Avianca LifeMiles – Bookings and Discussion

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes, EVA Royal Laurel was probably the best J product on *A but I reckon ANA The Room is now the best J in town.

Yeah i thought ANA F just after i posted, but i wasn’t a huge fan. IFE on ANA is almost non-existent. Wonder if BR still serves VC LGD in J?

 

[bernardblack]

Yes, EVA Royal Laurel was probably the best J product on *A but I reckon ANA The Room is now the best J in town.

I've been wanting to try Eva for ages and there's a prospect coming up.

Re: ANA The Room. Has anyone tried it who is above average in height? It looks very wide and classy in all respects but I'm about 186cm (just over 6'1") and I am concerned I might be too long for it? For all Singapore have good food and soft product, lying at an angle across their (also not especially comfortable) flat surface isn't that great.

Of course finding partner space in The Room is a challenge anyway.

 

[bernardblack]

Before I go through the trouble of constructing an elaborate screenshot itinerary:

Is it possible to get a routing one-way North America to Australia the long way, where separately (say) IAD-LHR and LHR-TPE-BNE are available? And does it price as though flown in a more direct transPacific route? If it just ends up being [63k North America <> Europe] plus [85k Europe <> Australia] it won't be worth the trouble and I'll book them separately.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Before I go through the trouble of constructing an elaborate screenshot itinerary:

Is it possible to get a routing one-way North America to Australia the long way, where separately (say) IAD-LHR and LHR-TPE-BNE are available? And does it price as though flown in a more direct transPacific route? If it just ends up being [63k North America <> Europe] plus [85k Europe <> Australia] it won't be worth the trouble and I'll book them separately.

From experience it will price as the total award, ie Nth America to Pacific (others).

I have flown ORD-FRA-ICN on a single NA-Nth Asia award, flying LH F. Transit was around 7 hours in FRA.

 

[bernardblack]

Anyone have thoughts on the comparative quality of these options in business class (assuming it's redeye, and I prize proper flat sleeping area sufficient for a 186cm, solid man)?

United BOS-LHR 763 Polaris config
United IAD-BRU/FRA 77W Polaris config
Swiss JFK-GVA 333
Brussels JFK-BRU 333

My guess is hard product will be best on United, but soft maybe Swiss?

(If I end up getting a screenshot booking all the way back to Australia this will narrow to probably just Brussels.)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Anyone have thoughts on the comparative quality of these options in business class (assuming it's redeye, and I prize proper flat sleeping area sufficient for a 186cm, solid man)?

United BOS-LHR 763 Polaris config
United IAD-BRU/FRA 77W Polaris config
Swiss JFK-GVA 333
Brussels JFK-BRU 333

My guess is hard product will be best on United, but soft maybe Swiss?

(If I end up getting a screenshot booking all the way back to Australia this will narrow to probably just Brussels.)

I think the main issue here is sleeping time.TATLs can come in around 6 hours, leaving around 5 for sleeping. I’d pick the longest flight. I’m 6’3, none of the options are great for bed length for me. Swiss would be superior in terms of product and arrival airport.

 

[bernardblack]

A couple of questions about screenshot bookings:

1. What's the current turnaround? If I sent a request on, say, Saturday, should I expect by the following Thursday that if I've heard nothing it's not going to happen? Or is that still within the normal range?
2. I included my name, email, passport details in the request, but forgot my LifeMiles account number. Should I reply to the original email, or will that just confuse matters? The name and email match my account and the screenshots showed me logged-in, so they should be able to find it, you'd think.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

A couple of questions about screenshot bookings:

1. What's the current turnaround? If I sent a request on, say, Saturday, should I expect by the following Thursday that if I've heard nothing it's not going to happen? Or is that still within the normal range?
2. I included my name, email, passport details in the request, but forgot my LifeMiles account number. Should I reply to the original email, or will that just confuse matters? The name and email match my account and the screenshots showed me logged-in, so they should be able to find it, you'd think.

Screen shots used to be 24-48 hours. Pre pandemic that had stretched to longer, even up to seven days LM is generally pretty good at responding, so you should hear one way or the other. I have sent a follow-up email on occasion.

I forgot to include my name and account number on a screenshot booking… they still did it, apparently retrieving an old booking and populating everything from there! So ‘yes’, they will probably piece it together!

 

[bernardblack]

Thanks!

 

[bernardblack]

OK, so I was ultimately unsuccessful with my screenshot booking, but I got closer than I may have expected:

• General [email protected] address replied after about eight days, indicating they'd referred it on and were working on it.
• Another 24 hours later (and on what would have been Sunday morning in Bogotá), they called me (but I was asleep) and sent through a proposed itinerary. It looked almost exactly like what I requested, except the last sector was in economy.
• Even though I'd forgotten my LifeMiles account number in the original request email, they correctly identified my account and included it.
• I rechecked, and the last sector was available in business (two seats!) per the LifeMiles website, and cross-checked at United Mileage Plus.
• I called them, and got the same agent, and he said he still couldn't get the business seat.
• It was a ten-hour redeye flight, so I wasn't willing to accept economy.
• I let it go, and booked a through ticket AMS-xTPE-BNE in Eva Royal Laurel (business) the whole way, for 85k LifeMiles plus USD95.

So screenshot bookings are still possible, and they will construct a through one-way itinerary North America > Europe > Asia > Australia, but either the system forces the last sector to economy because of some rule they can't override, or I got the wrong agent. He offered to price it as it was, but I didn't bother, so I don't know whether they would have got it at the North America > Australia rate of 80k.

Anyway, I have JFK-LHR in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class on an A350, for 49500 Velocity plus AUD42, and AMS-xTPE-BNE in Eva Royal Laurel for 85000 LifeMiles plus USD95, so altogether I'm pretty happy.


For the record, the itinerary I tried and almost got:
JFK-xBRU-LHR Brussels, business class
LHR-xTPE-BNE Eva, business class (but was offered economy TPE-BNE instead)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Dunno about the last sector… Europe to BNE was available via TPE as a single itinerary? So not married segments. Maybe the last sector was phantom on that particular day?

 

[bernardblack]

Dunno about the last sector… Europe to BNE was available via TPE as a single itinerary? So not married segments. Maybe the last sector was phantom on that particular day?

Yeah, TPE-BNE in J on the same day was available both standalone and as a through itinerary from AMS. But the LHR departure, which arrived in TPE slightly later than from AMS but still above minimum connect time, could only be constructed with a Y award by the agent. (And this despite the fact that both LifeMiles.com and United.com could see the space for a standalone J award TPE-BNE.)

Post automatically merged: Aug 22, 2022

Anyway I got something pretty good and if this trip goes ahead then closer to the time I may be able to replace AU>US and/or US>UK/EU with United space, and reduce my ongoing exposure to LifeMiles.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yeah, TPE-BNE in J on the same day was available both standalone and as a through itinerary from AMS. But the LHR departure, which arrived in TPE slightly later than from AMS but still above minimum connect time, could only be constructed with a Y award by the agent. (And this despite the fact that both LifeMiles.com and United.com could see the space for a standalone J award TPE-BNE.)

Post automatically merged: Aug 22, 2022

Anyway I got something pretty good and if this trip goes ahead then closer to the time I may be able to replace AU>US and/or US>UK/EU with United space, and reduce my ongoing exposure to LifeMiles.

Maybe it was married segments for revenue control LHR-BNE.

 

[PatMcrotch]

Finally managed to book something.

ICN-TPE-BNE on BR J for 40k miles in March.

It’s nothing fancy but feels good to burn some LM.

I like the newish website layout, feels more user friendly and also less steps to complete when finalising the booking. Now if only award availability could also improve…

Did you only book for 1 Pax?

I'm wondering if another seat opens up as I need 2. Most of the availability for my dates shows only 1 seat

 

[boomy]

Did you only book for 1 Pax?

I'm wondering if another seat opens up as I need 2. Most of the availability for my dates shows only 1 seat

Yes just 1 pax.

There is some availability on the OZ ICN-SYD flight for 2 pax

 

[boomy]

Finally managed to book something.

ICN-TPE-BNE on BR J for 40k miles in March.

It’s nothing fancy but feels good to burn some LM.

I like the newish website layout, feels more user friendly and also less steps to complete when finalising the booking. Now if only award availability could also improve…

Another J booking. Similar route, different airline.

ICN-SYD on OZ for 40k miles plus $67 USD taxes in June.

Still far cry from the complicated multi-city bookings done pre-Covid but at least can use LM for decent redemptions.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Another J booking. Similar route, different airline.

ICN-SYD on OZ for 40k miles plus $67 USD taxes in June.

Still far cry from the complicated multi-city bookings done pre-Covid but at least can use LM for decent redemptions.

complicated multi city bookings pre covid? Availability and restrictions were already pretty bad back then. Screenshots allowed one or possibly two connections.

 

[boomy]

complicated multi city bookings pre covid? Availability and restrictions were already pretty bad back then. Screenshots allowed one or possibly two connections.

Screenshots were the key to some magical multi-connection itineraries mixing J and F. The party was over once TG axed F and now even if they bring it back to SYD we can’t book using LM. Without TG the only remaining option is NH and their award availability isn’t nearly as good

 

[ketsuzei]

CDG-TPE-NRT HND-OKA
J J Y
BR BR NH
72,160 lifemiles + COP268,500 (slightly north of AUD90).

Without the last leg it would have been 75,000 for CDG-TPE-NRT. So that'll be some consolation if I should happen to miss it.

 

[drron]

whilst I can find quite a few J awards on NH and occasionally TG they are 1 per flight. Maybe Mrsdrron goes J and I shudder in Y.