes with a 10 minutes or so hold for a taxes calculation.

 

[Alanslegal]

I've checked a handful of dates in ANA in early October. Aircraft shows 744 (not 388 yet), but there is no F or J availability on FRA-SIN that I can find. On some random dates I can get a J seat to show up, but on all the dates I've tried there are no F seats.

388 FRA-SIN vv services commence from 31 October 2011. Try after that, ANA showed one or two F seats scattered here and there.

 

[hummel]

After some opinions fellow members.

As mentioned earlier in this thread my girlfriend and I are looking to travel to Europe/USA next year. Probably around July 2012.

Now what I was thinking of...:

Buy miles now 50k+50k = 100k each

Wait for next sale (hopefully next month! ) and then buy extra miles and then book our trip. I would assume (possibly incorrectly) that booking so far in advanced we should be able to get US-Europe award in F or J ?

Opinions guys? All thoughts appreciated

 

[Alanslegal]

Buy miles now 50k+50k = 100k each

Wait for next sale (hopefully next month! ) and then buy extra miles and then book our trip. I would assume (possibly incorrectly) that booking so far in advanced we should be able to get US-Europe award in F or J ?

Opinions guys? All thoughts appreciated

As of right now, I think you can only get seats up to 4 May 2012.

So if I was you, I would just buy the 50k + max. 50k bonus and just sit tight for a couple of months.

To make up the difference between 100K to a US or EUR award, will be purchased at the regular rates anyway. So the worst case is you pay normally ... ideal case, another quick fire promo is launched around August/September etc for that top up.

 

[hummel]

As of right now, I think you can only get seats up to 4 May 2012.

So if I was you, I would just buy the 50k + max. 50k bonus and just sit tight for a couple of months.

To make up the difference between 100K to a US or EUR award, will be purchased at the regular rates anyway. So the worst case is you pay normally ... ideal case, another quick fire promo is launched around August/September etc for that top up.

I suppose I am just worried that US will change the redemption rates etc

Although if they were to do that I would imagine that they would have to give some notice (30days??) before increasing rates.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.. I remember some of the promotions earlier this year and just thinking it was just too good to be true!

 

[Alanslegal]

I suspect this will be ok too - but I wonder how they are handling the stopover which is not in a star alliance hub city? Seems they are cracking down on all sorts of things these days.

SYD-BKK-LHR(tg f)-ZRH(lx c)-BOM(lx f 333)-BKK(tg c)-SYD(tg f).

And its all good. Agent had to double check this was a valid routing - and on two occasons they have said Yes its all valid. Anyway its booked and paid, $220 in taxes.

 

[Alanslegal]

(I know peachy3333 will think this is un-creative ) and my route ended up being a simple AMS-MUC(lh c)-BKK(stop)-SYD(dest)-BKK-HKG(all tg f)-MUC(lh f)-AMS(lh c). Taxes $217 + $50 service fee. From there I will be making my way from AMS-LAX somehow for my QF12 flight in March 2012, which was 96K and $245 in taxes!

I checked my reservation a few nights ago and my SYD-BKK flight in February 2012 was pushed to a later flight meaning I would miss the connection in HKG .... so anyway I just rang up US airways and asked if I could cancel the above itinerary and start again without a $150 change fee, and yes they would do so where's the thumbs up icon??

Lucky I found out a couple of day ago as I will be overseas in two days time and wouldn't have had the chance to call US, so anyway all is good and I have just ticketed the following:-

AMS-FRA (lh C)
FRA-ICN (lh F) FCT and Porsche here I come :!:
ICN-BKK (tg Y ... yes Y) :shock:
BKK-SYD (tg F)

SYD-BKK (tg F)
BKK-ICN (tg C)
ICN-FRA (oz F)
FRA-AMS (lh C)

 

[Mrmaxwell]

Is routing from SYD to the US via BKK/Europe available?

It seems it can be dependant on which US agent you get...

Taking the most direct flight and/or trying to get seats on a UA flight doesn't seem the best use of points here right?

 

[anat0l]

Is routing from SYD to the US via BKK/Europe available?

I guess that should be OK, as long as you keep to stopover / open jaw rules.

Do people find that there is some sort of MPM rules that need to be followed? If so, does anyone have any idea what the MPMs could be?

It seems it can be dependant on which US agent you get...

Indeed. It is not unusual for people to play agent roulette, politely hanging up on some who don't seem to be as obliging / in the know. Some people go on for hours like this until they get it right. In theory, I guess as long as you don't have it recorded against your name, this should be alright, unless you end up with the same agent in a row / in a short amount of time. Do make sure you politely hang up, as you don't want to risk having bad remarks recorded against your name.

Taking the most direct flight and/or trying to get seats on a UA flight doesn't seem the best use of points here right?

Probably not, but more from the point of view that you can do a lot better than flying UA rather than your choice of direct routing.

 

[Gold Member]

I guess that should be OK, as long as you keep to stopover / open jaw rules.

Do people find that there is some sort of MPM rules that need to be followed? If so, does anyone have any idea what the MPMs could be?

No MPM rules that I am aware of, just max 10 segments. I've routed to ORD on one ticket and YYC on another while originating in SYD. Agents never questioned why I wasn't taking the pacific leg, but then it probably had something to do with stopovers in either Europe or SE Asia. If they ever did, I could easily claim that United never offers First Class availability on their transpac for the dates I wanted anyway so they would have no choice. And AirNZ and Air Canada don't offer FC anyway.

It is possible, however, to route SYD-BKK-LAX with TG, or SYD-ICN-LAX with OZ, or even from NRT-LAX with ANA. These routes are valid for travel from SWP to NA within US Air Star Alliance awards.

 

[dean_au]

Hey AFFers...

Has anyone had any luck redeeming a J round the world with there US dividend miles?

How hard is it to get J flights? (compared to say QF classic redemption)

How far in advance do you need to plan your itinerary generally?

Are more seats available 12 months in advance?

Thanks.....

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hey AFFers...

Has anyone had any luck redeeming a J round the world with there US dividend miles?

How hard is it to get J flights? (compared to say QF classic redemption)

How far in advance do you need to plan your itinerary generally?

Are more seats available 12 months in advance?

Thanks.....

You should first of all look at theitinerary you want and the value of a RTW ticket - for example, if you just want to do Europe and the USA, and only need one stopover, then you could just redeem a ticket AUS-Europe (stop)-USA.

However, if you want stops in Asia, Europe and USA then a RTW may be for you (more stops allowed).

J availability is pretyt good on Thai - pretty much wide open. Nothing like QF classic awards.

Transatlantic is usually ok, you'll find something, might just not be on the carrier of choice (for example Lufthansa or Swiss) - but there are lots of options.

Coming back (or going) via the Pacific can be more problematic. United is booked out months (read 1 year) in advance as soon as reward seats open up. But you can find the odd flight. Air Canada also hard. Air New Zealand is a better option - with slightly more seats, but you gotta keep an eye out as seats can come and go pretty quick.

While you are allowed to fly trans pac to USA from Australia (eg SYD-BKK-LAX on TG) I'm not sure whether that would be allowed on a RTW as it might represent some backtracking if you have already been to asia on the outbound. Someone might be able to advise you on that.

 

[hummel]

I'll be buying 50k + 50k this week for both my girlfriend and I.

Then wait and see if any promo's pop up next month.

We are looking at Europe but if we can do MEL-