Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

[FlightGeek]

I'm trying to get 3 x J/F GUM to New York tix for New Year's (around 29/12) but can't find anything, even 1 ticket, GUM-JFK/LGA. Any tips including suggestions of hidden city ticketing options that route through a NY airport? Thanks!

You are way to late to find good availability for this date.

But ist this not the thread about SUCCESSFUL award bookings and not the ask for help or tricks?

 

[Beta4Me]

You are way to late to find good availability for this date.

But ist this not the thread about SUCCESSFUL award bookings and not the ask for help or tricks?

Sorry, wrong thread!

 

[Glider_]

Coming in as a complete novice, after spending a month reading this site and FT I decided to dip my toe in the water. I bought miles during their February transfer reward promotion and ping-ponged them up to maximum limits between mine and MrGlider’s accounts.

I booked two one-way J legs for me and MrGlider using half points half pay;
SIN-ZRH-TXL J SQ & LX
MUC-FRA-SIN J LH
Worked like a charm.

THEN *cue music* dun dun duuun…

I immediately notice from my confirmation email that during the booking process of the first booking, I have missed one letter from MrGlider’s first name. F*%#. Please don’t assume that I’m stupid. I’ve booked dozens and dozens of flights before, and am as a general rule pedantic about making sure details are correct before proceeding. However, the one time when it really matters I made a one letter mistake.

I assumed that I would either need to take the risk of having MrGlider attempt to fly with a ticket typo, or I would need to cancel and re-book. I’ve read enough to know that if there’s one thing you want to avoid at all costs, its needing to talk to Avianca. With several hours to spare and phone-menu instructions from another thread I gave them a call.
It’s a very very long story, but in essence a I found that I did not have to cancel. I could send a copy of MrGlider’s passport and the error could be corrected for me by a special team. I thought that this was magnificent news, however I was actually entering Dante’s 10[SUP]th[/SUP] circle of hell. It took 10 days, 4 emailed scans of passport, 8 phonecalls lasting a total of 4.5 hours and speaking to 17 different people, a new ticket for MrGlider but with the same spelling error, and an additional follow up email from me explaining the timeline of events written in both English and Spanish. BUT, today I received a new ticket for MrGlider, correctly spelled, at no additional charge.

I’m very pleased that they were able to eventually correct my mistake at no cost to me. I recognise that it was completely my fault and they could have insisted that I cancel and rebook myself since once the ticket is issued the name can’t be changed, a new booking is required. So in that respect their service was good. However, the stress and frustration I experienced throughout the process was significant. So if it were to happen again (I will NOT ever let this happen again!), I think I would prefer, and recommend to others, to cancel and rebook and consider the additional fees as a stress-prevention charge J. It was definitely a huge help to have the information from here and FT to know what to expect from the call centre such as the phone menu options and knowing to expect a very long wait. And the old HUACA method of moving forward when you hit a wall.

 

[Maverick17]

I have booked a few LM tickets over the past year. Never had any trouble with website or flights. I generally use from the US for good J values and for last minute flights since I lost my UA status and have last-minute booking fees. Have booked the following for myself and for 4 friends.

SLC-SFO-KIX-GUM in UA J
SLC-LAX-ICN-SGN in UA/OZ Y
SIN-EWR in SQ J
WDH-JNB-CPT in SA Y
SLC-ORD-FRA-IST RT in UA/LH Y
LAX-LHR-IST RT in LH Y
SLC-PHX-EWR in US Y
LHR-YYZ-SFO-SLC in AC/UA Y

 

[Nizar]

SIN-EWR in SQ J

I thought this route was discontinued ?
Or do you mean via FRA ?

 

[bcworld]

I thought this route was discontinued ?
Or do you mean via FRA ?

He did say 'over the past year'. It was only discontinued late last year.

 

[Maverick17]

He did say 'over the past year'. It was only discontinued late last year.

correct. that specific flight was in May of 2013.

 

[zainman]

He did say 'over the past year'. It was only discontinued late last year.

also I believe the flight via FRA is to JFK not EWR?

 

[Maverick17]

also I believe the flight via FRA is to JFK not EWR?

also correct. and 380 vs 345.

 

[robd]

Booked 2 x J TG MEL-HKG-MEL on 28th May for Nov 14. Have been checking every day for a 3rd seat on the same flights. Outbound seemed ok, but return kept coming up sold out.

Checked today and return flight available, but outbound sold out. I started piecing MEL-BKK (ok) and then BKK-HKG (ok). Then I tried MEL-HKG and it came back ok too. After about half a dozen goes, the return trip MEL-HKG-MEL came back all good, same flights, same dates. Perhaps they were loading the flights as I was checking or maybe just the clunky website?

 

[Beta4Me]

Just booked:
2 x HKG-tpe-icn-ROR + ROR-icn-tpe-HKG in J for Dec 11 and 19 respectively (HKG-tpe//icn-tpe-HKG = BR and tpe-icn-ROR-icn = OZ)
and
2 x HKG-bkk-SYD in TG F for Dec 20

Total cost exclusively in LifeMiles is 127,500 per person.

I paid in total for both pax: LM119,000 + US$2040 + US$151.22 taxes + US$150 fees.

I'm getting to HKG initially on an AA award and then going to the US and Caribbean on an USDM award before coming back for Palau and heading home on LifeMiles.

 

[burmans]

Just booked:
2 x HKG-tpe-icn-ROR + ROR-icn-tpe-HKG in J for Dec 11 and 19 respectively (HKG-tpe//icn-tpe-HKG = BR and tpe-icn-ROR-icn = OZ)
and
2 x HKG-bkk-SYD in TG F for Dec 20

Total cost exclusively in LifeMiles is 127,500 per person.

I paid in total for both pax: LM119,000 + US$2040 + US$151.22 taxes + US$150 fees.

I'm getting to HKG initially on an AA award and then going to the US and Caribbean on an USDM award before coming back for Palau and heading home on LifeMiles.

Love the mix and match of program's, well done!

 

[casanovawa]

Now what is the logic of flying to ROR on LMs and then USDM to the states or do you just love visiting ROR???

 

[Beta4Me]

Now what is the logic of flying to ROR on LMs and then USDM to the states or do you just love visiting ROR???

If you know a way of getting to ROR on OW I'm all ears...

Regardless, yes, Palau is fantastic and I'm there for 8 days of which several will be spent scuba diving.

 

[Beta4Me]

Love the mix and match of program's, well done!

Thank you. It's certainly been an extraordinarily steep learning curve coming to grips with different FF programs and alliances (esp. OW's phantom availability on some programs), but it's thoroughly rewarding as evidenced by...

I've just booked the following for Nov 16 to Dec 10:
SIN-(stop: 35hrs)-HKG-yvr-jfk-mia-SJU(dest: 15 days)-clt-LAX(stop: 5.5 days)-HKG-SIN

It's for my best mate and I with everything in J except for SIN-HKG-yvr-JFK in F for 1 pax (me ).

Specifically: SIN-xx_-JFK is CX J/F, JFK-MIA is AA F, MIA-SJU is AA J, SJU-clt-LAX is US J and LAX-HKG is CX J.

Weirdly and fortunately, I have managed that second stopover in HKG at the start and, whilst the J award is 90K + US$70.02 taxes + US$50 fee, the F award was priced at only 105K + $same due to the return portion from SJU being exclusively in J (i.e. 60K+45K=105K)

This ties nicely into the following:

2 x HKG-tpe-icn-ROR + ROR-icn-tpe-HKG in J for Dec 11 and 19 respectively (HKG-tpe//icn-tpe-HKG = BR and tpe-icn-ROR-icn = OZ)
and
2 x HKG-bkk-SYD in TG F for Dec 20

And I'm not actually staying in Puerto Rico, I'm branching off with SJU-EIS(5 days)-SXM(1 day)-BGI(5 days)-MIA(3 days)-SJU using a combination of Avios-obtained AA flights and purchased flights on LIAT and Seaborne.

Whilst I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get to SIN as CX availability is sketchy and I'm down to only 31,000 LifeMiles, the final trip over 36 days looks like this (with the MEL-SIN at the start just a draft that is yet to be booked):
MEL-syd-bkk-SIN-HKG-yvr-jfk-mia-sju-EIS-SXM-BGI-MIA-sju-clt-LAX-HKG-tpe-icn-ROR-icn-tpe-HKG-bkk-syd-MEL (bold caps are the (>24hr) stopovers)

Yeah, I'm pretty stoked!

 

[bigsleep55]

Thank you. It's certainly been an extraordinarily steep learning curve coming to grips with different FF programs and alliances (esp. OW's phantom availability on some programs), but it's thoroughly rewarding as evidenced by...

Well done! What is the final cost for the whole trip for you been?

 

[Beta4Me]

Well done! What is the final cost for the whole trip for you been?

To-date, it's US$4911.19 (inc. points purchase costs, taxes, fees etc.) for me for the USDM & LM bookings + a UA booking (SYD-bkk-SIN). Not 100% sure what the rest will cost (MEL-syd-MEL + sju-EIS-sxm-BGI-MIA-sju) but I'd estimate about $1K.

 

[gupayami]

Just booked ICN - MEL on SQ J for 52.5K points, five days in advance. Confirmation number given immediately. Able to access booking on SQ website about half an hour later which is great. The flight consists of SQ603 from ICN to SIN on a A330 with angle flat seats (the only flight from ICN it seems), then SQ217. This is a bit frustrating as seatguru and different forums suggested that SQ217 is on a 77W with lie flat seats, however after booking the flight and going for seat selection it seems to have changed to a 773 with 2-2-2 seating and angled flat seats? At least I got to 'book the cook' and have booked the lamb shanks!

 

[bcworld]

Just booked ICN - MEL on SQ J for 52.5K points, five days in advance. Confirmation number given immediately. Able to access booking on SQ website about half an hour later which is great. The flight consists of SQ603 from ICN to SIN on a A330 with angle flat seats (the only flight from ICN it seems), then SQ217. This is a bit frustrating as seatguru and different forums suggested that SQ217 is on a 77W with lie flat seats, however after booking the flight and going for seat selection it seems to have changed to a 773 with 2-2-2 seating and angled flat seats? At least I got to 'book the cook' and have booked the lamb shanks!

SQ217 is definitely a 77W flight...if it has been subbed in advance to a 773 on the day you travel then that's very unlucky!

Having said that, for a non sleeping day flight, the traditional seat is probably far comfier than the bench!

 

[gupayami]

Thanks BC. I thought it might be interesting to share my change of flight date experience. This flight was booked for Friday (0015) as Thursday was not initially available when I was in HK. Now that I have arrived in Seoul the Thursday flights have of course become available (1 day in advance!!). I was unsure whether to a) leave it as is, b) cancel the flight and rebook or c) use the change flight method ($150). I decided b) was too complicated as I was unsure how quickly the miles would be refunded and I didn't want to purchase more miles and have the refunded miles subsequently sitting in my account.

As such I went with plan c). I rang LM and the chap was very helpful though I must admit the whole process took 40 minutes. On reflection, one key thing I would recommend is printing out the 'NATO phonetic alphabet' (google) and using this when spelling anything, for example your address for the credit card number. This would have saved some time and avoided the possibility of the credit card being rejected (he had to confirm the spelling in my address).

The new booking code was emailed to me during the call, which I confirmed using checkmytrip. After about 20 minutes I can now manage my booking on the SQ website. All seems okay though I acknowledge it was slightly risky changing the flight to only 24 hours from now!!