Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[MEL_Traveller]

All these sales on buying points and You can’t use them . Ever since the website upgrade , the availability is really difficult. I’ve searched to and from Europe all next year for 2 people and it’s only Showing Y.
I wonder if lifemiles realise

I dunno about 'no seats'. First flight i checked SYD-FRA 9 Feb 2020 2 pax, J class all the way. 34 hours. via ICN/IST OZ/TK/TK.

Will require the screenshot.

Using UA's tool will give you a good idea of the connections available, and easy to search. Then match that up against flights on LM's site.

Totally agree it's a pain. Is it worth saving about $400 over a normal paid fare? Dunno. Maybe not these days with the very weak aussie.

 

[henleybeach]

Yer agree it’s a pain with the screenshot . Before the upgrade there seemed to more
Availability booking online without the screenshot method

 

[Buzzard]

Landed in my inbox today:

Because of your loyalty during the last year, we want to reward you with a special bonus of 145% when buying miles from LM 1,000.

Take advantage of this promotion valid from June 18th to 21st, 2019.

Lifemiles showing signs of desperation with practically ongoing sales from the beginning of this year.

Got this email too.
Tempting but no.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yer agree it’s a pain with the screenshot . Before the upgrade there seemed to more
Availability booking online without the screenshot method

I think this is primarily down to no TG. Elsewhere in the world availability is sort of ok.

 

[avaction]

All these sales on buying points and You can’t use them . Ever since the website upgrade , the availability is really difficult. I’ve searched to and from Europe all next year for 2 people and it’s only Showing Y.
I wonder if lifemiles realise

Me too. Been searching for flights in business/First from Australia and Asia to Us and Europe and NO availability.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Me too. Been searching for flights in business/First from Australia and Asia to Us and Europe and NO availability.

But there is! I just found a flight on the very first go which I posted above. Use United's booking engine to find the flight combinations.

 

[PatMcrotch]

Landed in my inbox today:

Because of your loyalty during the last year, we want to reward you with a special bonus of 145% when buying miles from LM 1,000.

Take advantage of this promotion valid from June 18th to 21st, 2019.

Lifemiles showing signs of desperation with practically ongoing sales from the beginning of this year.

I was only offered 125%. Your're a VIP Boomy!!

 

[burmans]

Got this email too.
Tempting but no.

Given it applies from 1000 miles it is a good way of keeping existing points alive I should point out now they have moved to a 12 month expiry.

 

[EddTerranGe]

Hi everyone,

Did anyone notice the award chart for business class redemption has changed a little? I was looking to book Tokyo (HND/NRT) to SYD in Feb 2020. I checked United and saw there are ANA and Air China flights available (HND to PEK then PEK to SYD). However, when I looked at the PEK to SYD leg, the miles required becomes 42,500? But according to the awards chart, it should be 40,000? Some other American point website has stated that Economy flights are using the dynamic pricing structure now?

Is this a glitch/bug with the system? If I book via screenshot method, I wonder if they gonna charge me 40,000 or 42,500 miles for the trip.

Cheers

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi everyone,

Did anyone notice the award chart for business class redemption has changed a little? I was looking to book Tokyo (HND/NRT) to SYD in Feb 2020. I checked United and saw there are ANA and Air China flights available (HND to PEK then PEK to SYD). However, when I looked at the PEK to SYD leg, the miles required becomes 42,500? But according to the awards chart, it should be 40,000? Some other American point website has stated that Economy flights are using the dynamic pricing structure now?

Is this a glitch/bug with the system? If I book via screenshot method, I wonder if they gonna charge me 40,000 or 42,500 miles for the trip.

Cheers

I'm afraid I can't replicate your journey, I checked for almost all Feb 2020 from both HND and NRT and all that was coming up was OZ via ICN. Business all the way was pricing correctly at 40K.

Out of PEK most of the flights available were around 40500, connecting via ICN by the looks of it. I wouldn't necessarily call that dynamic pricing, just a minor glitch.

I guess at the end of the day you could ask them to price it for you at 40K once they have confirmed your itinerary. Or you can just accept the 42.5.

 

[boomy]

Hi everyone,

Did anyone notice the award chart for business class redemption has changed a little? I was looking to book Tokyo (HND/NRT) to SYD in Feb 2020. I checked United and saw there are ANA and Air China flights available (HND to PEK then PEK to SYD). However, when I looked at the PEK to SYD leg, the miles required becomes 42,500? But according to the awards chart, it should be 40,000? Some other American point website has stated that Economy flights are using the dynamic pricing structure now?

Is this a glitch/bug with the system? If I book via screenshot method, I wonder if they gonna charge me 40,000 or 42,500 miles for the trip.

Cheers

Make sense. When I booked SYD-PEK last year it was 62.5k in F. Don’t know where the odd 2.5k comes from.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Equally some are a few miles under, just looking at an AMS-CDG-BKK-MEL for a week away and it's coming back at 84050. I think it's just a bit off in calculating the component pricing of sectors.

 

[desafinado74]

Hi guys, i just purchased 1000 points just to extend my current expiry date of 30 Nov 2019.
However, the current expiry date is still showing.
Anything to worry about ? Or the expiry date will change to a new one a few days later?

 

[luxury-lizard]

Perhaps logging out and back in will show the updated expiry - I am curious why you did not wait until closer to the actual expiry to do this. Also you can add points (updating expiry) with hotel and hire car bookings avoiding buying a small number of points. And as I found out the hard way crediting other paid *A flights on discount fares credits nothing to LM.

 

[drron]

Just check your fare bucket.a discount y fare on UA last year did earn a piddling amount of points but was enough to move the expiry date.

 

[desafinado74]

Perhaps logging out and back in will show the updated expiry - I am curious why you did not wait until closer to the actual expiry to do this. Also you can add points (updating expiry) with hotel and hire car bookings avoiding buying a small number of points. And as I found out the hard way crediting other paid *A flights on discount fares credits nothing to LM.

Thanks for the reply. The expiry date still has not updated itself. I will try again next week and see what happens.
Fingers crossed it will update, otherwise i will start to stress out. Yes, in hindsight, i should have waited till later this year to buy points etc . A mistake on my part.

 

[PatMcrotch]

Thanks for the reply. The expiry date still has not updated itself. I will try again next week and see what happens.
Fingers crossed it will update, otherwise i will start to stress out. Yes, in hindsight, i should have waited till later this year to buy points etc . A mistake on my part.

Don't panic. They still haven't debited 60k points from a flight I booked last saturday lol

 

[desafinado74]

Don't panic. They still haven't debited 60k points from a flight I booked last saturday lol

I hope they will credit you 60K points instead (My expiry date on my points just got updated. So, it takes at least a day for it to be updated)

 

[repete]

Greetings! Keen to accept any advice from those a bit more in the know here...

My parents have asked me to help see if I can 'weave any magic' on a business ticket for them to visit south africa in about a year's time (june 2020) [they have great hopes after my best ever redemption was a round the world business trip for them in 2014 using US airways I think it was - can't possibly not fly business now ]

Anyhow, I've indicated the scene has changed a little since then, but am still keen to see what I can do. A quick look around has led me to believe that perhaps using LifeMiles and flying Perth to JNB might be the most cost-effective option? I could then try and swing something domestic for them with Velocity/Qantas points I have (heading from SYD or CBR) I've logged in to LifeMiles and it does show options starting from 50K for PER-JNB route - although only via SIN and on Ethiopian Air? And that's economy? Is there the option of South African Airways?

If you wouldn't mind letting me know if I'm 'barking up the right tree' so to speak and what options there might be, I (and my parents!), would be most grateful. Thanks.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have seen South african available in business class JNB-PER. And this was for december 21 last year (looking about three months in advance). So it is available, Ethiopian is an ok carrier. You might need to construct a ticket syd/mel to bkk and then on the addis. You’d need to try a screenshot for that.

Start with united’s tool to find availability and routings, then try and replicate it on lifemiles. If you can only find individual sectors, try screenshots.