Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[bcworld]

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

I think the <14 days rule only applies with flights to/from Australia.

...and New Zealand.

 

[travelislife]

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

Sri Lankan is actually very good, and there are often 2-4-1 companion fares on Qatar that will bring the overall cost to around the same range.

Air India is another option.

Would I fly Singapore airlines economy to Singapore ($800 return with an immediate connection to Air India and/or Sri Lankan business class for $1500-$2000, both of the latter with full flat beds), as compared to Thai angled beds the whole way? I'd probably say yes given the TG product offering.

Alongside that, Sri Lankan will offer points and status credits, and Air India would get pretty close to star gold (which you would then use for lounge access on SQ).

Lots of options in business class out of asia, a good place to search is googleflights.

Okay each to their own. But I think there would be very few people wanting the inconvenience of what you have proposed, the flight times all up will be at least 6 hours longer all up with the extra connection. I have never seen those fares under the $2000 mark, you originally were saying $2000-$2500 which is more realistic. So you are still looking at $3000-$3500 all up with your proposal for economy Aus-Asia return and Business Asia-Europe return with an extra connection.

I am not trying to justify Thai's product, remember this is the Lifemiles thread, rather I just know that myself and most people I know would prefer a straight through booking at circa $3000 with business class the whole way (even if they are angled), vs. a similar price but economy to Asia then business class to Europe with an extra stop.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

Okay each to their own. But I think there would be very few people wanting the inconvenience of what you have proposed, the flight times all up will be at least 6 hours longer all up with the extra connection. I have never seen those fares under the $2000 mark, you originally were saying $2000-$2500 which is more realistic. So you are still looking at $3000-$3500 all up with your proposal for economy Aus-Asia return and Business Asia-Europe return with an extra connection.

I am not trying to justify Thai's product, remember this is the Lifemiles thread, rather I just know that myself and most people I know would prefer a straight through booking at circa $3000 with business class the whole way (even if they are angled), vs. a similar price but economy to Asia then business class to Europe with an extra stop.

sub $2000 fares exist, you just need to keep track of them. air India is in the $1500 region (return) and Sri Lankan was the same price when they had their 35% off sale a week or so ago? and you earn points.

accept the connection issues! but TG is common for 6/7/8 hour connections in BKK. compare that with a couple hurs in Singapore and a couple hours in Colombo and you're starting to get similar flight times.

and many people can't be bothered dealing with the TG schedule changes, cancellations, and reinstatements. and who wants to be monitoring their booking weekly, calling tg almost as often, and lifemiles as well to sort out the mess?

my point was that TG is something to be considered carefully these days, as LM may not represent such good value for TG.

 

[smit0847]

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

I am not trying to justify Thai's product, remember this is the Lifemiles thread, rather I just know that myself and most people I know would prefer a straight through booking at circa $3000 with business class the whole way (even if they are angled), vs. a similar price but economy to Asia then business class to Europe with an extra stop.

I am one of those people. I would also much rather transit BKK than DEL or BOM.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

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

Me too. Transit in delhi after economy to Singapore to save a few hundred? Tell em they're dreaming

 

[Austman]

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

Transit in CMB is a piece of cake. It has a combined airside arrivals and departures area, SIN style, with security at the gate.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

Me too. Transit in delhi after economy to Singapore to save a few hundred? Tell em they're dreaming

it's full flat bed for 2/3rds of the journey, and a saving of ~700 per person, or ~1400 a couple. Plus points earning (well on the way to star gold for example if using AI). versus potentially arriving with no sleep if angled beds aren't your thing. Fine if you can get the A380 77W though.

But there are other star options avoiding TG which offer better value for LM and would make $3000 worth it.

 

[boomy]

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

Me too. Transit in delhi after economy to Singapore to save a few hundred? Tell em they're dreaming

Is Delhi such a bad airport for transit, even if it means saving a few hundred? They must have lounges there don't they?
Genuine questions, I've never been there.

 

[burmans]

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

sub $2000 fares exist, you just need to keep track of them. air India is in the $1500 region (return) and Sri Lankan was the same price when they had their 35% off sale a week or so ago? and you earn points.

accept the connection issues! but TG is common for 6/7/8 hour connections in BKK. compare that with a couple hurs in Singapore and a couple hours in Colombo and you're starting to get similar flight times.

and many people can't be bothered dealing with the TG schedule changes, cancellations, and reinstatements. and who wants to be monitoring their booking weekly, calling tg almost as often, and lifemiles as well to sort out the mess?

my point was that TG is something to be considered carefully these days, as LM may not represent such good value for TG.

Always good to have alternatives!

 

[dajop]

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

Is Delhi such a bad airport for transit, even if it means saving a few hundred? They must have lounges there don't they?
Genuine questions, I've never been there.

For transiting, I'd rate DEL on a par with BKK. Inferior to SIN, HKG and KUL but more at an international standard than one expects for an Indian airport.

 

[Nizar]

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

...and New Zealand.

Has SQ restricted more of their flights from LM recently ?
I found plentiful availability AKL-SIN and vice versa about a month or so ago for April next year so T-14 did not seem to apply. Does it now apply to NZ ?

Also I had no problems a few weeks back again for a March/April next year for SIN-BOM on SQ F but when I checked last night all the way from mid-Jan to early April and could not even find one seat. Wonder if it is blocked ?

 

[Nizar]

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

First class is ok however.

You know you are one of the gurus when flying F is just "ok" lol :mrgreen:

 

[bcworld]

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

Has SQ restricted more of their flights from LM recently ?
I found plentiful availability AKL-SIN and vice versa about a month or so ago for April next year so T-14 did not seem to apply. Does it now apply to NZ ?

I believe what happened was, NZ has had the T-14 restriction for as long as Aus has...however when the A380 was announced for AKL recently, there was a period where it was wide open outside of T-14. Now it has likely fallen back into the T-14 limitation.

 

[smit0847]

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

Okay each to their own. But I think there would be very few people wanting the inconvenience of what you have proposed, the flight times all up will be at least 6 hours longer all up with the extra connection. I have never seen those fares under the $2000 mark, you originally were saying $2000-$2500 which is more realistic. So you are still looking at $3000-$3500 all up with your proposal for economy Aus-Asia return and Business Asia-Europe return with an extra connection.

I am not trying to justify Thai's product, remember this is the Lifemiles thread, rather I just know that myself and most people I know would prefer a straight through booking at circa $3000 with business class the whole way (even if they are angled), vs. a similar price but economy to Asia then business class to Europe with an extra stop.

The way I look at the LMs J ‘deal’ to Europe is to compare it with a Y+ revenue fare on your airline of choice.

If the miles are bought during a promo the J price is likely to be about the same price or slightly less than a Y+ revenue fare (CX and BA currently have Europe Y+ sale fares for around $3,200/$3,300 return and LMs with taxes and fees would be just under $3k AUD?). So for around the same price you have the choice between Y+ on an airline of your choice, or J on TG (or CA, BR or OZ). Now admittedly if you could choose any airline to fly J on you certainly wouldn’t pick TG, but if you could choose between Y+ on CX or BA, or J on TG for the same price what would you choose? I’d take an angled flat bed with 5 course meals and proper champagne over any Y+ product any day of the week.

The first J I ever flew was TG and while there were some things that really impressed me (like the sheer amount of food that just kept coming and coming and coming) there were other things that disappointed me a bit (the seat was not as good as I was expecting and the transit in BKK was a bit of a mess). However it was a HUGE step up from Y in every sense of the word and well worth the slightly higher cost and foregoing flying on a carrier of choice.

If you want to buy the cheapest J revenue fare you can get you’ll be looking at pretty undesirable airlines – RB, VN, CZ, AI and it’ll be more like $4k than the $3k for LMs. Each of those undesirable airlines has something I really don’t like, whether its no booze, a dreadful transit point, awful food, terrible staff etc. Yes it earns points and SCs as a rev fare but you’re likely to be crediting them to a FF program you don’t even like. Even if they were the same price give me TG over this anyway.

If you would rather fly Y+ on your favourite airline or J on an airline you don’t like just to collect SCs and points instead of J on TG for the same or less price then cancel your LMs account because the program is not for you.

For me this program exists simply to fly J for the less than the price of Y+ on perfectly adequate airlines.

 

[ComeGroundWithMe]

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

sub $2000 fares exist, you just need to keep track of them. air India is in the $1500 region (return) and Sri Lankan was the same price when they had their 35% off sale a week or so ago? and you earn points.

That Air India price doesn't exist anymore AFAIK.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

That Air India price doesn't exist anymore AFAIK.

it was still there last week, available to CDG.

 

[ComeGroundWithMe]

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

it was still there last week, available to CDG.

Could you post the details please?

I haven't seen any availability for $1500 since August.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

Could you post the details please?

I haven't seen any availability for $1500 since August.

it was there last week for AI. I'm not sure if they have released their forward fares for next year?

Currently I'm getting AUD1950 return on UL ex SIN, with 4 hour connection time in CMB. Sample date Nov8-Nov22. FCO at AUD1893 (Nov11-25)

 

[dexter_jambles]

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

Is anyone aware whether there is a threshold that award availability is removed from the lifemiles search?

I've been researching a range of routings between SE Asia & North/South America for Dec/Jan over the last 3 weekends with consistent search results each weekend. Had them all worked out & going to pull the trigger today but now my searches results reveal very little. It appears what availability there that was displaying for UA, SQ, TK, AC, NH, OZ has all been removed. The only thing I could think of was passing the threshold of T-4 months.

 

[jetpack]

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

I just wanted to say that transiting BOM or DEL isn't bad at all. BOM is brand new and only 6 months old. There's plenty to look at and it feels like you're in a classy art museum. DEL is as modern as any world class modern airport. I certainly wouldn't put either of them on a list of airports I'd avoid.