Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[boomy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

And Samsonite is now for F on NH.

Sounds good.
I'm struggling to find more then one award seat on NH in F. Is it just my bad luck with dates or they only release one seat per flight?

 

[ketsuzei]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Sounds good.
I'm struggling to find more then one award seat on NH in F. Is it just my bad luck with dates or they only release one seat per flight?

I've not seen two at once, although they sometimes do release a second later. I've noticed some quite unusual behaviour with my ExpertFlyer alerts, with availability appearing and disappearing and reappearing.

 

[NDiddy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

I've not seen two at once, although they sometimes do release a second later. I've noticed some quite unusual behaviour with my ExpertFlyer alerts, with availability appearing and disappearing and reappearing.

Although it was about a year ago I did manage to snag 2x F from NRT to CDG. It definitely was possible albeit this was the only ASIA-EU I saw on NH. Just as a point of reference.

 

[scwappy]

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

Has anyone with bookings on Asiana notice some changes to their schedules?.

Just checked and have had a change from a LHR to SYD booking and now have a whole day in ICN. I know this is now over the 8 hour transfer time so would the ticket even be valid still?

thanks for the heads up, most appreciated.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Just checked and have had a change from a LHR to SYD booking and now have a whole day in ICN. I know this is now over the 8 hour transfer time so would the ticket even be valid still?

thanks for the heads up, most appreciated.

If it's all on the same ticket, and the connecting time has been changed because the airline has rescheduled, you should be fine.

The ticket won't need to be reissued - just revalidated with the new timings.

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Just checked and have had a change from a LHR to SYD booking and now have a whole day in ICN. I know this is now over the 8 hour transfer time so would the ticket even be valid still?

thanks for the heads up, most appreciated.

For my OZ flight that got put to the next day, all it needed was getting it revalidated by LM, which the agent could do over the phone in 5 min.

However with my TG that got downgraded, I needed to contact protection/schedule change department to get ticket reissued due to the change in class of service. Even though normally LM won't allowed mixed class booking, in this case of involuntary downgrade, they allowed me to mix the class. So even though you have >8hr connection, they'll allow it.

BTW, did you check your seat map ICN-SYD? Quadra Smartium right?

 

[scwappy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

If it's all on the same ticket, and the connecting time has been changed because the airline has rescheduled, you should be fine.

The ticket won't need to be reissued - just revalidated with the new timings.

Thanks. Good to know, will the revalidation just happen automatically or do I need to contact OZ or life miles?

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Thanks. Good to know, will the revalidation just happen automatically or do I need to contact OZ or life miles?

You need to contact LM. They need to sync the ticket and reservation. This is because the date has changed. OZ can't do it as the ticket is issued by Avianca.

 

[scwappy]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Thanks, any luck insurance would cover the required hotel in Seoul for the stay not factored in, or even the airline??

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Thanks, any luck insurance would cover the required hotel in Seoul for the stay not factored in, or even the airline??

They should, but it depends on your policy.

I got a comprehensive cover and unfortunately I have $100 excess so it is cheaper for me to fly out one day later. In your case you have no choice, so I think it should be covered. But I'm not sure if you are allowed to pick whatever hotel you want. If you can, you might as well pick a 5 star hotel. But I suspect they will just allow you to get an airport hotel.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

They should, but it depends on your policy.

I got a comprehensive cover and unfortunately I have $100 excess so it is cheaper for me to fly out one day later. In your case you have no choice, so I think it should be covered. But I'm not sure if you are allowed to pick whatever hotel you want. If you can, you might as well pick a 5 star hotel. But I suspect they will just allow you to get an airport hotel.

The underlying premise for insurance claims is that you must mitigate losses wherever possible.

This means you can't pick a 5-star hotel unless you have good reason to do so (this might include, for example, that other hotels are full, not safe, or that you need to add one extra day on to an existing stay of your already booked 5-star hotel).

The premise to mitigate losses extends to all aspects of your insurance claim. This includes replacement airfares if you policy covers that, and minimising any losses from cancelled/delayed flights or hotels.

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Was looking for further booking to LAX for next year, and I noticed that Asiana is still available for booking departing SYD on Saturday! This was confirmed on Asiana website as well. Does Asiana operate on seasonal basis that during Australian summer they operate daily and some times in winter they go down to 5-6 times weekly? Also when looking at next summer, they seem to go back to the old recliner with looped video.

I posted a similar question in AUSBT but no one seems to know the answer either. I searched in airlineroute and general google and nowhere seem to mention anything about it.

Considering that OZ is probably the best option from AUS-USA in terms of availability and simplicity in booking as there is no need of screenshot technic, and it will be a great improvement if we get Quadra Smartium, I thought it would be great if someone has some insider's information on this.

 

[vitagen]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

VAG how many flights have you actually booked? I think you got 10 pending trips?

 

[VAG newbie]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

VAG how many flights have you actually booked? I think you got 10 pending trips?

Not 10, it sounds a lot because I book them in one ways. But I got about 5-6 coming

For this year:
May: BNE-TPE-LHR on BR J (Used LM, before BR blocked all award spaces). Coming back on SQ F (Used KF miles)
Jun: BNE-SIN on QF and EY Y. Paid ticket.
Aug/Sept: SYD-ICN on OZ J, then GMP-HND on NH J, then NRT-BKK-SYD on TG J/F (All using LM. Last leg got TGed.:evil
Oct: BNE-PER on QF J using QFF points, then PER-JNB-GRU on SA J (Using LM during promotion/glitch? for 42.5K), then GRU-AUH-BNE on EK J using VFF miles.

Then for 2016:
Feb: SYD-BKK-NRT in TG F using LM, then NRT-BNE on QF using AM.

I got > 300hrs worth of professional development leave accumulated and still accumulating at a rate of 3.5 weeks p.a, so if I don't use it I will lose it when I resign/retire. So I might as well travel around the world attending "work related conferences".

BTW, while searching I noted Air China is also readily available and may possibly offer more options as it goes to both SYD and MEL, and the SYD flight is a red eye which allows more connections in PEK. However, LM may not always show all the availability. eg. I found flights available on SYD-PEK, then PEK-JFK, but SYD-JFK won't show anything despite connection time < 8hrs and same class of travel. Guess it will be screenshot time again......

Also might be a bit concerned about their overall safety.......

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

Also might be a bit concerned about their overall safety.......

there is zero concern about the safety of Air China. China Airlines... yes, a while ago. but they seem to have improved.

Air China is a different story. 'Safety' isn't even on the list of considerations before I book an air China ticket.

 

[sergeyvzn]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

+1 about safety on Air China

i was also concerned about it before my first trip on Air China but when I heard "good evening this is your captain Alan Short speaking" with a kiwi accent I stopped worrying. Out of the 5 trips on Air China I've had 4 Aus/NZ captains

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

+1 about safety on Air China

i was also concerned about it before my first trip on Air China but when I heard "good evening this is your captain Alan Short speaking" with a kiwi accent I stopped worrying. Out of the 5 trips on Air China I've had 4 Aus/NZ captains

how would the race or ethnicity of the pilot make any difference? air China has a long history of safe operations.

 

[sergeyvzn]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

how would the race or ethnicity of the pilot make any difference? air China has a long history of safe operations.

It does.
Do you remember a YouTube video with a recording of a Air China captain trying to communicate with the control tower in JFK? It was a a disaster, the pilot was Chinese and couldn't understand commands. I wouldn't like to be on that Air China plane
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3AFv48IWhJw

 

[hossein_au]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

+1 about safety on Air China

i was also concerned about it before my first trip on Air China but when I heard "good evening this is your captain Alan Short speaking" with a kiwi accent I stopped worrying. Out of the 5 trips on Air China I've had 4 Aus/NZ captains

There is a lot to safety of a flight than the pilot! (sorry, the engineer in me couldn't help it... )

 

[MEL_Traveller]

re: Avianca "Life Miles" - Questions and Discussion

It does.
Do you remember a YouTube video with a recording of a Air China captain trying to communicate with the control tower in JFK? It was a a disaster, the pilot was Chinese and couldn't understand commands. I wouldn't like to be on that Air China plane
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3AFv48IWhJw

yes ok - you picked an oldie and a goodie! I agree it's an extreme example of not understanding something, but that can happen. It's a two way street between the pilot and ATC to make sure instructions are clear, and understood, and they got there in the end. My friend in ATC says (less extreme) examples happen on a daily basis ... not restricted to any one airline, or airlines from particular countries.

From my discussions I'm not sure if there was any real danger.