Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[jarradbrown]

Woohoo!! After much frustration and numerous attempts online and on the phone, I just managed to get 76000 points for $2500 US enough for 2 J class tickets from Perth to Europe. Thank you everyone for your help, it was much appreciated.

I got the 150% bonus as well. Can you tell me how you got the J out of Perth to Europe. I'm struggling. Looking at Sept 2018

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I just topped up. It went through with out any problems and I got the 150% bonus.

Sent through screen shots yesterday and waiting for the call to book. Interestingly when I first logged on today the flights were there (with old search engine - connecting flights). Then did the same search a few mins later and the new search engine came up and the flights disappeared. Waiting, waiting waiting for their call to book flights.

They may have already booked them. The call to take payment can be anywhere from 1-4 days.

There seems to be a two stage process... on receiving the screenshot the reservations department makes the booking. It then gets referred to the award department for review and approval. You then get the email to call them. The 1-4 days delay is between reservations and review. So the booking can already be secure, and the seats yours, even though you don't hear from them immediately.

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

They may have already booked them. The call to take payment can be anywhere from 1-4 days.

There seems to be a two stage process... on receiving the screenshot the reservations department makes the booking. It then gets referred to the award department for review and approval. You then get the email to call them. The 1-4 days delay is between reservations and review. So the booking can already be secure, and the seats yours, even though you don't hear from them immediately.

Thanks for that. A good way to check then is to see if the points have been deducted from my Lifemiles balance. (I assume) if that's the case then I can relax a bit and not stress that the seats get sold before they get to me.

 

[CJEMNMAC]

I got the 150% bonus as well. Can you tell me how you got the J out of Perth to Europe. I'm struggling. Looking at Sept 2018

Not sure how the post above got 2 x J Perth to Europe for 76000pts.. unless I have misread that post..

J from Perth.. I just did 1 random search on 3 Sept 2 pax PER to MUC and its available.. not sure why its not coming up for yourself ?

 

[CJEMNMAC]

Woohoo!! After much frustration and numerous attempts online and on the phone, I just managed to get 76000 points for $2500 US enough for 2 J class tickets from Perth to Europe. Thank you everyone for your help, it was much appreciated.

hpiviali .. can you expand on your " managed to get 76000 points for $2500 US " ...............at $33 per thousand ( non promo price ) 76 x $33 = $2508.. is this what you mean ?

or 76000 points plus $2500 US

I cant see how 2 x J PER to Europe works here. ? Have I misread or misunderstood ?

I think 2 x J would be 185000 points over or 170000 back

 

[FreddyFattler]

hpiviali .. can you expand on your " managed to get 76000 points for $2500 US " ...............at $33 per thousand ( non promo price ) 76 x $33 = $2508.. is this what you mean ?

or 76000 points plus $2500 US

I cant see how 2 x J PER to Europe works here. ? Have I misread or misunderstood ?

I think 2 x J would be 185000 points over or 170000 back

Im reading it as he bought 78k miles for 2.5k then with the 1.4x bonus would give him the 185k miles needed.

 

[Danger]

A word of caution regarding the newsletter that came out today regarding this promo. Yes it's fantastic value... but... and it's a huge 'but'... availability and booking is not necessarily straightforward. Yes Singapore airlines might be available, but more often than not, not on premium aircraft like the a380, a350, 77W. You can get Thai, but often connections don't show, and you might end up on an aircraft with angled beds.

If you are new to the game, I'd recommend taking advantage of the 40% rule.

For a basic understanding I'd read the last 10-15 pages of this thread.

What's the 40% rule?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for that. A good way to check then is to see if the points have been deducted from my Lifemiles balance. (I assume) if that's the case then I can relax a bit and not stress that the seats get sold before they get to me.

no no. reservations just creates the booking, on hold. no points are deducted until you pay. (and you may elect to part pay with cash, so they can't just deduct the miles before speaking to you)

there's no way of finding out if the booking has been created or not, you just have to trust them. but it has been my experience that they do actually make the booking in a timely manner. waiting for them to call you is the difficult part.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What's the 40% rule?

LM only requires you have 40% of the award available in miles in your account, and the remainder can be topped up at time of purchase. The price for the top up miles varies on a sliding scale, the more you top up the cheaper they become, down to a low of 1.5c per mile. The exception to this is the very lowest limit of 40% (ie a top up of 60%), the miles price jumps in price. generally using ~42% miles achieves the lowest price.

Example... one way PVG-MEL. standard priced award 40k.

You can book with as little as 16k, and top up with cash, prices about 1.6c or so.

But if you use 17k miles, and top up with cash, the cost of all the additional miles is 1.5c.

This 1.5c is pretty close to buying miles outright in these 130/140/150% bonus offers. And the 1.5c is available year round, even when no sale is on. So no need to hoard lots of miles.

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

no no. reservations just creates the booking, on hold. no points are deducted until you pay. (and you may elect to part pay with cash, so they can't just deduct the miles before speaking to you)

there's no way of finding out if the booking has been created or not, you just have to trust them. but it has been my experience that they do actually make the booking in a timely manner. waiting for them to call you is the difficult part.

Ohhhh. Thanks for the clarification. Still waiting. I will try to be patient

 

[jarradbrown]

Not sure how the post above got 2 x J Perth to Europe for 76000pts.. unless I have misread that post..

J from Perth.. I just did 1 random search on 3 Sept 2 pax PER to MUC and its available.. not sure why its not coming up for yourself ?

Thanks for looking.

So it turns out that the destinations that I was trying for are the problem. FCO or MXP. Maybe it's the 8 hour layover rule? I'm not sure.

 

[CJEMNMAC]

Thanks for looking.

So it turns out that the destinations that I was trying for are the problem. FCO or MXP. Maybe it's the 8 hour layover rule? I'm not sure.

so PER to MXP is available sept 5, 9, 10, 19 I stopped looking at 19th...seems to be a few options

 

[auriga]

Ohhhh. Thanks for the clarification. Still waiting. I will try to be patient

I also sent screenshots request on Monday afternoon, still nothing as of this morning. Just wondering whether the IT meltdown had anything to do with it.
Also did another request a couple of days earlier, and had received booking reference email by the third morning (even though it was over the weekend)

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

I also sent screenshots request on Monday afternoon, still nothing as of this morning. Just wondering whether the IT meltdown had anything to do with it.
Also did another request a couple of days earlier, and had received booking reference email by the third morning (even though it was over the weekend)

They still haven't contacted me either. I sent the request about the same time as you. I am thinking the same, they have been really busy with the IT meltdown and with the points sale.

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

seems like they could be having IT problems again. I can't get on to their website

 

[glasszon]

For those who bought miles under the cyber weekend promotion and can only see the routing on the old booking platform, you can actually force the old booking platform to come up by copying the old booking platform link and open it in a new private session.

At the end I bought 80k miles for a SGN-BKK-MEL redemption X2 after I discovered that trick, as I could never got that routing to work on the new platform but the old platform worked just fine and the ticket came through properly.

Hope it helps others, as I won't be booking another trip with Lifemiles for a while.

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

For those who bought miles under the cyber weekend promotion and can only see the routing on the old booking platform, you can actually force the old booking platform to come up by copying the old booking platform link and open it in a new private session.

At the end I bought 80k miles for a SGN-BKK-MEL redemption X2 after I discovered that trick, as I could never got that routing to work on the new platform but the old platform worked just fine and the ticket came through properly.

Hope it helps others, as I won't be booking another trip with Lifemiles for a while.

Thanks for this. I did try that but it seems to load it for the first search and then when I do another search it loads the new version. I don't know how to make it stick to the old search engine. I know previously on this thread people were saying that there was a work around for this but I ant seem to make it work. What search engine were you using?

 

[glasszon]

Thanks for this. I did try that but it seems to load it for the first search and then when I do another search it loads the new version. I don't know how to make it stick to the old search engine. I know previously on this thread people were saying that there was a work around for this but I ant seem to make it work. What search engine were you using?

The old search engine, the trick is to use the back button on your browser to go back to the old search engine, this can fail if you have waited too long and the browser tries to reload the page rather than using the one from cache, in that case you will have to start a new private session again and type in your login details.

Best is if you search for award availability on United Airline first, as you can look at the calendar view, once it is confirmed as available, you should see it on the old search engine on Lifemiles. (Try stick with Thai, I know they block Singapore Airline and I haven't tried other Airlines).

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

The old search engine, the trick is to use the back button on your browser to go back to the old search engine, this can fail if you have waited too long and the browser tries to reload the page rather than using the one from cache, in that case you will have to start a new private session again and type in your login details.

Best is if you search for award availability on United Airline first, as you can look at the calendar view, once it is confirmed as available, you should see it on the old search engine on Lifemiles. (Try stick with Thai, I know they block Singapore Airline and I haven't tried other Airlines).

Thank you. I will give it a go when their website is back up

 

[auriga]

For those who bought miles under the cyber weekend promotion and can only see the routing on the old booking platform, you can actually force the old booking platform to come up by copying the old booking platform link and open it in a new private session.

What is the old booking platform link?