Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[ketsuzei]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

more playing with the TYO schedule:

I found this annoying enough last year, and now with LifeMiles also making things harder, I've opted to get myself to/from Singapore a few times and take advantage of NH SIN-NRT F instead. Wasn't all that impressed with HKG-BKK-SYD on TG F in early February anyway, they seemed to struggle with a full cabin.

Avianca happily (albeit a tad slowly) waived the $50 cancellation fees due to the involuntary changes by TG.

 

[Beta4Me]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Thanks. I completely forgot that. I've now sent them all that info so just waiting for them to do something with it and/or call me.

Success. No issues at all with this SYD-bkk-SIN reservation in TG J. Reservation created and now playing the waiting game for a call to give credit card details for processing. It was actually really easy

 

[legroom]

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

.... Reservation created and now playing the waiting game for a call to give credit card details for processing. It was actually really easy

You could choose to call them instead.

Just saying "... Oh, I missed the call from the Department of Manual Payments (!)...."

That gives you more control over your time / life.

That's what I did - twice now.

The operator assisted in every case.

..... I actually DID miss the call from Bogota !

Also, worth pre-warning your CC issuer too.

 

[Beta4Me]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

You could choose to call them instead.

Just saying "... Oh, I missed the call from the Department of Manual Payments (!)...."

That gives you more control over your time / life.

That's what I did - twice now.

The operator assisted in every case.

..... I actually DID miss the call from Bogota !

Also, worth pre-warning your CC issuer too.

Thanks for the tip. Will give it a go during my lunch break.

Already pre-warned Citi as a heap of O/s transactions were processed and a few got blocked just a day or two ago and I mentioned plenty more would be coming!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

i don't know how many people they have working on these manual tickets, how many sets of translators they have to take payments, or the priority they give to bookings. I presume (hope) they're not sitting around doing nothing, but rather attending to bookings in the order they were received (or those close to ticketing deadlines first).

 

[vitagen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I tried again to get a per-bkk-sin-nrt ticket manually booked but they taking a while to respond

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I tried again to get a per-bkk-sin-nrt ticket manually booked but they taking a while to respond

was that a permitted routing before the glitch? via bkk and sin?

what were the screen shots sent? per-bkk and then bkk-NRT? I have wondered if they will take a multi city booking for the second leg and allow it to be combined.

 

[Princess Fiona]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Don't know if there has been a website update or not but I was just able to book the AC seats that had eluded me earlier in the week

 

[vitagen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Pm me your email and I'll send you screenshot. Not sure if it was valid routing before glitch.

 

[ketsuzei]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

was that a permitted routing before the glitch? via bkk and sin?

I've done MEL-SIN-BKK-HND before, so it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Pm me your email and I'll send you screenshot. Not sure if it was valid routing before glitch.

no no it's ok I just wanted to know how the flights had been constructed.

when i I did sector searches for my trip to Hong Kong, it came up with several options out of delhi in its own right. I just happened to know the only 'valid' connection. was AI-AI. but I wonder what would have happened if I had selected something else.

 

[vitagen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Flights were Per-Bkk-Sin on TG and Sin-Nrt on ANA

 

[vitagen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I searched Per-Sin and tagged on a Nrt search

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Not sure if your booking is between 1st July and 1st October (?)...and if it is how to break it to you...but there is more playing with the TYO schedule:

THAI S15 Tokyo Narita Operation Changes as of 17FEB15 | Airline Route

cough!!!! Yes, I've been affected. Just checked Thai website, they have, however, "kindly" downgraded me to business class.

Well, as the flight number and flight time remain the same, just the fare class has been changed, do I need to get the ticket reissued? If yes, I'll leave until the last minute. Who knows, it's TG and they will probably change again next month (remember what they did with Sydney?)

I'm in Japan now enjoying my first trip this year and haven't been online for a while. What a terrible news. Well, look on the bright side, business class is not the end of the world, and I still get to enjoy the 60 min spa (fingers crossed that they don't mess with the BKK-SYD flight), and at 50k miles, it's still cheaper than BKK-SYD itself. This was the risk I was willing to take when I tried to book it. But with all the hassles I went through, I probably won't do it again. Too risky with TG.

 

[Cynicor]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Don't know if there has been a website update or not but I was just able to book the AC seats that had eluded me earlier in the week

This is a periodic error, no apparent rhyme or reason to it. Seats available, click to book, cannot do it. Wait 2-3 days, then you can...

 

[Princess Fiona]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

This is a periodic error, no apparent rhyme or reason to it. Seats available, click to book, cannot do it. Wait 2-3 days, then you can...

Next challenge is to get two seats to LAX

 

[vitagen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Success! Per-Bkk-Sin-Nrt! On TG and ANA dreamliner.... On boxing Day!

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Is there a "best" time to call LM when cancelling a flight?

Anyone tried to do it via email?

 

[ketsuzei]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Is there a "best" time to call LM when cancelling a flight?

Anyone tried to do it via email?

I've had success via email with "free" cancellations due to involuntary changes on the booking (thank you TG).

I've also had "success" via email in getting them to call me back to process $50 cancellations after multiple failures on the phone.

 

[Beta4Me]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Thanks for the tip. Will give it a go during my lunch break.

Already pre-warned Citi as a heap of O/s transactions were processed and a few got blocked just a day or two ago and I mentioned plenty more would be coming!

A lot of rooting around...first phone call they wanted to charge me double the miles. Spent ages convincing them it should only be 80K miles total (and then less due to the miles + cash arrangement). Eventually they accepted that it was a 'one way' booking and not a return but they decided upon a different figure for the miles-cash split. Ended up sending them a screenshot of what I wanted and they freaked out and said they'd investigate and call me back. About 36 hours later I get a phone call just before going to bed and I confirm all the fees (miles, taxes, booking) and then pay. Failure: card declined. End up keeping them on hold and ringing Citibank who tell me they got the expiry date on my card wrong and my card was not bloked. Waste another ten minutes with Avianca having them re-enter it all and they go silent for ages and I finally got the booking confirmed! I've learned a bit from the process so next time shouldn't be as bad. Still got a couple hundred thousand LM and I still find them useful