Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[hummel]

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

Had to laugh at the comment about visas on the spreadsheet.

 

[markis10]

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

Had to laugh at the comment about visas on the spreadsheet.

You should see what smartraveller has to say on some destinations!

 

[thehound]

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

Has anyone got an airport which will allow business class from Perth to Singapore to st elsewhere which will price at the oceania points? Plenty of options in economy but I can't find one which will go business all the way (and hence business in the only leg I want).

 

[JessicaTam]

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

I have updated some visa info on the spreadsheet. Info from the home country website where possible. Some countries only require a visa on arrival, so if you are going to 'fail to board' the last leg, you should be ok to check in for previous legs.

 

[burmans]

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

I have updated some visa info on the spreadsheet. Info from the home country website where possible. Some countries only require a visa on arrival, so if you are going to 'fail to board' the last leg, you should be ok to check in for previous legs.

Funnily enough was in the site when you were doing this, actually am considering not dropping the legs and actually going, some amazing places when you investigate a bit!

 

[burmans]

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

Has anyone got an airport which will allow business class from Perth to Singapore to st elsewhere which will price at the oceania points? Plenty of options in economy but I can't find one which will go business all the way (and hence business in the only leg I want).

Previously yes but can't find anything at the moment!

 

[JessicaTam]

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

Funnily enough was in the site when you were doing this, actually am considering not dropping the legs and actually going, some amazing places when you investigate a bit!

Thought I spotted you!

 

[hummel]

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

Funnily enough was in the site when you were doing this, actually am considering not dropping the legs and actually going, some amazing places when you investigate a bit!

Agreed! Some really interesting places to go, a shame I'm pretty booked up until April-ish next year. Currently weighing up MEL-SIN in Y through a creative routing or just the airasia sale for cup weekend!

 

[hossein_au]

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

maybe because you only joined a month ago.... (although i wouldnt know)

About 3-4 months, but who's counting?!

I'm happy to wait in the corner whilst I'm considered a NB, but it'd be great if I knew when I'll be allowed to play, you know ;-)

 

[Joshua]

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

Funnily enough was in the site when you were doing this, actually am considering not dropping the legs and actually going, some amazing places when you investigate a bit!

That's basically how I've travelled for fun the last few years. Find a good route whether with points, cash or some sort of error whatever, then go with it. None of this dropping final segments cough!

About 3-4 months, but who's counting?!

I'm happy to wait in the corner whilst I'm considered a NB, but it'd be great if I knew when I'll be allowed to play, you know ;-)

Honestly without the spreadsheet it is pretty easy to figure out a good number of these places. I took a look at the *A route map and figured out some places where you could only reach by backtracking - like LH through FRA. Had a handful of ports in under 5 minutes. On one side people don't want to just give away information, there's a tendency for newer people to not put in any effort and just want the answer. But similarly what I said above probably wouldn't be super obvious if you're new to it either. Works both ways.

 

[burmans]

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

That's basically how I've travelled for fun the last few years. Find a good route whether with points, cash or some sort of error whatever, then go with it. None of this dropping final segments cough!

Honestly without the spreadsheet it is pretty easy to figure out a good number of these places. I took a look at the *A route map and figured out some places where you could only reach by backtracking - like LH through FRA. Had a handful of ports in under 5 minutes. On one side people don't want to just give away information, there's a tendency for newer people to not put in any effort and just want the answer. But similarly what I said above probably wouldn't be super obvious if you're new to it either. Works both ways.

Good strategy though I have had considerable issues using the *A route map as of recently.

 

[smit0847]

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

Im trying a few destinations on the spreadsheet 9 - 11 months out from either SYD or a major Asian port and not seeing any availability at all for months at a time - Im thinking the routing is just too complicated for LMs to work it out. Is it possible to put an additional column into the spreadsheet where people have found availability and the routing? No need to put dates or carriers, just maybe say 'try SYD-BKK-NRT-xx_' if you have seen it.

As nice as it is to have incorrectly zoned cities, its pointless if there is no availability!

 

[lobo76]

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

Guys if you're requesting access to the spreadsheet please note:
- I need a Google friendly email address
- Direct requests via google docs will not be actioned (all they do is fill up my inbox so please don't make them that way)
- Currently community sentiment is that new members or members with very low post counts will not be granted access.

Cheers

OK so another 25 over night.

Hopefully I won't sound like a dick when I say:
Because of the limits on # replies over time etc. I won't be able to reply to all the requests. You will get a Google notification if access is assigned.
To keep my inbox vaguely free I'll be deleting any requests that came in without an email, please re-apply if you meet the above criteria in quotes (assuming the community still stands by this standard?)

I'll get to them as soon as I can, but it's pretty busy at work so please be patient. PLEASE don't use read requests (I always hit cancel anyways so they are pointless) and PLEASE, PLEASE don't send multiple messages asking when you'll get access.

Cheers
Lobo

 

[seritonin]

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

That's basically how I've travelled for fun the last few years. Find a good route whether with points, cash or some sort of error whatever, then go with it. None of this dropping final segments cough!




Honestly without the spreadsheet it is pretty easy to figure out a good number of these places. I took a look at the *A route map and figured out some places where you could only reach by backtracking - like LH through FRA. Had a handful of ports in under 5 minutes. On one side people don't want to just give away information, there's a tendency for newer people to not put in any effort and just want the answer. But similarly what I said above probably wouldn't be super obvious if you're new to it either. Works both ways.

I agree, it's pretty simple for instance as I'm only interested in Europe with Asia number of miles, I just use this List of international airports by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Lifemiles chart and try all the international airports on that list, your options are pretty much limited to IST (as TK flies to pretty much anywhere) or occasionally FRA (with LH) mostly via BKK. It only took less than half an hour to figure it out.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

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

For those who won't be travelling to the original (low points) destination, you could always tell the checkin agent at the first city "I've had a last minute change of plans so could you just check me as far as NRT (eg if your final destination was GUM).

Being booked on a flight & not checking in is considered a 'no-show' ie you won't be paged in the terminal, however being checked in & not travelling is a 'fail to board' as you have checked in for that flight & appear to have every intention of travelling & your name would be paged.

All the checkin agent would do if you said you were only travelling to NRT is check that you had the correct documentation for Japan & check you in. Just make doubly sure if you do have checked luggage that agent puts a bag tag where the final destination is NRT - not GUM. Sometimes it's easy to forget to do the steps to short tag a bag or not check you in on all the flights booked so you need to be vigilant.

Doing the above saves the need to be checked in all the way & being a fail to board pax or having to tell the airline once you arrive at the port where you will now clear customs that you had a change of plans & no longer need to travel to xx_. I'm quite sure the CSA is not going to care if you don't intend travelling all the way to GUM.

 

[bcworld]

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

For those who won't be travelling to the original (low points) destination, you could always tell the checkin agent at the first city "I've had a last minute change of plans so could you just check me as far as NRT (eg if your final destination was GUM).

Being booked on a flight & not checking in is considered a 'no-show' ie you won't be paged in the terminal, however being checked in & not travelling is a 'fail to board' as you have checked in for that flight & appear to have every intention of travelling & your name would be paged.

All the checkin agent would do if you said you were only travelling to NRT is check that you had the correct documentation for Japan & check you in. Just make doubly sure if you do have checked luggage that agent puts a bag tag where the final destination is NRT - not GUM. Sometimes it's easy to forget to do the steps to short tag a bag or not check you in on all the flights booked so you need to be vigilant.

Doing the above saves the need to be checked in all the way & being a fail to board pax or having to tell the airline once you arrive at the port where you will now clear customs that you had a change of plans & no longer need to travel to xx_. I'm quite sure the CSA is not going to care if you don't intend travelling all the way to GUM.

I don't think it's quite a simple as you make out...if it was there wouldn't be so much discussion about it.

Given that these are award tix it probably should matter less, but the CSA will probably be on the look out for hidden city ticketing when this comes up - revenue management would want to know about that.

 

[smit0847]

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

For those who won't be travelling to the original (low points) destination, you could always tell the checkin agent at the first city "I've had a last minute change of plans so could you just check me as far as NRT (eg if your final destination was GUM).

Being booked on a flight & not checking in is considered a 'no-show' ie you won't be paged in the terminal, however being checked in & not travelling is a 'fail to board' as you have checked in for that flight & appear to have every intention of travelling & your name would be paged.

All the checkin agent would do if you said you were only travelling to NRT is check that you had the correct documentation for Japan & check you in. Just make doubly sure if you do have checked luggage that agent puts a bag tag where the final destination is NRT - not GUM. Sometimes it's easy to forget to do the steps to short tag a bag or not check you in on all the flights booked so you need to be vigilant.

Doing the above saves the need to be checked in all the way & being a fail to board pax or having to tell the airline once you arrive at the port where you will now clear customs that you had a change of plans & no longer need to travel to xx_. I'm quite sure the CSA is not going to care if you don't intend travelling all the way to GUM.

I recently checked in at SYD for a rather epic 4 leg *A trip to KEF. The check-in agent actually suggested to us only checking our bags half-way as 'the more legs I check them, the more chance there is they will go missing' (we had a 3 hour transit in between flight 2 and 3 in IST), and they could only print our first 2 boarding passes anyway.

If you have a 3+ leg itinerary I don't think it would be a ridiculous request to ask them to only check your bags the first 2 legs, for the reason of something like 'UA lost our bags once and we want to minimise the chance of it happening again'.

Where you are changing onto a different airline for the 3rd leg I really don't think your originating check-in agent will care what you do once you leave Australia. The visa issue is far more serious as there may be policies you cannot commence your journey unless you have evidence you can complete it.

If you are dropping legs on a regular basis though, don't be surprised if your account is closed, miles confiscated and possible reservations cancelled. Don't get greedy.

 

[Nizar]

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

Given that these are award tix it probably should matter less, but the CSA will probably be on the look out for hidden city ticketing when this comes up - revenue management would want to know about that.

Hmmmm if management/CSA knew about hidden city ticketing, couldn't they simply just fix/update the system to eliminate these "hidden" cities ?
I think you are giving LM/Avianca too much credibility. It is not the CSAs job to be looking out for such things, in my opinion.

 

[bcworld]

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

Hmmmm if management/CSA knew about hidden city ticketing, couldn't they simply just fix/update the system to eliminate these "hidden" cities ?

You can't eliminate hidden cities without eliminating valid itineraries. You're right though...the CSA probably wouldn't call it out.

 

[smit0847]

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

Hmmmm if management/CSA knew about hidden city ticketing, couldn't they simply just fix/update the system to eliminate these "hidden" cities ?
I think you are giving LM/Avianca too much credibility. It is not the CSAs job to be looking out for such things, in my opinion.

If you do want to visit Asia for cheap, book a legitimate AU-GUM/SPN USDM flight and try and swing a free stopover. Apart from the rule about no stopovers intra-zone (which is sometimes forgotten about) this is a legitimate itinerary/redemption and you won't have to worry about visas on arrival, short-checking bags etc.....