Lifemiles screenshot method

[appaz]

Screenshots worked a treat. I've booked

HKT-BKK TG
BKK-SIN SQ - 13 hour over night stop
SIN-ADL SQ
ADL-PER QF - Qantas points separate award

 

[Guvner]

Can you re-post in the "Success" thread with class and co-$/miles used info for the non QF legs? That would be very helpful.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Can you re-post in the "Success" thread with class and co-$/miles used info for the non QF legs? That would be very helpful.

it will either be 22.5k or 40k miles depending if the flight was in economy or business.

 

[appaz]

Can you re-post in the "Success" thread with class and co-$/miles used info for the non QF legs? That would be very helpful.

40k each - all flights in J

I bought 79200 miles so i guess I pay a minimal amount of cash, calling them shortly to process the payment

 

[love_the_life]

Well this is a bit of a trial. The booking (DXB-BKK-MEL) came back with the instructions to ring the call centre for the payment. Got through straight away and then after a bit, something happened and the agent couldn't hear anything I said, so hang up and call again. This time a long.....wait, give up and try several more times. Finally get through and onto the last bit, the payment. Give them the card number and after a bit they come back to say there are not enough points in my account as I have purchased a ticket for someone else (a name I have never heard of) for 80,000 miles. After I managed to get the agent to understand that a) this was not me b) I didn't know the person and c) I did not make the purchase he went off to see what to do. Came back with an email address for me to contact security/fraud and then said he would add a note to my file. Something must Have happened as he came back on the line to say not to bother emailing and that they will reinstate the points and as soon as I see them there ring them to finish off the transaction. Sounds like they could see that an award booking was taken from the wrong account.
So now I wait.

 

[Pushka]

Yikes love_the_life - hope those points return ASAP. Is this for a Friday night departure?

 

[love_the_life]

Yikes love_the_life - hope those points return ASAP. Is this for a Friday night departure?

Leaving on 21 April which is the Friday night (I think it's about 9 pm) so a bit earlier than your flight.
Failing that I will be paying cash for economy :evil:

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As the original 'screenshot' thread is now closed for further posts, I've started a new one.

Just a couple of comments further to the AFF Gazette article...

You could also try using this method if you believe there is award availability on a point-to-point itinerary which is not showing on the LifeMiles website. However, you should first make sure that there is actually availability and the problem is with LifeMiles’ website, rather than a lack of award inventory. You cannot use the screenshot method to book flights that do not have award availability.

You can *try* a request for a single flight which does not appear on line but you are likely to be rejected.

Screenshots work if there is availability showing A-B and B-C, but nothing for A-C.

If you know there is a single flight is available (for example you search Uinted and find LH First for JFK-FRA) but it is not showing on LM, there is pretty much zero chance LM will book it for you. They need to be able to see the availability in the first place to create a booking. If the flight doesn't show at all on LM you can't send a screenshot from another airline.

Within a few days of sending your email, you should receive a response by email advising whether or not the requested flights can be booked. If approved, you can then call LifeMiles to pay for the booking and have it ticketed.

It used to be a couple days - overnight even. But these days it can take anywhere up to 10 days before you'll get an email from them with your flights. In some cases LM will propose alternatives. In some cases they don't and the flights may be gone by the time they get back to you.

 

[jch]

Just new to this method and waiting to find the right availability before I take the plunge and buy a bunch of miles.

Has anyone had a situation where you can see award availability on a partner airline, but it doesn't show on LifeMiles?

United has five business saver seats availability on their website SYD-LAX 25 Mar '20, yet it doesn't show on the Lifemiles or Singapore Airlines website.

On other dates this route might be visible on United and Singapore but not LifeMiles.

Is there someone availability which can only be accessed if you call or email LifeMiles or they might not have been released to Star Alliance partners?

 

[Cynicor]

Most airlines release more awards to their own FF. So using United miles to search united seats isn't a good idea.
Generally if another partner can see it, there is more hope.
Mostly, you can only get what you can search for.

 

[boomy]

Just new to this method and waiting to find the right availability before I take the plunge and buy a bunch of miles.

Has anyone had a situation where you can see award availability on a partner airline, but it doesn't show on LifeMiles?

United has five business saver seats availability on their website SYD-LAX 25 Mar '20, yet it doesn't show on the Lifemiles or Singapore Airlines website.

On other dates this route might be visible on United and Singapore but not LifeMiles.

Is there someone availability which can only be accessed if you call or email LifeMiles or they might not have been released to Star Alliance partners?

It’s not unusual to see availability on UA that doesn’t show on LM although lately I’m experiencing the opposite.

Lifemiles can offer flights that are not available online but it’s not something members can request. They will usually offer other options only if your original route sent via screenshots is not available anymore.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just new to this method and waiting to find the right availability before I take the plunge and buy a bunch of miles.

Has anyone had a situation where you can see award availability on a partner airline, but it doesn't show on LifeMiles?

United has five business saver seats availability on their website SYD-LAX 25 Mar '20, yet it doesn't show on the Lifemiles or Singapore Airlines website.

On other dates this route might be visible on United and Singapore but not LifeMiles.

Is there someone availability which can only be accessed if you call or email LifeMiles or they might not have been released to Star Alliance partners?

For the screenshot method to work there must be availability showing on LM for each sector. An additional screenshot must be sent, from the LM booking page, showing no avaialbility for the end-to-end itinerary. So A-B must show and B-C must show. And a third screenshot would so no availability A-C.

Unfortunately if you cannot provide screenshots for individual sectors (or combinations of sectors), LM cannot and will not make a booking, even if you know there's avaialbility via other sites.

 

[jch]

I found the perfect flight I needed SYD-IAH direct on UA, which is showing availabilty on the UA, SQ and AV websites.

I took the plunge and bought 80k points miles then when it came to enter my passenger information it errored out:

Sorry, we could not process your request, please try again.
If the problem persists contact our Call center Option 3 or send us an email to [email protected]

LifeMiles Team.

I added some credit to my Skype account then called their US support line, who said their LifeMiles team will be back online in four hours (it's currently the middle of the night over there).

Have sent a screen shot of the booking screen with my passport to the email address and asked for it to be processed.

Hopefully can be resolved when I call them in a few hours, will be 10:30PM Sydney time which is not too ridiculous I guess.

Appreciate any feedback from anyone who has had a similar experience!

Cheers.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I found the perfect flight I needed SYD-IAH direct on UA, which is showing availabilty on the UA, SQ and AV websites.

I took the plunge and bought 80k points miles then when it came to enter my passenger information it errored out:

Sorry, we could not process your request, please try again.
If the problem persists contact our Call center Option 3 or send us an email to [email protected]

LifeMiles Team.

I added some credit to my Skype account then called their US support line, who said their LifeMiles team will be back online in four hours (it's currently the middle of the night over there).

Have sent a screen shot of the booking screen with my passport to the email address and asked for it to be processed.

Hopefully can be resolved when I call them in a few hours, will be 10:30PM Sydney time which is not too ridiculous I guess.

Appreciate any feedback from anyone who has had a similar experience!

Cheers.

If the seat is showing on the LM booking site but errors out, there are a couple of things you can try... (a) select 'United Airlines' from the list of airlines (rather than 'smart search' or 'star alliance'. This sometimes works to take you through to the ticketing stage; (b) as the flights show on line, LM should be able to book it for you directly over the phone, no need for the screenshot method. The call centre can see exactly what we can see.

Screenshot only needs to be used if you have multiple flights that show availability individually, but the total end-to-end itinerary does not show. So A-B shows, B-C shows, but A-C does not.

With Skype, this is a free call. Just call Avianc'as toll free (1-800) number in the USA. It connects you to the same call centre in Bogota.

 

[jch]

Thanks for the quick reply, seems to be isolated to United flights, no availability for any flights show when selecting United from the list.

Even a short domestic booking in economy gave me the same error.

Did some dummy bookings on Avianca and Singapore and was able to get to the passenger information page.

Will see what the call centre says when they open in a few hours, the things we do for cheap tickets...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

In that case the call centre should be able to book it directly as they will be able to see it.

 

[boomy]

In that case the call centre should be able to book it directly as they will be able to see it.

Correct.

Last week I had same error when trying to book some flights online on TK, called customer service and they were aware of LM website issues. LM call centre was closed at that time so one of the customer support agents helped creating the booking, emailed me the PNR and someone from LM called the next day to take payment for taxes.

 

[jch]

Thanks Boomy, that's exactly what happened with me as well. I just called back and they manually created the booking and I'll get a call within 24 hours from the payment department for the fees. Pretty painless in the end, hopefully they call at a reasonable hour Australian time!