Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

[Notyourbag]

An online redemption
TK J IST-FRA 27,000 + USD$50.81

United is 25,000 + USD$20.50 - are the points valued $1/$1?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

United is 25,000 + USD$20.50 - are the points valued $1/$1?

LM points are much cheaper. On a 2-4-1 + 45% sale with LM you should be able to achieve 1.345c per point, United with their 100% bonus is around 1.88c per point.

So in this case LM is costing USD413.96, UA would come in at USD490.5.

Both of these are in the ball park of revenue ticets though.

 

[Kremmen]

Online T-14 booking.

BNE-TPE EVA J A333
TPE-HKG EVA J B78X

Brave. I guess you're hoping the EVA strike ends or doesn't happen to hit your flights!

 

[boomy]

Brave. I guess you're hoping the EVA strike ends or doesn't happen to hit your flights!

I was just about to write an update on this.
The BR strike started one day after I’ve done this booking. At that stage I wasn’t worried and thought it will be resolved way before my flight takes off. I was wrong.

Yesterday I got a call from EVA informing my BNE-TPE flight was canceled and I should contact LM for refund. I had no desire to deal with LM so I kept insisting that EVA should help accommodate me on another flight. The girl from EVA was nice and understanding. She said technically it’s not EVA’s responsibility since the booking was done via 3rd party but agreed to check all options and call me back.

About 30 nervous minutes later I got the callback with good news. She managed to rebook me on CI. My new itinerary:

BNE-TPE CI J A350 (replacing BR A330)
TPE-HKG BR J B78X (flight unchanged)

It was great news because I’m not only getting a better J product (1-2-1 instead 2-2-2) but also get to tick another airline Ive never flown before and heard good things about.

All in all fantastic customer service by EVA.

 

[Kremmen]

Yesterday I got a call from EVA informing my BNE-TPE flight was canceled and I should contact LM for refund. I had no desire to deal with LM so I kept insisting that EVA should help accommodate me on another flight. The girl from EVA was nice and understanding. She said technically it’s not EVA’s responsibility since the booking was done via 3rd party but agreed to check all options and call me back.

Mine wasn't handled as nicely. With my LM award, HKT-BKK-ICN-KHH (TG/TG/BR), BR sent me a text message advising of their cancellation after I'd already checked in for the flights. They didn't call. I spoke to BR staff at BKK and they refused to do anything unless it was an ex-BKK flight. There was a single CI flight ICN-KHH with available seats, but it was totally sold out by the time I got to ICN. BR put me on a flight to TPE and told me they would compensate me for the trains required to get to KHH. (I put in an online claim, but have heard nothing back.)

 

[boomy]

Mine wasn't handled as nicely. With my LM award, HKT-BKK-ICN-KHH (TG/TG/BR), BR sent me a text message advising of their cancellation after I'd already checked in for the flights. They didn't call. I spoke to BR staff at BKK and they refused to do anything unless it was an ex-BKK flight. There was a single CI flight ICN-KHH with available seats, but it was totally sold out by the time I got to ICN. BR put me on a flight to TPE and told me they would compensate me for the trains required to get to KHH. (I put in an online claim, but have heard nothing back.)

Did they offer you direct flight to KHH or any other options ex BKK? BR were obligated to help you get to your final destination but not necessarily via ICN.

 

[Kremmen]

Did they offer you direct flight to KHH or any other options ex BKK? BR were obligated to help you get to your final destination but not necessarily via ICN.

As I said, they refused to do anything until I arrived at ICN. From there, the only other direct flight to KHH was CI, which was (by then) fully booked.

 

[boomy]

As I said, they refused to do anything until I arrived at ICN. From there, the only other direct flight to KHH was CI, which was (by then) fully booked.

Ok. You wrote on previous post the BR staff in BKK refused to do anything unless it was an ex BKK flight so I thought maybe they offered alternatives like direct flight BKK-KHH on CI. This is what they should have done instead of letting you waste time flying all the way to ICN just to catch a flight that was already canceled.

 

[Kremmen]

Ok. You wrote on previous post the BR staff in BKK refused to do anything unless it was an ex BKK flight

i.e. They would have dealt with it if my BR flight was out of BKK. Otherwise, their position was for me to speak to ground staff meeting my TG flight at ICN.

 

[boomy]

i.e. They would have dealt with it if my BR flight was out of BKK. Otherwise, their position was for me to speak to ground staff meeting my TG flight at ICN.

I believe it had a lot to do with general incompetence by local ground crews in BKK. They sometimes need to be pushed a little to do things outside their comfort zone.

Reminds me of similar situation earlier this year, flying TG ex BKK I had to make some changes on OS flight departing another port (same PNR). Ground staff insisted they can only make changes to flights originating BKK.
I said fair enough, if you can’t do it call Vienna because I need this to be done now. They saw I’m not going anywhere so eventually made the call and got instructions on how to make the changes.

The BR staff in BKK would have no idea how to deal with your situation and put it in the too hard basket. A phone call to Taipei might have helped, we’ll never know but it’s something to consider for next time.

 

[Gold Member]

Screen shot method requested:

DPS-BKK (TG BIZ)
BKK-FRA (TG FIRST)
FRA-ZRH (LX BIZ)

4.5 days later I received a call at 11pm advising that the first leg was no longer available but that I could reroute via SIN. So the new routing is:

DPS-SIN (SQ BIZ)
SIN-BKK (SQ BIZ)
BKK-FRA (TG FIRST)
FRA-ZRH (LX BIZ)

I'd been monitoring availability of all three legs every day and even a few hours prior to the call they were all there so its a bit disappointing to have to route via SIN now. I wish they'd fix their online booking engine. But at least it gives me a reason to visit the waterfall etc in Changi.

98,000 Life miles + $67.14 USD.

I'm not sure if its been mentioned previously but when quoted the taxes in USD I immediately asked if t was possible to price in Colombian Peso (COP) to avoid CC DCC. Even though this was quoted (and surprisingly at a 35% higher charge), I then explained why, and he said that the USD charge would originate from Miami so it wouldn't attract DCC. I was also informed that I could pay with my CC details over the phone if paying in USD, whereas in COP I had to submit a form via email and await for another team to process the award. USD it was then.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Is this for travel within 14 days, or has TG finally opened up award space again?

 

[Guvner]

Is this for travel within 14 days, or has TG finally opened up award space again?

I've seen TG F SYD>BKK on LM in the last week or so flying Sept/Oct 2019

 

[Gold Member]

Is this for travel within 14 days, or has TG finally opened up award space again?

TG F early August.

 

[burmans]

I've seen TG F SYD>BKK on LM in the last week or so flying Sept/Oct 2019

Thanks, interesting!

 

[goldenhorn]

SYD - YVR
J class
June 2020
2 pax

I bought 33,000 miles and got an additional 37, 950 miles with the current 145% bonus promotion for USD$1,089 (totaling 70,950 miles)

Points + pay was 72,000 miles + USD $1,350 + $225 booking fee and taxes

Total cost USD$2664 for 2 pax.

Website was broken for purchasing points and the award so had to purchase points and make the booking on the phone (about 2 hours in total on the phone).

LM called back 36 hours later to take the payment.

 

[Notyourbag]

SYD - YVR
J class
June 2020
2 pax

I bought 33,000 miles and got an additional 37, 950 miles with the current 145% bonus promotion for USD$1,089 (totaling 70,950 miles)

Points + pay was 72,000 miles + USD $1,350 + $225 booking fee and taxes

Total cost USD$2664 for 2 pax.

Website was broken for purchasing points and the award so had to purchase points and make the booking on the phone (about 2 hours in total on the phone).

LM called back 36 hours later to take the payment.

Nice find! Looks like SYD-YVR is 80,000 outright for 1 pax via LM. Is the points & pay cheaper than buying it outright?

 

[goldenhorn]

Nice find! Looks like SYD-YVR is 80,000 outright for 1 pax via LM. Is the points & pay cheaper than buying it outright?

Thanks! Worked out the same cost I think. @MEL_Traveller helped with the sums. See the Q&A thread for our conversation.

 

[RB]

May 2020 Singapore to Zurich (SIN-ZRH) Flight is LX177 in J on 777-300ER. Booked online as a straight search.

 

[repete]

First successful booking(s)... on behalf of my parents (ie. 2 pax in J on each leg):

MEL-SIN
SIN-ADD
ADD-COO
(190,000 points in total, $206USD taxes for 2 pax - couldn't book online and needed to phone in)

COO-ADD
ADD-DAR
DAR-JNB
(66,000 points, $243USD taxes for 2 pax - booked via phone)

I got them to purchase what should be the 'sweet spot' of miles for their return trip back to Aus. Just waiting for availability (these tix were booked for June/July next year, hoping to return later in July than currently available. In the meantime I joked about what kind of 'travel agent son' [as they call me], books their parents a one way ticket to Africa )