PER - TKK rtn last week in January, J as much as possible using USDM and/or Lifemiles

[Glider_]

Short story - I am trying to find flights using USDM and or Lifemiles to get from Perth to Truk (TKK) in Micronesia, and spend a week there at the end of January. Please help!


Long story - MrGlider and I want to go on a dream diving trip to Truk Lagoon in Micronesia. I recently won an academic award for my Masters Degree research into 3d modelling shipwrecks using photographs and the next step is a study of some of the WWII wrecks of Truk Lagoon. Google it, it's amazing. We have a rare window of time available at the end of January (somewhere in between 19 - 30 Jan).

I have spent two lots of many hours looking at different ways to get there using points and thought I'd found a winner, twice. First I was going to wait until t-14 and use Lifemiles PER-SIN-NRT-GUM in J then GUM-TKK in Y. But then Lifemiles broke and SQ is no longer available ex-SIN and no routings showed up for me. So for the past week my new strategy was to nest a USDM Qantas J redemption from PER - xx_ - CNS with a Lifemiles Y redemption CNS - GUM - TKK.

Lifemiles has United availability departing CNS on 23 Jan and returning 29 Jan. Perfect.
I found the following Qantas domestic availability:
21 Jan PER-SYD 1515-2225 QF566 J
22 Jan SYD-CNS 1310 1510 QF926 J
Destination - onward to TKK via United and back
30 Jan CNS-DRW 1910-2115 QF1874 Y
31 Jan DRW-PER 1420-1640 QF793 J

This routing is PERFECT for me, because I can visit my elderly grandmother in Sydney on the way over, my dad in Cairns and my mother in Darwin on the way back.
USDM could see all of those award spaces but when it went to the rates desk they came back after a full half an hour to say no, it exceeded MPM by far too much. Rates desk agent and rates desk supervisor had looked carefully for ages but could not accept it.

So now I'm stuck. I can't think of another way. I thought I'd put it out there to the more knowledgeable AFFers out there who might be able to come up with some fancy footwork to assist. Anyone up for the challenge? If any Aussie domestic routings are available via Darwin that would be my favourite, but I'll consider anything. I'd like to spend 5 days in Truk. I'm willing to fly Y on the shortest legs (eg. GUM-TKK is Y only I believe. There may be chickens and goats in the cabin with us).

I have 100,000 USDM and 153,000 Lifemiles to work with, though I'd much prefer not to spend all of it. The setup I'd planned was supposed to cost 60k USDM and 84k LM for 2 pax.


Good hunting! I hope you can see something that has eluded me!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: PER - TKK rtn last week in January, J as much as possible using USDM and/or Lifem

I would hang up and call again (HUACA) as just about all itineraries ex Aust to GUM will bust MPM's due to most having to route via cities much further north eg in Japan.

It took me a few goes to do mine back when US were still in the *A camp but eventually I found an really good agent who was in PHX I think. Mine was nested as I had separate tickets OOL JQ NRT DL GUM to position then my USDM ticket was:

Outbound: GUM UA x/NRT NH x/PEK TG BKK TG BNE (destination one month )
Inbound: BNE BR x/TPE BR x/CTS NH x/NGO UA GUM

After arriving in GUM at the end of the USDM ticket we did an AV LM one way GUM UA x/NRT UA x/ORD UA BOS then home LAX/BNE on QF.

All sectors were in J exception the short flight CTS/NGO which was whY however it credited ff points to our TK Miles & Smiles account which we'd only put in to the NH pnr for the purpose of obtaining forward seating as a TK *A Gold member.

I would call again and get them to book J where possible telling them that any itinerary will be over on miles but that's the only way to get there.

Good luck with it all & keep us posted.

USDM could see all of those award spaces but when it went to the rates desk they came back after a full half an hour to say no, it exceeded MPM by far too much. Rates desk agent and rates desk supervisor had looked carefully for ages but could not accept it.

Can you just clarify what airlines & sectors you were asking USDM for? They are now in the One World Alliance so you can't fly UA any longer so generally that only leaves QF/JL between Aust & GUM vv.

AV LM are Star Alliance and you can do one way awards but IIRC you can't have mixed class which would mean it's either got to be all J or all Y so if you were flying PER/SIN/NRT/GUM that could be SQ & UA in J then if GUM/TKK ops in Y only you may need to purchase a separate ticket GUM/TKK/GUM.

 

[Glider_]

Re: PER - TKK rtn last week in January, J as much as possible using USDM and/or Lifem

Resolved! By the power of HUACA, USDM ticketed the same domestic sectors mentioned in my original post PER-SYD-CNS-stop-CNS-DRW-PER with no qualms. LM still had the Y CNS-GUM-TKK-GUM-CNS redemption available so have booked that and waiting for ticketing now.

OzBeachbabe- UA is the only airline that flies to TKK at all, it only flies Y and PY, and must route through GUM. UA also connects to GUM from CNS. So ex CNS is the quickest way to get to TKK by a long shot. Lifemiles Y redemption from GUM-TKK (1.5hr island hopper flight) cost more(?!) miles than also including a CNS-GUM UA Y flight (an extra 4.5 hours). The Y redemption CNS-GUM-TKK is only slightly cheaper than a revenue fare but I'm a bit skint at the moment and willing to swallow the relatively low-value use of points on this one.

To clarify USDM in there, I needed a way to get to CNS from PER and so only domestic travel would do the job. Hence finding J QF connections which are a bit awkward and mean a big loop all around oz.

But at the end of the day I think my itinerary works pretty well for getting a bit of J, keeping flight times down, mile costs down and being able to catch up with long lost family in 3 different cities along the way.

 

[support]

Re: PER - TKK rtn last week in January, J as much as possible using USDM and/or Lifem

As per the rules for threads in this forum, this thread is now closed.