Avianca LifeMiles – Bookings and Discussion

[Lizzi]

Yes, I was hoping that was the case that you’d used the, on the outbound, and the points hadn’t gone to waste!

Alaska Airlines was another program with this problem… they’d show QF first awards, and sometimes JAL first awards, but they were phantom. People got caught transferring points or buying them

The main problem with LM however if just being able to get rid of them. With other programs at least you know you’ll be able to use them eventually. I’m stuck with 10k LM that i really don’t know what to do with!

You never know - you might be stuck with a long distance train cancellation like I was in Europe last year. I hopped on LM and found a nice cheap points flight for the next morning on Brussels Air. That would put them to good use!

 

[bcworld]

You never know - you might be stuck with a long distance train cancellation like I was in Europe last year. I hopped on LM and found a nice cheap points flight for the next morning on Brussels Air. That would put them to good use!

We had a disappearing passport disaster in Europe last year and were able to burn LMs for last minute flights on LH/OS/TK to rescue the trip!

 

[leyy]

Hi all

Any advice on the easiest way to add an infant to our LM redemption booking?

We are travelling with ANA Airlines from PEK-HND and require to add an infant to the redemption booking.

thanks for your help!

 

[ozmouse]

Any recent experience booking japan (or any other north asian cities) to australia. trying a year out and there is nothing coming up ANA or Asiana, or eva. Very dire state of affairs from what i can see.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Any recent experience booking japan (or any other north asian cities) to australia. trying a year out and there is nothing coming up ANA or Asiana, or eva. Very dire state of affairs from what i can see.

I vaguely recall that many programs are actively blocking awards ex Asia due to fraud. Trying to find aeroplan ex china for example is almost i possible, well… at least for the date range I was looking.

Obviously Asia-based programs will be different, But fraud is such an issue.

 

[Cynicor]

Ski season? You’re competing in peak paid time vs everyone else with points.
Lots of ANA Japan ex Syd in non ski times previously

 

[SYD_based]

Hi all,

Genuine question. How have you found availability on Thai to open up as times goes on? Looking at SYD/MEL-BKK in August and then back in mid September. Whilst there is quite a lot of dates opened up, of course absolutely none of the dates align even remotely to my travel plans which is so frustrating. Just hoping they open up, or is this something I need to discuss with the call centre to see if they can book for me?

 

[levelnine]

Hi all,

Genuine question. How have you found availability on Thai to open up as times goes on? Looking at SYD/MEL-BKK in August and then back in mid September. Whilst there is quite a lot of dates opened up, of course absolutely none of the dates align even remotely to my travel plans which is so frustrating. Just hoping they open up, or is this something I need to discuss with the call centre to see if they can book for me?

Avianca are not going to be able to book you into award availability that isn't there.

Cross check with other Star Alliance partners, but what you see is what you get.

 

[SYD_based]

Avianca are not going to be able to book you into award availability that isn't there.

Cross check with other Star Alliance partners, but what you see is what you get.

That's totally fair. First time using Avianca, have always used Alaska miles but haven't since their shocking devaluation.

In your experience, does Avianca's award space open up later on when it gets slightly closer to the months, or get worse?

 

[levelnine]

That's totally fair. First time using Avianca, have always used Alaska miles but haven't since their shocking devaluation.

In your experience, does Avianca's award space open up later on when it gets slightly closer to the months, or get worse?

What you need to be asking is whether TG's award space to partners opens up closer to the date of departure or not.

The answer is generally yes, but there are big exceptions such as peak travel periods.

 

[SYD_based]

Hi all,

Has anyone ever received this message when booking Thai? Only happens when I try to book business. No matter which date, this comes up. It happens right after you add traveller and click 'continue.' However, it doesn't come up if I attempt to book economy. Very very frustrating and I'm not entirely sure what to do. Would appreciate any sort of feedback.

 

[auriga]

Hi all,

Has anyone ever received this message when booking Thai? Only happens when I try to book business. No matter which date, this comes up. It happens right after you add traveller and click 'continue.' However, it doesn't come up if I attempt to book economy. Very very frustrating and I'm not entirely sure what to do. Would appreciate any sort of feedback.
View attachment 378699

likely phantom availability.
you can check using other airlines, eg United, to confirm.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

likely phantom availability.
you can check using other airlines, eg United, to confirm.

Wow. I was just about to pull the trigger on buying some additional LM so i could use up my balance. Was looking at TG. might give it a miss!

 

[Gold Member]

Hi all,

Has anyone ever received this message when booking Thai? Only happens when I try to book business. No matter which date, this comes up. It happens right after you add traveller and click 'continue.' However, it doesn't come up if I attempt to book economy. Very very frustrating and I'm not entirely sure what to do. Would appreciate any sort of feedback.
View attachment 378699

There’s an extensive Flyertalk thread on this error that goes back over a year. As Auriga stated, it’s usually phantom availability. But I’ve also found that the error can appear when other Star Alliance members have availability. This is a huge risk if you’re cross checking other Star Alliance carriers and assuming Lifemiles will have the same - especially if you buy the required Lifemiles based on this presumption.

Lifemiles has turned into a shabbily run lottery. Buyer beware.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Shame. I had heard some recent success stories of TG on LM.

fine if you have the miles already banked, but buying or transferring seems off the cards. Too bad. I guess i will lose my last 10k miles when they expire soon.

 

[auriga]

There’s an extensive Flyertalk thread on this error that goes back over a year. As Auriga stated, it’s usually phantom availability. But I’ve also found that the error can appear when other Star Alliance members have availability. This is a huge risk if you’re cross checking other Star Alliance carriers and assuming Lifemiles will have the same - especially if you buy the required Lifemiles based on this presumption.

Lifemiles has turned into a shabbily run lottery. Buyer beware.

yeah, quite unpredictable.
just today, i booked a TG (intra-Asia) trip.
the same flights were not showing on United or aeroplan, so i was fully expecting the redemption to fail. but it went through.

 

[boomy]

Slowly consuming my LM balance with another booking Ex-ICN. For some reason there’s decent availability from Korea to Europe (apart from TG phantom awards).

ICN-FRA-LIS OZ J / TP J
75k miles plus $US83 taxes.

 

[burmans]

Nice!

 

[Notyourbag]

Slowly consuming my LM balance with another booking Ex-ICN. For some reason there’s decent availability from Korea to Europe (apart from TG phantom awards).

ICN-FRA-LIS OZ J / TP J
75k miles plus $US83 taxes.

Just a shame there isn't any J awards from MEL/SYD to ICN these days with Asiana

 

[boomy]

Just a shame there isn't any J awards from MEL/SYD to ICN these days with Asiana

Yes it used to be one of my favourite redemptions.
Luckily QF started direct flights Ex SYD and it’s not too hard to score seats in J if booking in advance.