Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[serfty]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Errrrm the VA 77Ws are fully-flat! ...

Fair enough - for me no different from any skybed.

Worst for sleeping for me are the BA Club World beds - narrow shaky platforms with little maneuvering space but (I'll still sleep on one).

 

[vitagen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Why would you choose a 777 with new J over A380? Not flown on the new SQ J but I thought it was same as the A380 fitout?

SQ have a brand spanking new J product that looks totally awesome! Check here:

Singapore Airlines debuts new first, business class on London flights - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

I always prefer Boeing airframes to Airbus.

My experience on the 777-300ER leg from PER-DXB was way more enjoyable than the A380 leg from DXB-LHR and that was on EK F.

That was most likely due to the cabin staff on the DXB-LHR leg that wasn't that great.

Oh well first world problems, i'm happy and lucky to have grabbed some J redemptions, especially on SQ, i'm now saving up for SQ Suites.

 

[prozac]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Thanks vitagen.

I also prefer Boeing to Airbus.

New seats do look swish.

 

[Masonic Phantom]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

SQ have a brand spanking new J product that looks totally awesome! Check here:

Singapore Airlines debuts new first, business class on London flights - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

I always prefer Boeing airframes to Airbus.



My experience on the 777-300ER leg from PER-DXB was way more enjoyable than the A380 leg from DXB-LHR and that was on EK F.

That was most likely due to the cabin staff on the DXB-LHR leg that wasn't that great.

Oh well first world problems, i'm happy and lucky to have grabbed some J redemptions, especially on SQ, i'm now saving up for SQ Suites.

If it is not BOEING... I am not GOING!!!!

 

[Alanslegal]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

If my memory and research serves me correctly, that sector is operated by a BR A332 or A333 with Premium Laurel. How much do the seats recline to?

Didn't you have any other choices to fly BR on Royal Laurel to Europe?

Had the 332 with PL cabins.

The BR lounges offering (think 4 of them) at TPE are pretty cool though, beats any of the QF international lounges

 

[Nizar]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Guys Thai's scheduled change completely bungled me and my wifes' F flights SYD-BKK-CDG return in April that have been booked since August.
The problem is the first leg there's been a schedule change meaning its departure time is now at 20:45 instead of 15:xx meaning that I arrive in BKK 3 hours after the BKK-CDG 388 flight has departed.

I managed to get myself a confirmed F seat on the 10am flight which means I will be sweet (well that seat will probably go to SWMBO lol) but for the wife waitlist Y is apparently the best they could do.

I've been on the phone back and forth between avianca who says thai should fix the problem since their schedule change caused the problem and according to IATA they must provide protection, and then Thai say they cannot touch it as the ticket was issued by avianca, then i call avianca and so on and so forth it goes..

Can someone please help me and tell me
1/ Who is responsible
2/ Who should I call to try and fix this
3/ Who should have called me in the first place to alert me of the schedule change ?

If there are now apparently no seats as they say, can I just buy a cheap revenue Y fare with any carrier and then use my thai itinerary for BKK-CDG-BKK-SYD or will the rest of the ticket become invalid if I don't use the first leg ?

Appreciate any advice please.
Cheers.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Guys Thai's scheduled change completely bungled me and my wifes' F flights SYD-BKK-CDG return in April that have been booked since August.
The problem is the first leg there's been a schedule change meaning its departure time is now at 20:45 instead of 15:xx meaning that I arrive in BKK 3 hours after the BKK-CDG 388 flight has departed.

I managed to get myself a confirmed F seat on the 10am flight which means I will be sweet (well that seat will probably go to SWMBO lol) but for the wife waitlist Y is apparently the best they could do.

I've been on the phone back and forth between avianca who says thai should fix the problem since their schedule change caused the problem and according to IATA they must provide protection, and then Thai say they cannot touch it as the ticket was issued by avianca, then i call avianca and so on and so forth it goes..

Can someone please help me and tell me
1/ Who is responsible
2/ Who should I call to try and fix this
3/ Who should have called me in the first place to alert me of the schedule change ?

If there are now apparently no seats as they say, can I just buy a cheap revenue Y fare with any carrier and then use my thai itinerary for BKK-CDG-BKK-SYD or will the rest of the ticket become invalid if I don't use the first leg ?

Appreciate any advice please.
Cheers.

this is a TG responsibility through and through.

TG is correct that they can't touch the ticket because it was issued by Avianca... Avianca will need to make any changes.

however - they can assist you in this process.

TG can create another booking containing the seats you want. If there is a full revenue seat in F (for example), they can take that, designate it as an award seat ('o' class), book you (or your wife) into that seat, and then get Avianca to ticket that. This is the same as Qantas creating an award seat for a platinum... they just get revenue control to designate a seat as an award seat, however in this case it then needs to go to Aianca.

Problem is - if there are no seats, TG can't release one. And it's not going to happen at the airport. TG will only carry you in the class on the ticket as it stands.

Who should have called you? Well ideally avianca would have sent a message but that doesn't always happen. It is always a good idea to babysit award bookings and to monitor airlineroute.net to see how your flights have been affected.

This TG schedule change has also been discussed at length here on AFF in anther thread.

Getting on to TG as early as possible would have potentially assisted in the creating of any award seats out of revenue.

If TG is unwilling to play ball... the legal responsibility is with TG. Avianca acts as an agent for TG. Your contract is with them now. Are TG likely to be moved by an award ticket (as opposed to someone paying full fare)... they don't seem to be.

The rest of the ticket will be invalidated if you don't use the first sector... although TG does have the ability to overlook that if it chooses to accept the coupons out of sequence. You'd need to get TG on board with this to help you.

 

[luxury-lizard]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

this is a TG responsibility through and through.

TG is correct that they can't touch the ticket because it was issued by Avianca... Avianca will need to make any changes.

however - they can assist you in this process.

TG can create another booking containing the seats you want. If there is a full revenue seat in F (for example), they can take that, designate it as an award seat ('o' class), book you (or your wife) into that seat, and then get Avianca to ticket that. This is the same as Qantas creating an award seat for a platinum... they just get revenue control to designate a seat as an award seat, however in this case it then needs to go to Aianca.

Problem is - if there are no seats, TG can't release one. And it's not going to happen at the airport. TG will only carry you in the class on the ticket as it stands.

Who should have called you? Well ideally avianca would have sent a message but that doesn't always happen. It is always a good idea to babysit award bookings and to monitor airlineroute.net to see how your flights have been affected.

This TG schedule change has also been discussed at length here on AFF in anther thread.

Getting on to TG as early as possible would have potentially assisted in the creating of any award seats out of revenue.

If TG is unwilling to play ball... the legal responsibility is with TG. Avianca acts as an agent for TG. Your contract is with them now. Are TG likely to be moved by an award ticket (as opposed to someone paying full fare)... they don't seem to be.

The rest of the ticket will be invalidated if you don't use the first sector... although TG does have the ability to overlook that if it chooses to accept the coupons out of sequence. You'd need to get TG on board with this to help you.

Lots of people (many award travellers) have been severely impacted by this seemingly illogical schedule change by TG - you are a bit late in the process to get easily accommodated. You could try keeping the new time SYD-BKK then overnighting in BKK (short night) and taking the day flight (around 1pm) to either FRA or MUC - not the A380 but still in F. Of course only if there is availability - or change your dates completely if that is at all possible. Hope this helps!!

 

[RB]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Guys Thai's scheduled change completely bungled me and my wifes' F flights SYD-BKK-CDG return in April that have been booked since August.
The problem is the first leg there's been a schedule change meaning its departure time is now at 20:45 instead of 15:xx meaning that I arrive in BKK 3 hours after the BKK-CDG 388 flight has departed.

I managed to get myself a confirmed F seat on the 10am flight which means I will be sweet (well that seat will probably go to SWMBO lol) but for the wife waitlist Y is apparently the best they could do.

I've been on the phone back and forth between avianca who says thai should fix the problem since their schedule change caused the problem and according to IATA they must provide protection, and then Thai say they cannot touch it as the ticket was issued by avianca, then i call avianca and so on and so forth it goes..

Can someone please help me and tell me
1/ Who is responsible
2/ Who should I call to try and fix this
3/ Who should have called me in the first place to alert me of the schedule change ?

If there are now apparently no seats as they say, can I just buy a cheap revenue Y fare with any carrier and then use my thai itinerary for BKK-CDG-BKK-SYD or will the rest of the ticket become invalid if I don't use the first leg ?

Appreciate any advice please.
Cheers.

Really feel for you. I posted a thread on here (http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ges-schedule-may-affect-57675.html?highlight= )the day after I came across this (I happened to read FT & Check My trip the night the change emerged). We are travelling J to OPO via BKK & FRA & now have a 7.5hr layover in BKK but your story makes me feel lucky. Good luck & hope all ends up OK

 

[Shanye2233]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

That lady Denise at thai in Sydney customer service is a real winner I'm sure she will help you out. So far she kicked my whole family off a flight for the wrong reason , downgraded my own parents because of a aircraft change and tells me call us airways or lifemiles .

On a side note what's the visa deal with dyu good to go ?

 

[legroom]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

this is a TG responsibility through and through......

Who should have called you? Well ideally avianca would have sent a message but that doesn't always happen. It is always a good idea to babysit award bookings and to monitor airlineroute.net to see how your flights have been affected.

This TG schedule change has also been discussed at length here on AFF in anther thread. ......

Thanks for an informative reply.

Would you care to tell us how you would use airlineroute.net to monitor for possible flight changes ?

I visited the site but could not figure out how to do what you claimed to be available there.

Up to now, all I do is to set EF seat alert and hope that if they change, EF would send me an SMS.

Thanks in advance

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Thanks for an informative reply.

Would you care to tell us how you would use airlineroute.net to monitor for possible flight changes ?

I visited the site but could not figure out how to do what you claimed to be available there.

Up to now, all I do is to set EF seat alert and hope that if they change, EF would send me an SMS.

Thanks in advance

two ways to use airlineroute... from the day you make your booking you can either jump on once a day or once a week and read the new posts (your airline may or may not have announced anything), OR, on the right hand side filter the search for your ticketed carrier.

you type in 'Thai' and up will come all their planned schedule changes in order they were announced. you only need to look at the posts after your booking date as they are the ones that will affect you.

it's not so much monitoring flight changes to your booking (it's not a notification service)... it's getting the heads-up as soon as an airline announces any changes... so you can go and make any alternative arrangements before everyone else panics.

 

[Nizar]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Thanks all for your responses.
I guess the best outcome at this late stage is to get confirmed Y on that sector or allow for the booking to remain in place even if I or my wife "misses" the first sector.

And yes I was aware of the other thread and have read the whole thing and have actually been trying to fix my tickets for the past 3-4 weeks, meaning I've been on the phone to either Thai or Avianca about every other day a few times a week. I got mine fixed relatively early on and only a week later did I remember that my wife was on a separate PNR. My bad I suppose.

 

[travelislife]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I have had many schedule changes on USDM in the past on Thai. The one thing I never get is why they rebook when it clearly causes a mis connect. Anyway, the only way I ever get these solved is the following:

1. Check there are revenue seats available on the flight you need to change to on Thai Airways.com
2. If yes, this is good. If no you are fairly screwed and will need to try and find alternative award availability.
3. If Yes. Call the issuing carrier (USDM or Lifemiles) and you need to request for them to waitlist you on the required segment in the fare class required (O or I).
4. Contact Thai Airways office of the port you are flying out of (I always do this by email) and request the wait list to be cleared.
5. Monitor the booking online for a couple of days.
6. Voila Thai 'should' clear the wait list.
7. Call USDM to ensure all properly ticketed.

The above has ALWAYS worked for me WHEN there is seats available (in revenue).

I have tried to contact Thai before doing the wait list request and they her never been able to do anything, won't add the segments, won't create a separate PNR to merge later. They always say to get the wait list in.

I have had both a Yes and No in the last week on two different bookings. Yes one was solved easily, No one was a PIA which I detailed in the USDM thread.

Good luck!

 

[Nizar]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I have had many schedule changes on USDM in the past on Thai. The one thing I never get is why they rebook when it clearly causes a mis connect. Anyway, the only way I ever get these solved is the following:

1. Check there are revenue seats available on the flight you need to change to on Thai Airways.com
2. If yes, this is good. If no you are fairly screwed and will need to try and find alternative award availability.
3. If Yes. Call the issuing carrier (USDM or Lifemiles) and you need to request for them to waitlist you on the required segment in the fare class required (O or I).
4. Contact Thai Airways office of the port you are flying out of (I always do this by email) and request the wait list to be cleared.
5. Monitor the booking online for a couple of days.
6. Voila Thai 'should' clear the wait list.
7. Call USDM to ensure all properly ticketed.

The above has ALWAYS worked for me WHEN there is seats available (in revenue).

I have tried to contact Thai before doing the wait list request and they her never been able to do anything, won't add the segments, won't create a separate PNR to merge later. They always say to get the wait list in.

I have had both a Yes and No in the last week on two different bookings. Yes one was solved easily, No one was a PIA which I detailed in the USDM thread.

Good luck!

If there is a revenue fare available do they HAVE to give it to you ?
I can see that there is a revenue fare available on that day on the same flight that I am on I wonder why this hasn't been offered to me ?
Last time I am dealing with Thai I tell you that :evil:

 

[diningdecadence]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

glad i'm subscribed to this thread... just checked my booking for April - looks like TG471 got binned on the day i was meant to fly so have been moved to the night flight. now got a 13 hour layover in BKK instead of a 2 hour. can't really fly out a day earlier or a day later so looks like we're stuck.

is that long enough to go and see anything in BKK? haven't ever been outside the airport and not sure if the civil unrest is still causing problems?

edit - oh and just to add - lifemiles is still showing award availability on the flight that's been cancelled...awesome

 

[bcworld]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

If there is a revenue fare available do they HAVE to give it to you ?

No. And strictly speaking waitlisting for award travel is not allowed by USDM - so you need to get lucky at that end too. Avianca? Well you've probably got even less chance of finding someone who understands what you need to do!

I use airlineroute to look out for things, although sometimes changes are easier to spot than others...the TG472 changes would be easy to miss.

I have links to all my current reservations (either the USDM page or CheckMyTrip) on my My Yahoo page and check them all periodically. You really, really, really have to baby sit your reservations as time and again we see that no one will let you know about changes and often the 'proactive' changes made are nonsensical.

 

[mhen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

glad i'm subscribed to this thread... just checked my booking for April - looks like TG471 got binned on the day i was meant to fly so have been moved to the night flight. now got a 13 hour layover in BKK instead of a 2 hour. can't really fly out a day earlier or a day later so looks like we're stuck.

is that long enough to go and see anything in BKK? haven't ever been outside the airport and not sure if the civil unrest is still causing problems?

edit - oh and just to add - lifemiles is still showing award availability on the flight that's been cancelled...awesome

Same thing happened to us last month. Thai gave us a day room at the Novotel which included breakfast and lunch buffets. We could have headed downtown for a while but decided to have a nap instead (old age!).

 

[Nizar]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

Same thing happened to us last month. Thai gave us a day room at the Novotel which included breakfast and lunch buffets. We could have headed downtown for a while but decided to have a nap instead (old age!).

Really, that's nice.
Did you have to fight for this or was it offered ? Or were you on a revenue fare ?
Do you remember who you spoke to ?

Our return flight has gone from a 2-3 hour transit to 13 hour transit but frankly at the moment this is the least of my problems lol

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - New FF program in *A

I have had many schedule changes on USDM in the past on Thai. The one thing I never get is why they rebook when it clearly causes a mis connect. Anyway, the only way I ever get these solved is the following:

1. Check there are revenue seats available on the flight you need to change to on Thai Airways.com
2. If yes, this is good. If no you are fairly screwed and will need to try and find alternative award availability.
3. If Yes. Call the issuing carrier (USDM or Lifemiles) and you need to request for them to waitlist you on the required segment in the fare class required (O or I).
4. Contact Thai Airways office of the port you are flying out of (I always do this by email) and request the wait list to be cleared.
5. Monitor the booking online for a couple of days.
6. Voila Thai 'should' clear the wait list.
7. Call USDM to ensure all properly ticketed.

The above has ALWAYS worked for me WHEN there is seats available (in revenue).

I have tried to contact Thai before doing the wait list request and they her never been able to do anything, won't add the segments, won't create a separate PNR to merge later. They always say to get the wait list in.

I have had both a Yes and No in the last week on two different bookings. Yes one was solved easily, No one was a PIA which I detailed in the USDM thread.

Good luck!

your solution and mine both achieve the same thing, except mine is a little more intensive as it requires the offending airline to create space first rather than clearing a waitlist.

however... as bcworld points out, if wait listing is not allowed (specifically ruled out by USDM for example) my method gets around that.