Has anyone had success with the call-up "Marginal" xASA's?

[gizzard]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Endorsed. MEL-SYD-ASP being an example as you can certainly fly MEL-ASP direct too.

Not necessarily. For example, CBR>SYD>ADL.

Edit: Sorry, I was referring to the fact that indirect routes are not necessarily priced by sector when a direct route exists... slightly different point.

Also, the example in #1541 (Brisbane - Canberra via Melbourne) was priced as two separate single-sector ASAs, whether correctly or otherwise. So actually worse than the classic.

 

[samuel337]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Endorsed. MEL-SYD-ASP being an example as you can certainly fly MEL-ASP direct too.

So I'm guessing when I suggested the MEL-SYD-ADL-ASP route to the CSR, she probably tried to book that as separate JASAs, resulting in a quote of 128k points + pay, which is more than the classic award cost of 72k.

When booking say even, MEL-SYD-ASP, are there magic words to say to tell them you want it all as a single JASA, and not MEL-SYD, SYD-ASP?

 

[rogerkambah]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

I'm new to this whole JASA thing after having not paid any attention to that column when it was previously on their website. I think I understand how they work but not sure if there are tricks needed to find them.

Is it just a matter of looking for classic awards for the available dates and routing, then calling them up and saying those magic words? Is there a necessary correlation between classic award availability and JASA availability, or does one simply possibly indicate the other may exist?

Take MEL-SYD-ASP return for example. According to the reference spreadsheet, it should be 48,000 points and $377. When searching for classic award availability, I came across MEL-SYD-ASP return available for 72k points. Are these the flights that I can book as a JASA for 48k + $377?

I can also see that when searching for classic awards, there is an option for MEL-SYD-ADL-ASP return at a cost of 72k points as well (i.e. same classic award cost as MEL-SYD-ASP return). Is it possible to book this as a JASA for 48k + $377 as well? The CSR on the phone said this would require 128k points + pay.

Let me know if this should be branched off into a separate thread. Thanks!

I think you have got a pretty good grasp of the situation - looking for a classic award first on the route you want to travel to check the availability, to get an idea of the minimum points required. My experience (on out and return same day trips with the same intermediate stop in each direction), is that beside the minimum number of points, (as shown for a classic reward), the $ spend is about double that required for the classic reward.

Hope that helps and good luck.

 

[Robbi]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

It should be 48000 points + approx $360. Some CSRs don't have a clue; you can either coach them or give up and try again. Some people have more luck than others. I think overall it has improved over the last couple of months but it is still a bit hit and miss.

Oh and in my experience it is best avoiding the words "classic award." I find "any seat award in U class" works better.

Tried that tonight and was told by the CSR that "you can't make an any seat award booking on the phone, you do that on the internet".... I said "I can't do that in U class I have to do it on the phone"....

0 success/3 attempts is p***ing me off....

Where's the Red Roo when you need him

 

[JessicaTam]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Tried that tonight and was told by the CSR that "you can't make an any seat award booking on the phone, you do that on the internet".... I said "I can't do that in U class I have to do it on the phone"....

0 success/3 attempts is p***ing me off....

Where's the Red Roo when you need him

Try again but politely suggest the CSR has a look at "Right on Q 7740".

 

[zainman]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Tried to book a combined F and J ASA today. SYD-DXB in F and DXB-MEL in J.. CSR priced it at 288,000 and only once I mentioned that it should be 240,000 + copayment did she double check. Also tried to charge me a booking fee. In the end she put me on hold for ~40 minutes while she got her "supervisor" to assist her in pricing the ASA at 240,000 points. She said she could do it separately as two bookings but the copayment was coming up to ~$1300 that way so I said no because I had earlier booked the SYD-DXB-SYD as a FASA with a copayment of ~$1000. In the end she put me on hold again and I lost patience and hung up.

Terrible. Have booked 4 JASAs after the new system and never faced this problem. Very disappointed at how I was put on hold for a total of 60 minutes.

 

[Kangol]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Tried to book a combined F and J ASA today. SYD-DXB in F and DXB-MEL in J.. CSR priced it at 288,000 and only once I mentioned that it should be 240,000 + copayment did she double check. Also tried to charge me a booking fee. In the end she put me on hold for ~40 minutes while she got her "supervisor" to assist her in pricing the ASA at 240,000 points. She said she could do it separately as two bookings but the copayment was coming up to ~$1300 that way so I said no because I had earlier booked the SYD-DXB-SYD as a FASA with a copayment of ~$1000. In the end she put me on hold again and I lost patience and hung up.

Terrible. Have booked 4 JASAs after the new system and never faced this problem. Very disappointed at how I was put on hold for a total of 60 minutes.

Not saying they don't exist, but I don't think I have ever seen or heard of a mixed class multi-city ASA booking at "classic award prices" - even before the change to the booking engine requiring they be done by phone.

Just sayin'...

 

[Deleted member]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

I suspect the 60 minutes of being stuffed around is the issue here.

 

[legroom]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Was there any reason the FASA and. (rtn) JASA had to be on one PNR ?

I had done this .... but as two separate ASAs and everything went smoothly.

For your reference !

Tried to book a combined F and J ASA today. SYD-DXB in F and DXB-MEL in J.. CSR priced it at 288,000 and only once I mentioned that it should be 240,000 + copayment did she double check. Also tried to charge me a booking fee. In the end she put me on hold for ~40 minutes while she got her "supervisor" to assist her in pricing the ASA at 240,000 points. She said she could do it separately as two bookings but the copayment was coming up to ~$1300 that way so I said no because I had earlier booked the SYD-DXB-SYD as a FASA with a copayment of ~$1000. In the end she put me on hold again and I lost patience and hung up.

Terrible. Have booked 4 JASAs after the new system and never faced this problem. Very disappointed at how I was put on hold for a total of 60 minutes.

 

[gizzard]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Rather than suggesting just the route, find out the actual flights you want to taken and then tell them the flight times/numbers.
The first thing that I do having told them the type of booking that I am wishing to make (ie Classic Award in U class) is to ask if they have done one before. If not, you are perhaps best to HUACA.

So I'm guessing when I suggested the MEL-SYD-ADL-ASP route to the CSR, she probably tried to book that as separate JASAs, resulting in a quote of 128k points + pay, which is more than the classic award cost of 72k.

When booking say even, MEL-SYD-ASP, are there magic words to say to tell them you want it all as a single JASA, and not MEL-SYD, SYD-ASP?

 

[zainman]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Was there any reason the FASA and. (rtn) JASA had to be on one PNR ?

I had done this .... but as two separate ASAs and everything went smoothly.

For your reference !

No reason to have the flights on the same PNR except that when she tried to do it separately, the combined co-payment for a one-way JASA and a one-way FASA was more than return FASA. That was bad value in my opinion...

 

[blackcat20]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Trying to book my first one just now. The CSA thought it could be done online, but replicated my dates etc and saw that it couldn't be done. Put on hold for a few minutes while she worked through it. Fingers crossed.

 

[Sumnerned]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

This is a wonderful thread, full of excellent ideas. Far too long now to read it all, but I have managed maybe half. This coming membership year, I may be a bit short of status credits to get to gold, and have a strong preference for economy class. Does an economy equivalent of JASA make sense? Does it have a short form title such as EASA? Thanks for any guidance. Also, though probably addressed on another thread, is there much information around about whether gold provides significantly more in the way of award seats than silver?

 

[blackcat20]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Trying to book my first one just now. The CSA thought it could be done online, but replicated my dates etc and saw that it couldn't be done. Put on hold for a few minutes while she worked through it. Fingers crossed.

completed successfully in just under 30 minutes.

 

[zainman]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Was there any reason the FASA and. (rtn) JASA had to be on one PNR ?

I had done this .... but as two separate ASAs and everything went smoothly.

For your reference !

Booking it separately was the only way to do it in the end. SYD-DXB as a FASA and DXB-MEL as a JASA. The agent initially said "we cannot book one-ways from DXB" but that went out the window once he consulted his supervisor. Annoyingly had to pay the $30 CC fees twice! In the end, 240,000 points + ~$950 in fees.


Have eroded my QFF balance since the 1.5x SC offer has been received. Have booked these so far for 400,000 points...

MEL-SYD-MEL J X 2
MEL-ADL-MEL J X 2
OOL-SYD-MEL J X 2
MEL-SYD J
SYD-DXB F
DXB-MEL J

All except the DXB-MEL leg will be eligible for the 1.5 offer. Have a one-way booking with QR MEL-DOH-KHI in J that should yield 240SC. Going from 0 SC to 1245 in ~ 2 months. lol


Also while I am on this topic, the last call was for the MEL-SYD JASA and the agent had no clue what a marginal any seat award was or what I meant by booking in 'U' class. She put me on hold and said she will try to do it anyway, came back with 27,000 points + ~$200 in fees/charges. I asked her to double check and gave her the Q reference card number 7740, was put on hold again and came back with 16,000 points + $104 which I happily booked. So the reference card definitely helps but still a long way to go for some operators. Reminds me of USDM a little bit...

 

[serfty]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

This is a wonderful thread, full of excellent ideas. Far too long now to read it all, but I have managed maybe half. This coming membership year, I may be a bit short of status credits to get to gold, and have a strong preference for economy class. Does an economy equivalent of JASA make sense? Does it have a short form title such as EASA? Thanks for any guidance. Also, though probably addressed on another thread, is there much information around about whether gold provides significantly more in the way of award seats than silver?

XASA if you must - economy awards generally don't provide the same level of burn/SC that business mASA's might (½ the points for ¼ the SC benefit).

The additional classic award availability for Elites generally does not appear to translate to additional mASA availability.

 

[Sumnerned]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

XASA if you must - economy awards generally don't provide the same level of burn/SC that business mASA's might (½ the points for ¼ the SC benefit).

The additional classic award availability for Elites generally does not appear to translate to additional mASA availability.

Thank you very much, I will try to keep your points (haha) in mind when the time comes.

 

[Princess Fiona]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

This is a wonderful thread, full of excellent ideas. Far too long now to read it all, but I have managed maybe half. This coming membership year, I may be a bit short of status credits to get to gold, and have a strong preference for economy class. Does an economy equivalent of JASA make sense? Does it have a short form title such as EASA? Thanks for any guidance. Also, though probably addressed on another thread, is there much information around about whether gold provides significantly more in the way of award seats than silver?

QF is currently running a promo for bookings up until 31st Dec where SC will be earned on Economy Classic Awards.
Travel dates until end of next year.
http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/memberSpecials/qantas-classic-status-offer

 

[samuel337]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

Success! Initially wanted MEL-SYD-ASP but there wasn't any availability for the return journey in a range of dates in Feb 2014; MEL-BNE-TSV was out too; so I'm now booked for a SYD-BNE-TSV run instead. I hope the CSR didn't hear me mumbling a (hopefully silent) prayer to the Qantas gods while she was processing the booking :S

For the record, as I don't think I've seen it mentioned before here, the cost of a JASA SYD-BNE-TSV run when paying with points only is 86000 (with minimum points it's 48000 + $349).

@Robbi, maybe give it another shot today? 2 out of the 2 calls knew exactly what I wanted. Not exactly useful odds, but maybe the current shift know the obscure parts of their job better than yesterday's.

 

[DC3]

re: Has anyone had success with the call-up method for "Marginal" xASA's?

... For the record, as I don't think I've seen it mentioned before here, the cost of a JASA SYD-BNE-TSV run when paying with points only is 86000 (with minimum points it's 48000 + $349)...

48,000 + $349 would seem to be the going rate.

samuel337, there's also some useful information, here, on what others have achieved, in case you have not seen it already:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....essful-asa-bookings-booked-classic-53677.html