Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Not sure what you mean here, they dont need to use skpe, have used skype to call a landline a number of times, they dont need to use it?

my point was they didn't use skype (didn't know they could) so they just used their regular telstra mobile to call London, USA and Columbia.

They just called again (using skype this time) and avianca is insisting it is a card block. They now can't either cancel or pay for the change. So they're stuck in limbo. (The airline is showing the seat for the revised date, but no good for travel).

My suggestion is this... they book and pay for an entirely new seat (one is still available). Contact the operating airline to advise there is now a duplicate booking, and which can and can't be cancelled. Then contact LM via email to have them sort out the redundant booking.

Any pitfalls anyone can see with that? (or alternative suggestions)

The flight is leaving in a few days, so kinda urgent.

edited to add - LM also suggested my friend could get a friend in New York to go into the city office to pay for the change. Somehow I have my doubts about that?

 

[BobbyFlyer]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Bit of an update on my earlier despair on not being able to get my $2.5k back from Lifemiles....sent 2 further emails to them in the last couple nights, but they didnt bother responding to either....so followed advice from others here to do a charge back with the c card company which was AMEX and they did their investigation which took a whole 1 day (with all my attached emails from Lifemiles saying that they were going to refund me) and monies are back in my account (albeit at original AUD not the USD where i would have gained on recent devaluation). Oh well, grateful for the advice here guys!!!

To celebrate booked TPE-SIN-DPS for January next year in J for family

 

[hossein_au]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

I have just redeemed what I think will be my final LM booking. A bare bones BKK-SYD TG F flight for travel in first week April. 2 pax at 60,000 miles + $1,080 in co payment & taxes. So all up thanks to LM I have redeemed a total 570,000 miles over the last few years.

"Final"? That sounds too deterministic, doesn't it? ;-)

Where are you off to then? Are there greener pastures? I hope you are not done with flying, are you??!!

 

[bcworld]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

"Final"? That sounds too deterministic, doesn't it? ;-)

If this rumour is to be believed it could be close to the final F! (although presumably it would take a long time for this plan to come to fruition)

FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - London cut to 1 a day?

I'm expecting an announcement internally 22nd January.


I've heard 380/346/744 to go, and along with it F, along with significant job cuts.


Let's see. Could be a red herring for all i know.

 

[hossein_au]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

If this rumour is to be believed it could be close to the final F! (although presumably it would take a long time for this plan to come to fruition)

FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - London cut to 1 a day?

That is terrible new :-(

On a different note, Alanslegal wrote "... final LM booking...". That's why I asked whether there are greener pastures elsewhere. I did not read it as his final F booking.

 

[Alanslegal]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

"Final"? That sounds too deterministic, doesn't it? ;-)

Where are you off to then? Are there greener pastures? I hope you are not done with flying, are you??!!

I have no LM points and with the AUD around the USD$0.80 mark, I probably won't be buying any of those points in the near future - unless the bonus is way higher than normal or the AUD rises closer towards USD parity.

There grass can be greener if one puts their mind to it I will be doing a RTW trip in July/August using a combination of SQ points (SYD-SIN-NRT-LAX flying suites ) JFK-DOH (QR J using QF - might change it to EK F JFK-DXB is award opens up), DXB-BKK (EK F using QF) and BKK-SYD (TG F using UA points).

I do still have >350k USDM points that were earnt during the share bonus, that's for my 2016 trip to Europe. So some short and medium term planning is needed so that I can continue to fly fly fly

 

[VAG newbie]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

I have no LM points and with the AUD around the USD$0.80 mark, I probably won't be buying any of those points in the near future - unless the bonus is way higher than normal or the AUD rises closer towards USD parity.

It is unlikely in the near future. All analysts are expecting further drop in AUD. But the same would apply for all other mile purchases, USDM, AAdvantage, Alaska MP...etc, all charge USD. Therefore although LM charges more miles, since their miles are 25% cheaper than others, it sort of work out to be the same.

There grass can be greener if one puts their mind to it I will be doing a RTW trip in July/August using a combination of SQ points (SYD-SIN-NRT-LAX flying suites )

This one will be hard to find though. I checked in the next 12 months, SQ has not released any saver award on this route, although you can find it the other way round. ie. LAX-NRT-SIN-SYD.

JFK-DOH (QR J using QF - might change it to EK F JFK-DXB is award opens up), DXB-BKK (EK F using QF)

You must have hundreds of thousands of Qantas points to burn. But they are worthless anyway, so might as well burn it.

and BKK-SYD (TG F using UA points).

How did you get your UA points? I can find no easy way to earn it in Australia other than flying *A or simply buy it (at a very expensive rate).

I do still have >350k USDM points that were earnt during the share bonus, that's for my 2016 trip to Europe. So some short and medium term planning is needed so that I can continue to fly fly fly

I am surprised that for RTW trip you haven't used any USDM. Wouldn't it be better to use it now taking the advantage of the more flexible routing rule with USDM before it merges with AA? The only advantage of AA over USDM that I can see is the ability to fly EY apartment cheap. So unless you are saving it for that purpose, RTW might be better using USDM?

 

[bcworld]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

How did you get your UA points? I can find no easy way to earn it in Australia other than flying *A or simply buy it (at a very expensive rate).

UA miles were sold with a higher than normal bonus late last year...definitely good value for the Asia sweet spots on their chart. Bought some myself.

 

[bcworld]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

I am surprised that for RTW trip you haven't used any USDM. Wouldn't it be better to use it now taking the advantage of the more flexible routing rule with USDM before it merges with AA? The only advantage of AA over USDM that I can see is the ability to fly EY apartment cheap. So unless you are saving it for that purpose, RTW might be better using USDM?

USDM no longer offers RTW awards. And a 'crossing both oceans' return with one stopover I would imagine is not going to meet his requirements.

 

[VAG newbie]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

USDM no longer offers RTW awards. And a 'crossing both oceans' return with one stopover I would imagine is not going to meet his requirements.

Oops, forgot myself, the biggest disadvantage of USDM is the award must be roundtrip.

 

[smit0847]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

If this rumour is to be believed it could be close to the final F! (although presumably it would take a long time for this plan to come to fruition)

FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - London cut to 1 a day?

If this happens its sad but certainly not unexpected. I don't think they're making any money on F and despite our joy of booking F award seats its just not practical to operate a service that doesn't make money. If the rumour TG only have F for the royal family to travel in is true (TG Australia's response to that suggestion was 'how on earth did you know that!?') then they would be far better keeping a refurbed 747 or 2 solely for the royal families private use (i.e. no commercial services) and only operate routes and products and aircraft types that make money.

We've had many, many years to go absolutely nuts with an abundance of TG F and I'm pretty sure most people in this thread have had their fill of TG F while the going was good. I counted that I have taken 5 TG F and 13 TG J flights in the last 18 months alone. That averages a flight every month. It won't worry me if I never take a TG flight again to be honest!

 

[Alanslegal]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

It is unlikely in the near future. All analysts are expecting further drop in AUD. But the same would apply for all other mile purchases, USDM, AAdvantage, Alaska MP...etc, all charge USD. Therefore although LM charges more miles, since their miles are 25% cheaper than others, it sort of work out to be the same.

Sad for the AUD. It might that I fly lots of Y in in 2017 but who knows what happens, maybe my numbers might come up in this week's lotto

This one will be hard to find though. I checked in the next 12 months, SQ has not released any saver award on this route, although you can find it the other way round. ie. LAX-NRT-SIN-SYD.

I must have been lucky. I booked in 09/2014 for travel in 07/2015. Taxes were out of this world though, ~SGD900 per person.

You must have hundreds of thousands of Qantas points to burn. But they are worthless anyway, so might as well burn it.

How did you get your UA points? I can find no easy way to earn it in Australia other than flying *A or simply buy it (at a very expensive rate).

Will be very close to zero after all my redemptions this year. I have been collecting QF points in dribs and drabs over the years, so after this it will be a very long time to rebuild to any meaningful points level.

You can buy UA points when they have their promotions from time to time. I find HKG/BKK to SYD or vv as a good sweet spot. 40,000 in F, or around usd$750.

 

[boomy]

Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

I will be doing a RTW trip in July/August using a combination of SQ points (SYD-SIN-NRT-LAX flying suites ) JFK-DOH (QR J using QF - might change it to EK F JFK-DXB is award opens up), DXB-BKK (EK F using QF) and BKK-SYD (TG F using UA points).

Looks like another tough year of flying ahead of you, hope you survive it
Can I ask (sorry it's OT) how often EK release F awards for QF and what's the best way to follow up them?
I'm interested in LHR-MEL/SYD, no problem to find QF F but can't get anything on EK F.

 

[bcworld]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

Can I ask (sorry it's OT) how often EK release F awards for QF codeshare and what's the best way to follow up them?

Not sure I understand the question fully but EK award seats will never be released under the QF codeshare, i.e. with a QF flight number, they will always be EK. If you mean booking EK award seats with QF points well they seem reasonably plentiful to me.

 

[boomy]

Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

Not sure I understand the question fully but EK award seats will never be released under the QF codeshare, i.e. with a QF flight number, they will always be EK. If you mean booking EK award seats with QF points well they seem reasonably plentiful to me.

Fixed my post
Yes, I mean booking with QF points. Couldn't find anything and was advised to keep calling back and try but I wonder if EK have a system of releasing more awards (like 3/6/9 months out) and if there is a good tool that can follow up on that and give an alert when a spot becomes available.

 

[Alanslegal]

Re: Avianca Life Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here

Fixed my post
Yes, I mean booking with QF points. Couldn't find anything and was advised to keep calling back and try but I wonder if EK have a system of releasing more awards (like 3/6/9 months out) and if there is a good tool that can follow up on that and give an alert when a spot becomes available.

For my searches JFK-DXB and DXB-BKK I find that EK releases 2 award F seats six months out, so right now, upto mid'ish July 2015. Beyond six months, I find that they release 1 award F seat. I use paid Expert Flyer to set up seat award notifications.

 

[TKK]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Not having much luck with ticketing HKG-BKK-SYD at the moment. Sent email 12 days ago, got a reply 4 days later confirming the request has been forwarded to an internal dept for manual processing. Been following up every couple of days and always told they haven't receive any response from the internal dept yet. Now the BKK-SYD is no longer available for the date that we want although the next day is still available. I can imagine in a few days they'll send an email saying the routing I want is not available grr..

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Not having much luck with ticketing HKG-BKK-SYD at the moment. Sent email 12 days ago, got a reply 4 days later confirming the request has been forwarded to an internal dept for manual processing. Been following up every couple of days and always told they haven't receive any response from the internal dept yet. Now the BKK-SYD is no longer available for the date that we want although the next day is still available. I can imagine in a few days they'll send an email saying the routing I want is not available grr..

That's really bad news! Looks like LM was good initially, now getting slack.

From my expereince, if anything that has been forwarded to the "internal department" with LM, that is sayonara. Very little chance of them getting back to you.

 

[extracta]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

That's really bad news! Looks like LM was good initially, now getting slack.

From my expereince, if anything that has been forwarded to the "internal department" with LM, that is sayonara. Very little chance of them getting back to you.

I contacted LM last week as was having trouble getting linked flights in Asia ,,, i.e. BNE-BKK-MNL ,, BNE-BKK-HKG ,,,, The availability BNE - BKK was there but nothing else was coming up ,,, so I checked the connecting flights and they were showing as available,,,, BKK-MNL,,, BKK-HKG ,,, and then some other destinations to confirm there was availability through Asia ,,, and there was.

So I contacted LM a couple of times and asked why I could not get a linked flight Oceana to Asia.. I was told that I had to book the flights separately (and pay for each segment),,, after some discussion I was told I could link the flights but would have to pay 60% using the miles I already have (discounted rate ,, essentially $150 per 10000) ,, and 40% using their more money option,, which used to be at the discounted rate but is now at the full rate ,,, $300 per 10000 miles.

Looks like they are tightening up significantly

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I contacted LM last week as was having trouble getting linked flights in Asia ,,, i.e. BNE-BKK-MNL ,, BNE-BKK-HKG ,,,, The availability BNE - BKK was there but nothing else was coming up ,,, so I checked the connecting flights and they were showing as available,,,, BKK-MNL,,, BKK-HKG ,,, and then some other destinations to confirm there was availability through Asia ,,, and there was.

So I contacted LM a couple of times and asked why I could not get a linked flight Oceana to Asia.. I was told that I had to book the flights separately (and pay for each segment),,, after some discussion I was told I could link the flights but would have to pay 60% using the miles I already have (discounted rate ,, essentially $150 per 10000) ,, and 40% using their more money option,, which used to be at the discounted rate but is now at the full rate ,,, $300 per 10000 miles.

Looks like they are tightening up significantly

Luckily for itineraries bookable on line the rate for miles+money is still the same.

It's variable - the fist couple of blocks of 1000 miles will cost the full whack (~$30 per 1000), but as you progress down the scale it gradually reduces to the sweet spot (just a few cents per 1000), and then remains at $15 per 1000 after that.

That being said - connections are still almost non-existent, and most (all?) of the ones that are showing return an 'error' message when you attempt to proceed. (I was getting some results today for MEL-NRT using AI/NH connecting in DEL).

The manual booking process, while it worked well for me, seems to be getting harder and somewhat uncertain.