Avianca "Lifemiles" - Questions and Discussion

[MEL_Traveller]

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

This may be a stupid question, but where you can see availability on a leg in SQ J A380/77W, has anyone tried booking it through USDM? Yes it won't show up on ANA, awardtravelr etc, but if its offered to AV LMs, wouldn't it be available to USDM if you gave them the specific flight you know LMs lists as available?

you cannot book premium long haul through USDM... it is blocked I. the same way LH F is blocked. other FF programs will see availability 14 days out for LH, but USDM still can't see it.

 

[smit0847]

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

you cannot book premium long haul through USDM... it is blocked I. the same way LH F is blocked. other FF programs will see availability 14 days out for LH, but USDM still can't see it.

The how come LMs can see it and book it? It's not phantom - ppl here have booked and flown it. I would have thought all *A partner airlines would have the same access to SQ inventory as each other?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

The how come LMs can see it and book it? It's not phantom - ppl here have booked and flown it. I would have thought all *A partner airlines would have the same access to SQ inventory as each other?

no. USDM restricts access in it's own way. just as they restrict LH F differently.

(I should add that usdm is not unique in restricting long haul premium sq cabins... ANA imposes the same restriction in it's members, UA is the same...)

 

[ozbeachbabe]

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

This may be a stupid question, but where you can see availability on a leg in SQ J A380/77W, has anyone tried booking it through USDM?

Yes it won't show up on ANA, awardtravelr etc, but if its offered to AV LMs, wouldn't it be available to USDM if you gave them the specific flight you know LMs lists as available?

You could also check award availability through Expert Flyer which will show "I" class seats.

you cannot book premium long haul through USDM... it is blocked I. the same way LH F is blocked. other FF programs will see availability 14 days out for LH, but USDM still can't see it.

So you're saying that you can in fact book premium long haul on SQ eg 77W & 388 flights through LM?

 

[smit0847]

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

no. USDM restricts access in it's own way. just as they restrict LH F differently.

Ahhhh, no it *might* be available to USDM, but USDM chooses to make it unavailable to its members? That makes more sense.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

So you're saying that you can in fact book premium long haul on SQ eg 77W & 388 flights through LM?

indeed you can. F is still heavily restricted and/or outright unavailable, but business class is ok on many routes.

 

[anat0l]

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

The how come LMs can see it and book it? It's not phantom - ppl here have booked and flown it. I would have thought all *A partner airlines would have the same access to SQ inventory as each other?

Nope, not every airline has the same availability shown. US DM restricting LH F is a prime example.

UA (and US to some degree) were under fire for a long time for so-called "Starnet blocking", which was employed by UA to reduce the obtainable award inventory (vs. the actual award inventory).

So you're saying that you can in fact book premium long haul on SQ eg 77W & 388 flights through LM?

I believe most people have had success on at least Australia / Singapore flights (not sure about timing windows); not sure about the ultra longhauls (e.g. from SIN to Europe, North America). Let alone Suites class.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

Ahhhh, no it *might* be available to USDM, but USDM chooses to make it unavailable to its members? That makes more sense.

for sure. USDM agents can do a manual request for LH F for example which would return a positive seat. but agents have been instructed not to manual sell LH F.

awardtravlr scrapes its results from a couple if sources, the ANA tool being one of those. the databases it uses all block sq premium, which is why it doesn't show.

awardtravelr will however show LH F within 14 days of departure, because the ANA tool and the other ones it uses allow their members to book LH F within 14 days.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

I believe most people have had success on at least Australia / Singapore flights (not sure about timing windows); not sure about the ultra longhauls (e.g. from SIN to Europe, North America). Let alone Suites class.

people have booked the non-stop EWR-SIN for example.

but just because it's technically available doesn't mean we'll see seats. qf technically has F award seats available Australia-usa but good luck trying to find them! the same probably applies to popular sq long hauls... availability is snapped up fairly quickly.

 

[anat0l]

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

people have booked the non-stop EWR-SIN for example.

Yes I can speak of that from personal experience But that's the only one I can think of.

but just because it's technically available doesn't mean we'll see seats. qf technically has F award seats available Australia-usa but good luck trying to find them! the same probably applies to popular sq long hauls... availability is snapped up fairly quickly.

Yes and no. If the availability was bona fide there, you would hear people talk about it. No jokes - nothing to hide on this one. But we all know the reputation of SQ premium long haul awards on *A partners. LM was in a sense a "knight in shining armour" in this regard.

And QF F availability (despite Classic) on AUS/USA is easy to get compared to most SQ premium long haul on *A partners. Even easier if you are a Platinum. But that said the first availability is, as you say, snapped up very quickly (closest to the release window).

SQ premium long haul within the KrisFlyer programme, even at the Saver level (including Suites Savers), is also quite easy.

 

[bcworld]

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

But we all know the reputation of SQ premium long haul awards on *A partners. LM was in a sense a "knight in shining armour" in this regard.

I would say LM still is. There is plenty of availability shown in J on, for example SIN<>LHR. As discussed recently there is some restriction re booking that as part of a larger itinerary.

Are these SQ seats available on Starnet and filtered out by almost every partner? I don't know. When bmi used to enjoy 'special access' to SQ J the seats certainly weren't generally available elsewhere.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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

Yes and no. If the availability was bona fide there, you would hear people talk about it. No jokes - nothing to hide on this one. But we all know the reputation of SQ premium long haul awards on *A partners. LM was in a sense a "knight in shining armour" in this regard.

i was referring to LM only in this regard... just because it's available doesn't mean we're going to find it for every flight we want... the availability may have already been taken, just as it is with other popular seats in other programs.

its still a case if having to search it out! (or wait until 10 days for connecting flights as bcworld has mentioned)

 

[mushypeas]

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

anyone had an issues booking today? each time i select my flight and want to go to the screen that displays the taxes etc, it just returns an error... tried various dates/ports etc... driving me crazy

edit:
Error Message
Sorry, There was problem while processing your transaction.
Please try again.If the problem persists or you need additional information please contact LifeMiles Support.

 

[BobbyFlyer]

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

Just cancelled some flights that i had booked for next year and process was absolutely seemless. Must admit got a guy on the phone whose english was pretty good so that helped.
Had spent 236k on flights which i had to cancel for two people so cost me US$800 to do this as was spread over 4 flights...but....got back 590k points (as original was min points plus cash), so 356k points for US$800 worked out to a pretty good deal!

 

[travelislife]

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

Just cancelled some flights that i had booked for next year and process was absolutely seemless. Must admit got a guy on the phone whose english was pretty good so that helped.
Had spent 236k on flights which i had to cancel for two people so cost me US$800 to do this as was spread over 4 flights...but....got back 590k points (as original was min points plus cash), so 356k points for US$800 worked out to a pretty good deal!

Why did it cost $800 to cancel? Isn't it $50 per ticket cancellation?

 

[BobbyFlyer]

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

Why did it cost $800 to cancel? Isn't it $50 per ticket cancellation?

Its $50 per person per ticket. There were 4 separate bookings for 2 people.

 

[robcuk]

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

Yep $50 each and I was told the taxes will be paid back between 30 - 60 days.

 

[travelislife]

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

Its $50 per person per ticket. There were 4 separate bookings for 2 people.

Maybe I am reading this wrong, but 4 bookings by $50 by 2 people should only be $400? Or do you mean there were 4 separate return bookings which each leg ticketed separately, i.e. 16 individual bookings? Sorry if I way off track here!

On a side note this morning I tried calling to change the SGN-MEL-SGN tickets I was talking about earlier, the guy on the phone from the US call centre could only see exactly as was online. I couldn't even get him to search for each leg separately, will give it another go tonight.

 

[BobbyFlyer]

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

sorry should have made that clear, as they were return legs.

 

[mushypeas]

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

if i booked a lifemiles redemption on united metal... do you think i could somehow add my premier gold number to the reservation to get extra baggage, access to economyplus seating & lounge access... or am i being greedy?