US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

[thehound]

I'm struggling with the phone number for us dividend miles - can someone show me how to call the booking agents from Australia.

Plug the following into Skype: +1800 4284322
As soon as it answers say "award travel", and then when it starts asking for your destination say "Agent" and you'll go straight through to a booking agent.

 

[lmere12]

Cancelled the booking below in May for $150, taxes returned within 10 days. Processing Fee waivered. Added in ATH - JTR which was worth about $70-$100.

new flight:
SYD-BKK F ; BKK - CDG F ; CDG - ATH J ; ATH - JTR E // CDG - VIE J ; VIE - BKK J ; BKK - SYD F

$237 IN TAXES

Ticketed the following in J :

TG BNE - BKK
TG BKK - FRA (380)
LH FRA - ATH
LH CDG - FRA
TG FRA - BKK (777)
TG BKK - SIN
SQ SIN - BNE

$223 taxes plus $75 processing fee (says it has recently gone up)

received the receipt email; can see the bookings on the US airways site; given booking codes for each airline.
All good to go

 

[trooper]

Don't want to jinx anything as I AM just off the phone...:shock:

... but CC details taken for payment of $250 odd (includes booking fee of course) and 110,000 miles

JFK-BRU (SN)
BRU-VIE (OS)
VIE-BKK (OS)
BKK-SYD (TG)

SYD-BKK
BKK-NRT (TG)
NRT-SEA (NH) 788!!

Bit stressful when the (excellent) agent said her manager was checking the routing... but came back as legal..as I assumed it would... but there has been "talk" on the web about restrictions so was a bit concerned...

Took much longer than the last one.....

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Don't want to jinx anything as I AM just off the phone...:shock:

... but CC details taken for payment of $250 odd (includes booking fee of course) and 110,000 miles

JFK-BRU (SN)
BRU-VIE (OS)
VIE-BKK (OS)
BKK-SYD (TG)

SYD-BKK
BKK-NRT (TG)
NRT-SEA (NH) 788!!

Bit stressful when the (excellent) agent said her manager was checking the routing... but came back as legal..as I assumed it would... but there has been "talk" on the web about restrictions so was a bit concerned...

Took much longer than the last one.....

nah. that looks just fine

 

[trooper]

Yeah Mate, I thought so.... but with all that talk..... (It isn't paranoia if they ARE out to get ya!)

SN's new Biz looks good, as does OS's.. and of course I imagine the new Biz on NH's 788 will be the usual quality NH experience!

 

[Flashback]

Yeah Mate, I thought so.... but with all that talk..... (It isn't paranoia if they ARE out to get ya!)

SN's new Biz looks good, as does OS's.. and of course I imagine the new Biz on NH's 788 will be the usual quality NH experience!

A lot of our guys that fly into ROB get the new SN planes that do the JFK route. It's quite nice I'm told.

 

[neon_crossing]

Just booked for my parents:

ADL-SIN J SQ (overnight layover)
SIN-BKK J SQ
BKK-FRA J TG (A380)
FRA-VCE J LH (Destination)

24 night holland america cruise (lucky for some)

BCN-FRA J LH (overnight layover)
FRA-BKK J TG (A380)
BKK-SIN J SQ (overnight layover)
SIN-ADL J SQ

Cost (120,000 points + $201.75 tax + $50 US DM processing fee) each.

I estimate it cost them about $400-500 upgrade on the cheapest comparable economy flights.

 

[LuisT]

Just booked the following for my wife and I.

SYD-PEK J CA
PEK-NRT J CA (stopover)

HND-LAX J NH
LAX-ORD J UA
ORD-YYZ J UA (Destination)

YYZ-EWR J AC
EWR-PEK J UA
PEK-SYD J CA

Tried going via SIN to get to/from Tokyo but was knocked back (they said it was a zone thing but I assume it was MPM - she didn't seem to know what was going on). Still, pretty happy with that since we leave in Feb... Total cost 110000 points + $275 per person.

 

[smit0847]

Just booked the following for my wife and I.

SYD-PEK J CA
PEK-NRT J CA (stopover)

HND-LAX J NH
LAX-ORD J UA
ORD-YYZ J UA (Destination)

YYZ-EWR J AC
EWR-PEK J UA
PEK-SYD J CA

Tried going via SIN to get to/from Tokyo but was knocked back (they said it was a zone thing but I assume it was MPM - she didn't seem to know what was going on). Still, pretty happy with that since we leave in Feb... Total cost 110000 points + $275 per person.

Please do a trip report - we dont get a lot of info on CA or AC.

 

[bcworld]

Please do a trip report - we dont get a lot of info on CA or AC.

My dad is flying CA next month FRA-PEK-MEL but I'm not sure how he'll react if I ask him to take photos of his dinner!

 

[Insaneous]

My parents are keen on Europe next year using some miles from recent promotions.

Any difference in flying syd-bkk-fra with TG in F vs Syd-bkk-cdg (Paris) with TG in F? They are both A380s and depart near midnight.

Flight to FRA also has the non-a380 departing earlier.

Are the departure taxes significantly different for CDG vs FRA?

It appears from this and flyer talk thread that flying to FRA is more common.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My parents are keen on Europe next year using some miles from recent promotions.

Any difference in flying syd-bkk-fra with TG in F vs Syd-bkk-cdg (Paris) with TG in F? They are both A380s and depart near midnight.

Flight to FRA also has the non-a380 departing earlier.

Are the departure taxes significantly different for CDG vs FRA?

It appears from this and flyer talk thread that flying to FRA is more common.

no difference between the flights. taxes may vary slightly but nothing worth worrying about.

 

[bcworld]

It appears from this and flyer talk thread that flying to FRA is more common.

FRA availability seems much worse than it used to be...I think CDG is easier now. FRA is popular because it's a huge star hub and allows connections to other destinations.

 

[anat0l]

FRA availability seems much worse than it used to be...I think CDG is easier now. FRA is popular because it's a huge star hub and allows connections to other destinations.

Not sure about J, but F availability on BKK-FRA is rather wanting.

CDG is looking better in this regard. It's likely a shame for me, because I want to book my parents with a stopover in Europe (before they go to their destination in the USA), but since stopovers must be at a hub, I'd likely have to send them on BKK-CDG-FRA rather than just have a stopover in CDG, which would be much more preferable.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AustFreqFly

 

[Insaneous]

Thanks guys.

Yep F availability for FRA is very limited mid next year. CDG is not too bad in may but nothing in June. Luckily my parents are really flexible so should be able to manage with one or the other.

And having simple itinerary such as syd-bkk-cdg (dest)-bkk(stopover)-syd helps!

 

[bcworld]

Just booked the following for my wife and I.

SYD-PEK J CA
PEK-NRT J CA (stopover)

HND-LAX J NH
LAX-ORD J UA
ORD-YYZ J UA (Destination)

YYZ-EWR J AC
EWR-PEK J UA
PEK-SYD J CA

So according to gcmap this is 14549mi vs a 25M number for SYD-YYZ of 14497. 5 segments too. The plot thickens!

 

[ndh99]

Hi all,

Just completed my first booking. Very basic route - SYD - BKK (stop) - CDG (Dest) - BKK - SYD all on Thai airways in F during June/July '13. Hopefully the A380 starts flying the CDG route by then.

Many thanks to all of those who responded to my questions and provided advice.

 

[bcworld]

Just booked (2 seats in J) for next September an open jaw MEL-SFO / JFK-MEL as follows:

MEL-PVG	CA A330	18 hour overnight stop in PVG
PVG-ICN-SFO	OZ A330 then 777 (QS)
JFK-VIE	OS New Business Class 777	Long daytime transit at VIE
VIE-BKK	OS New Business Class 777	Overnight at BKK
BKK-MEL	TG 777

Great Circle Mapper

110,000 + $188.13 tax + $50 fee pp

The call was pretty much perfect. Total of 15 mins including chatting to the automated system at the beginning. The first thing the agent asked was if I had particular flights in mind. I rattled them off and the only hitch was the system kept trying to give me a free stopover in Seoul instead of a 90 min connection...perhaps I should've kept quiet when she read back the details! 5 confirmation codes given at the end without asking. Top marks for Kelly!

 

[Alanslegal]

The call was pretty much perfect. Total of 15 mins including chatting to the automated system at the beginning. The first thing the agent asked was if I had particular flights in mind. I rattled them off and the only hitch was the system kept trying to give me a free stopover in Seoul instead of a 90 min connection...perhaps I should've kept quiet when she read back the details! 5 confirmation codes given at the end without asking. Top marks for Kelly!

Awesomely efficient call. Well done to you and hopefully I will get to speak to Kelly for my next booking

 

[trooper]

Think I just spoke to Kelly too.... very efficient!

Pretty vanilla itin put on hold for brother (attending Berlin Marathon) and Mother (cheer squad for brother :mrgreen: and visiting friends) Making said brother call to confirm/ticket/pay!! Can't spoon feed him all the way!

SYD-BKK TG

BKK-VIE OS

VIE-TXL OS

MUC-CDG LH

CDG-BKK TG

BKK-SYD TG

Feel great about this one...

Was talking to dear ol' Mum a while back and she was hoping to go with brother..but doubted her ability to cope with modern Y seats on flights that long (her Europe travel experiences date from less-seats-across -the-cabin days methinks. I upgraded us to Y+ on NZ AKL-LAX vv a few years ago and she said that was the first time in years that she was comfortable on a long haul)

Arranging Biz class travel for Mum? Priceless!