Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[Cynicor]

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

Right, read it all.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Isochronous]

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

In light of the QFF changes I finally signed up to Avianca and will start redeeming for F and J travel with bought points.

 

[zainman]

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

In light of the QFF changes I finally signed up to Avianca and will start redeeming for F and J travel with bought points.

Welcome

 

[RB]

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

In light of the QFF changes I finally signed up to Avianca and will start redeeming for F and J travel with bought points.

Keeping in mind, like all others, Lifemiles has its restrictions and challenges.

 

[burmans]

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

Keeping in mind, like all others, Lifemiles has its restrictions and challenges.

It does indeed but still easier to get flights using LM than QF IMO. Despite all the quirks, redemption options are quite good (just not as good as USDM used to be).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

It does indeed but still easier to get flights using LM than QF IMO. Despite all the quirks, redemption options are quite good (just not as good as USDM used to be).

better! Hello LH F. Hello SQ 77W/A380.

 

[LA10]

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

You can now buy Silver and Gold Status on lifemiles. May not be useful for some people, but thought some may benefit from the offer.

https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/tra/pro/proofenot.aspx?D=NTI4

 

[Alanslegal]

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

You can now buy Silver and Gold Status on lifemiles. May not be useful for some people, but thought some may benefit from the offer.

Nice find. Most here would be redeeming for premium cabins anyway so having status is pretty much negligible but then if someone wants to purchase status and fly Y ..... they can knock themselves out

 

[JessicaTam]

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

It makes sense to use united.com because:

1. LM won't display options with long connections
2. LM won't display mixed awards.
3. LM can ask you to put CAPTCHA in after too many searches (I haven't experience this myself personally).


So it's not a total waste of time, if one wants to book mixed awards and/or long connections it would be much simpler to determine availability on united.com and then go to LM to book,.

LM will not allow mixed awards or long connections, regardless of what is available on other airlines' sites. If it is not available on the LM site it is not available. Period.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

LM will not allow mixed awards or long connections, regardless of what is available on other airlines' sites. If it is not available on the LM site it is not available. Period.

exactly right.

absolutely no point doing your own research for LM awards.

 

[zainman]

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

exactly right.

absolutely no point doing your own research for LM awards.

And what if one wants to book MEL-BKK in J and BKK to LHR in Y? I would need to book two awards. I know mixed awards are not available with LM and I never claimed they were. But using united would quickly tell me if seats were available on both segments with one search. Without any CAPTCHAs and minimal effort.

Also there is plenty of reason to do your research for LM (FT tricks come to mind)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

And what if one wants to book MEL-BKK in J and BKK to LHR in Y? I would need to book two awards. I know mixed awards are not available with LM and I never claimed they were. But using united would quickly tell me if seats were available on both segments with one search. Without any CAPTCHAs and minimal effort.

Also there is plenty of reason to do your research for LM (FT tricks come to mind)

now if you'd said MEL-BKK in J and BKK-LHR in F I would agree

'research' was referring to availability. Routing options are another matter. Which won't show in UA or another booking tool.

 

[bcworld]

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

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that sometimes the LM engine needs to be coaxed into showing available inventory e.g. by specifying an airline, specific departure time, or in extreme cases even by tinkering with the JavaScript in FireFox! Using another search engine first might give you a clue to find something that a basic LM search would not show. I'd always use another tool before going online with LM...unless I was looking for SQ J in which case the LM engine is the only way to find it.

 

[travelislife]

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

It just makes me more frustrated when I can see there is availability on another engine and I can't book it with LM!

 

[zainman]

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

LM will not allow mixed awards or long connections, regardless of what is available on other airlines' sites. If it is not available on the LM site it is not available. Period.

This:

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that sometimes the LM engine needs to be coaxed into showing available inventory e.g. by specifying an airline, specific departure time, or in extreme cases even by tinkering with the JavaScript in FireFox! Using another search engine first might give you a clue to find something that a basic LM search would not show. I'd always use another tool before going online with LM...unless I was looking for SQ J in which case the LM engine is the only way to find it.

Thank you, wheresmybagba!

It just makes me more frustrated when I can see there is availability on another engine and I can't book it with LM!

Can you give us an example? (I am not saying it does not exist, just curious). Maybe AFF brainiacs will be able to help..

 

[travelislife]

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

Can you give us an example? (I am not saying it does not exist, just curious). Maybe AFF brainiacs will be able to help..

I have given many examples previously. Being able to see two segments available but not showing up as one ticket. MEL-SIN and SIN-SGN with only a 3 hour connection. Full ticket available in Y, both segments available in J, but can't ticket both in J. Common occurrence on the Europe routes as well. MEL-BKK available. BKK-LHR available. But MEL-BKK-LHR not available.

You win some you lose some. But it is less frustrating if you don't know the segments are actually available and can be booked by pretty much every other *A program through their phone operators.

I had one success right at the start of LM in *A of getting them to piece together segments and ticket over the phone which I detailed here. I haven't heard of anyone else acheiving the same since and I must have got incredibly lucky with an agent who just knew how to use the system. I believe if they actually go in to their GDS and the request the X, I or O tickets they can piece together an itinerary but there front facing IT system they use over the phone shows no different to what we see on the website.

 

[JessicaTam]

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

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that sometimes the LM engine needs to be coaxed into showing available inventory e.g. by specifying an airline, specific departure time, or in extreme cases even by tinkering with the JavaScript in FireFox! Using another search engine first might give you a clue to find something that a basic LM search would not show. I'd always use another tool before going online with LM...unless I was looking for SQ J in which case the LM engine is the only way to find it.

Zainman, bcworld's method does not allow mixed class bookings or extended connections. Rather it relates to choosing a specific airline or flight departure time. My post still stands.

 

[travelislife]

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

zainman, you can refer to my posts 336, 339 and 342 for my biggest battle and biggest success with LM. Unfortunately have never been able to repeat it since.

 

[zainman]

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

Zainman, bcworld's method does not allow mixed class bookings or extended connections. Rather it relates to choosing a specific airline or flight departure time. My post still stands.

Like I said before:

I never claimed any method will allow you to book mixed class awards on LM. It's been stated numerous times that what is available on the LM website is what can be booked. I never claimed any different.

My post was about why I recommend united.com to search for availability and those reasons are quite clear, e.g:

needing to search for awards where there is mixed availability(yes these will need to be booked as two different awards),

the ability to search without actually logging into the website, (LM logs you out after some period of inactivity)

ability to do multiple searches quickly without CAPTCHA's interrupting you,

ability to do flexible searches (over months rather than the single week that LM will show you).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

Like I said before:

I never claimed any method will allow you to book mixed class awards on LM. It's been stated numerous times that what is available on the LM website is what can be booked. I never claimed any different.

My post was about why I recommend united.com to search for availability and those reasons are quite clear, e.g:

needing to search for awards where there is mixed availability(yes these will need to be booked as two different awards),

the ability to search without actually logging into the website, (LM logs you out after some period of inactivity)

ability to do multiple searches quickly without CAPTCHA's interrupting you,

ability to do flexible searches (over months rather than the single week that LM will show you).

all good points.