Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

[goldenhorn]

ORD - YVR -SYD
J class with AC
2 pax
July 2020

79,000 miles + USD$1319.86

This purchase was made on the phone as the website was showing an error when I tried to add passenger names.

The process was a little less painful this time. 2 phone calls - 1 to make the booking and then one the next morning to provide my credit card to make the payment - and pretty good agents both times.

Happy LM customer here.

 

[robd]

SYD-xYVR-ORD AC J
1 PAX August 2020.
80,000 miles + US $103 fees & taxes.

Flights showing and could select on LM but got error message when trying to enter PAX details. I got JNR#1, who lives in the US, to phone them and do the booking (the account is actually in her name, but the points are mine).

Couldn't do seat selection online, so messaged Air Canada on FB and they were done in a few minutes.

A P.I.T.A. but a good result.

 

[grego99]

ORD - YVR -SYD
J class with AC
2 pax
July 2020

79,000 miles + USD$1319.86

This purchase was made on the phone as the website was showing an error when I tried to add passenger names.

The process was a little less painful this time. 2 phone calls - 1 to make the booking and then one the next morning to provide my credit card to make the payment - and pretty good agents both times.

Happy LM customer here.

Were you aware of availability prior to ringing them? or did you just "wing it" pardon the pun And will they deal with LM members that don't have miles in their account? In other words, should I expect them to be just like any travel agent, when I am someone booking a flight or making an enquiry? Or are the "rules" different when looking for award space? Should I expect them to look for space on my behalf or do I need to phone with the details already at hand? Thank you

 

[goldenhorn]

Were you aware of availability prior to ringing them? or did you just "wing it" pardon the pun And will they deal with LM members that don't have miles in their account? In other words, should I expect them to be just like any travel agent, when I am someone booking a flight or making an enquiry? Or are the "rules" different when looking for award space? Should I expect them to look for space on my behalf or do I need to phone with the details already at hand? Thank you

Yes. My process was I found the award flights on LM. I tried to book but online got an error message each time at checkout, so I called them to book on the phone. Once the reservation was made they called me back 24-48 hours later to process payment.

You do need to purchase the points before booking online or calling them to book. I think another time I had to call to purchase points as well because the website failed.

Don't expect them to be like a regular travel agent and search for flights for you. You have to spoon-feed them with every aspect of your itinerary. And beware - depending on your agent, it can be a very tedious and frustrating process with the language barriers. Double and triple check everything they say during the booking process. I learned how to use the phonetic alphabet as well. That helped. lol

 

[robd]

ORD-xHND-SYD. NH Mixed cabin ORD-HND F. HND-SYD J.
1 PAX SEPT 2020.
97,480 MILES + US $63.86 taxes.

Booking on the website is like watching a horror movie. Will they escape or won't they? On the edge of my seat - will the passenger details go through? Will the payment go through? YES!!!! Not sure if I'm more excited about the flight or the fact that that booking went through without a hitch. Phew.

 

[1022]

Screenshots can take up to 10 days for a reply. That's normal these days. Calling/emailing is unlikely to get things to progress any quicker.

Indeed my latest screenshot booking took around 10 days. All sorted now and I'm happy with what I got: NH in F FRA-HND and J HND-SYD Sept 2020 for 104,800 miles and ~USD150. (originally I was going for J + J). Quick and easy call on this occasion to pay the taxes and fees.

Two interesting things to note with this booking:
1) About 30 hours before the booking confirmation landed in my inbox I saw that online availability for the seats I wanted on NH204 and NH879 on my dates disappeared. Disappointed much! (Note, that would have been middle of a Sunday night Colombian time the seats were taken out of inventory. Maybe the "special department" that looks after screenshot bookings works some whacky hours). OZ via ICN was going to be my backup, though given their precarious financial state and how prone to schedule and equipment changes the ICN-SYD flight has been over the last few years, I was hesitant.

2) The system generated travel document for the NH flights landed in my inbox around noon on a Tuesday our time - as I say over a day after I saw online availability dry up. The email was just the Amadeus itinerary. No reminder to call them to process payment. If I didn't know the drill and hadn't called to pay the taxes, I wonder if they'd have ever followed up or if the reservation would vanish after a certain period of sitting unticketed.

So now the last thing to do is hope NH has rolled out the new F product to Frankfurt by September next year. It's slated for the NH203/204 flight pair out of their two daily FRA rotations, so there's a decent chance

 

[bernardblack]

BRU-xBKK-MEL, both sectors in J on TG A350s (until they do one of their patented last-minute substitutions), for 85k LifeMiles and about 49USD.

 

[Notyourbag]

BRU-xBKK-MEL, both sectors in J on TG A350s (until they do one of their patented last-minute substitutions), for 85k LifeMiles and about 49USD.

What dates are these flights for?

 

[bernardblack]

Nice. So TG inventory is showing again? Or is this for a flight in the very near future?

Sorry, I was in a hurry before. This is for 1 pax, for a 12/12 departure from Brussels. A day before I booked there was also availability out of Frankfurt about the same time. And there were a couple of options for the outbound MEL/BNE-xBKK-FRA/CDG between 22/11 and 26/11 but in the end I used some time-limited KrisFlyer miles and booked SQ MEL-xSIN-CDG instead.

 

[Notyourbag]

Last minute (within 24 hours!) LHR-MUC in J for Oktoberfest for 12,500 Lifemiles. No problems booking via their website.

 

[LittleFokker]

Nothing too exciting - TG BKK-SYD J early December 40K + $AUD104. Comes to $AUD900 with latest buy points offer.

Edit: Actually quite excited.

 

[JessicaTam]

[mod hat]
A number of recent off topic posts have been removed.
[/mod hat]

 

[PatMcrotch]

Booked 2 Pax TG F KIX-BKK ---> TG J BKK-MEL.
88,000 ish miles (couldn't understand on the phone) + taxes

LM were super fast compared to previous bookings, only took 3 days.

 

[boomy]

Booked 2 Pax TG F KIX-BKK ---> TG J BKK-MEL.
88,000 ish miles (couldn't understand on the phone) + taxes

LM were super fast compared to previous bookings, only took 3 days.

44k per pax with an F sector? That’s a bargain!

 

[PatMcrotch]

44k per pax with an F sector? That’s a bargain!

They debited the points and the total was 88920LM.
Yes a bargain!

 

[NDiddy]

2pax Mel - SIN - SQ J - 100K +168 USD in taxes and charges - June 2020
2pax SIN- DPS- SQ J - 60K +126 USD in taxes and charges - June 2020

Not the greatest use of points to have the booking split but we're travelling with an infant and wanted to break up the trip. Also thinking it's time we deplete the Lifemiles reserve we've stockpiled over the years.

Happy to have got the A350 on the MEL to SIN leg.

 

[BjJames]

Just booked (overnight) 1 pax (me) TG SYD-BKK-KUL in J, only 4 days away !

End-to-end flight not visible online, but the individual components were. Took screenshots and emailed them with a request to book, before going to bed.

Woke up to the Amadeus booking confirmation, exactly as desired, in my Inbox, sent 4 hours after my email to them.

Checked online with the airline website - yes, the booking was there so I selected my seats. All OK.

Had to call Colombia to finalise the payment : 50,000 miles + USD89.66. Talked to a guy who sounded like he was shouting from the bottom of a well with a mouthful of rags (obviously a VOIP call), so was getting nowhere. He offered a callback from them to me, and 30 minutes later a clear-speaking young lady called and handled the payment transaction coureously and efficiently. All done within 12 hours, most of that my sleeptime.

 

[Notyourbag]

Just booked!

BKK-SYD in F with TG
Sunday 8th Dec
41,000 MILES + $431.29 Points & Taxes

Seat config looks like a 380 although the ticket and Thai Airways website says 747.

Can't wait!

 

[Notyourbag]

Just booked! Flying this Saturday (F availability showed 5 days prior to travel)

Thai First
LHR-BKK

Usually 102,000 miles
I booked: 63 % Miles + 37 % cash
LM 64,000 US$ 939.70

 

[dajop]

Last week booked for two pax (four days in advance) JFK-NRT-SIN on ANA business for 78,000 miles. Got the new ANA business "suites" which were quite nice. Would have preferred to book BR, but could only get JFK-TPE-KUL (or CGK) and decided instead to take ANA option instead so didn't have to muck around with a separate KUL-SIN ticket.