Mumfreqflyer
Member
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2012
- Posts
- 293
1st trip report so I hope you don't get too bored.....
Thanks to everyone here, I learnt about flying in the pointy end for a little over economy prices when I joined 2 years ago.
After doing a similar trip in 2012 flying Qantas via melb in economy my husband said we could go back to Las Vegas for the SEMA show but he wouldn't fly economy....challenge accepted!
In feb this year the 40% Alaska air miles promo came out. I had 2 skype calls to Alaska's reservation team to ensure I could get 5 business award seats on the flights we needed.
I had enough Qantas points and since partner awards charge 10% cash fares for infants, it made it cheaper to use 280,000 qantas points and just pay taxes for miss1 rather than the 10% cash fare which would have been around $1000 (I paid $500 in taxes for her with cx and $800 taxes for my husband). He was lucky enough to get Business awards for all 4 flights.
Our flights:
29th Oct cx170 per - hkg 23:55 departure - all in business now
30th Oct cx898 hkg - lax 10:15am departure - business
10th Nov cx883 lax - hkg 22:30 departure - business
9 hour stopover in Hong Kong
12th Nov cx171 hkg - per 3pm departure - 2 in business and 3 in premium economy. Waiting for business seats to be released but flight is looking full.
When I initially called Alaska we could get business seats on the hkg - lax sectors but only a mix or premium economy and economy for the per - hkg - per legs. That's ok as I had read that cx release seats closer to departure if unsold.
Had all the flights organised and unfortunately with Alaska you can't hold any flights so once I had it all worked out, I went ahead and purchased the 480,000 points that would be required.
This was around $12,000 spend so I had everything crossed the points would post ASAP and I could secure those bookings.....
After 24 hours nothing had come through. Waited until 48 and still nothing...,then 72 hours I started to get worried as I had paid that money and was hoping to god that award seats would still be available!
After a few calls to Alaska and their risk team, the points processed . They told me that no one had ever purchased that many miles from the 1 account before.......I think the next promo they had banned overseas credit cards from purchasing so I'm sorry if that had anything to do with my purchase!
So with 480,000 points successfully posted into my account I called back around 3am perth time to organise the bookings for my sister, her partner, miss2.5 and myself.
At first when I told the Alaska operator which flights I wanted she couldn't see anything! My heart dropped as I had spent all this money and couldn't get business class from the hkg - lax - hkg legs
I asked her to double check that she was doing mixed class redemptions which she replied that she couldn't mix classes on the 1 redemption. I informed her that the previous reservations lady did it and it worked.
She went away and came back around 10 mins and said 'oh I never knew you could do that!!!'
So around 1 hour later everything was booked. The only hassle was while I was on skype to Alaska I also had to be on the phone to Qantas to book my husband and miss1 at the same time to make sure we had everyone on the same flights!
It's a lesson learned....don't try to do 5 + infant award seats on same flights at the same time! It was one of the most stressful things I've done trying to make to all work and match up!
Once all the confirmations came through, I was one happy Mum!
Next we booked all accommodation as SEMA gets really busy in Vegas and everything books out!
We planned to do 3 days at Anaheim, 7 nights in vegas for the expo and 1 night in LA.
Anaheim - VRBO booking for a 3 bed condo
Vegas - VRBO booking at MGM Signature for a 2 bed/3bath double penthouse apartment . We stayed here in 2012 and like it as it's easy access to the monorail which goes straight to the convention centre and because MGM is the 1st stop, you are guaranteed a spot as it gets very very full!!!
Santa Monica - air bnb place opposite the ocean just south of the pier.
So now that everything was booked well in advance, just had to play the waiting game, which has come up very very quick!!!!
This trip almost didn't happen as in April I broke my ankle in 3 places and dislocated it as well! 3 surgeries after with pins, plates, screws put in, then taken out, infection from the initial operation, foot pointed and not flat, 4.5 months in a wheelchair or able to walk, and the past 2 months with crutches, intense physio and massages and I'm finally walking again......we are heading off next week!
Business award seats opened up on the per - hkg leg so I have put all 4 of us into there from economy/premium which will make the world of difference for that overnight flight!
Miss2 has flown quite a lot...I lost count after she had own on 25 planes before she turned 2 so she knows what to expect. I have told her she needs to be on her best behaviour otherwise no disneyland but we shall see how she goes . Hopefully they both sleep for a lot of it, otherwise she will more than likely just watch frozen a few times and should be quite entertained. We shall see how we go......
Thanks to everyone here, I learnt about flying in the pointy end for a little over economy prices when I joined 2 years ago.
After doing a similar trip in 2012 flying Qantas via melb in economy my husband said we could go back to Las Vegas for the SEMA show but he wouldn't fly economy....challenge accepted!
In feb this year the 40% Alaska air miles promo came out. I had 2 skype calls to Alaska's reservation team to ensure I could get 5 business award seats on the flights we needed.
I had enough Qantas points and since partner awards charge 10% cash fares for infants, it made it cheaper to use 280,000 qantas points and just pay taxes for miss1 rather than the 10% cash fare which would have been around $1000 (I paid $500 in taxes for her with cx and $800 taxes for my husband). He was lucky enough to get Business awards for all 4 flights.
Our flights:
29th Oct cx170 per - hkg 23:55 departure - all in business now
30th Oct cx898 hkg - lax 10:15am departure - business
10th Nov cx883 lax - hkg 22:30 departure - business
9 hour stopover in Hong Kong
12th Nov cx171 hkg - per 3pm departure - 2 in business and 3 in premium economy. Waiting for business seats to be released but flight is looking full.
When I initially called Alaska we could get business seats on the hkg - lax sectors but only a mix or premium economy and economy for the per - hkg - per legs. That's ok as I had read that cx release seats closer to departure if unsold.
Had all the flights organised and unfortunately with Alaska you can't hold any flights so once I had it all worked out, I went ahead and purchased the 480,000 points that would be required.
This was around $12,000 spend so I had everything crossed the points would post ASAP and I could secure those bookings.....
After 24 hours nothing had come through. Waited until 48 and still nothing...,then 72 hours I started to get worried as I had paid that money and was hoping to god that award seats would still be available!
After a few calls to Alaska and their risk team, the points processed . They told me that no one had ever purchased that many miles from the 1 account before.......I think the next promo they had banned overseas credit cards from purchasing so I'm sorry if that had anything to do with my purchase!
So with 480,000 points successfully posted into my account I called back around 3am perth time to organise the bookings for my sister, her partner, miss2.5 and myself.
At first when I told the Alaska operator which flights I wanted she couldn't see anything! My heart dropped as I had spent all this money and couldn't get business class from the hkg - lax - hkg legs
I asked her to double check that she was doing mixed class redemptions which she replied that she couldn't mix classes on the 1 redemption. I informed her that the previous reservations lady did it and it worked.
She went away and came back around 10 mins and said 'oh I never knew you could do that!!!'
So around 1 hour later everything was booked. The only hassle was while I was on skype to Alaska I also had to be on the phone to Qantas to book my husband and miss1 at the same time to make sure we had everyone on the same flights!
It's a lesson learned....don't try to do 5 + infant award seats on same flights at the same time! It was one of the most stressful things I've done trying to make to all work and match up!
Once all the confirmations came through, I was one happy Mum!
Next we booked all accommodation as SEMA gets really busy in Vegas and everything books out!
We planned to do 3 days at Anaheim, 7 nights in vegas for the expo and 1 night in LA.
Anaheim - VRBO booking for a 3 bed condo
Vegas - VRBO booking at MGM Signature for a 2 bed/3bath double penthouse apartment . We stayed here in 2012 and like it as it's easy access to the monorail which goes straight to the convention centre and because MGM is the 1st stop, you are guaranteed a spot as it gets very very full!!!
Santa Monica - air bnb place opposite the ocean just south of the pier.
So now that everything was booked well in advance, just had to play the waiting game, which has come up very very quick!!!!
This trip almost didn't happen as in April I broke my ankle in 3 places and dislocated it as well! 3 surgeries after with pins, plates, screws put in, then taken out, infection from the initial operation, foot pointed and not flat, 4.5 months in a wheelchair or able to walk, and the past 2 months with crutches, intense physio and massages and I'm finally walking again......we are heading off next week!
Business award seats opened up on the per - hkg leg so I have put all 4 of us into there from economy/premium which will make the world of difference for that overnight flight!
Miss2 has flown quite a lot...I lost count after she had own on 25 planes before she turned 2 so she knows what to expect. I have told her she needs to be on her best behaviour otherwise no disneyland but we shall see how she goes . Hopefully they both sleep for a lot of it, otherwise she will more than likely just watch frozen a few times and should be quite entertained. We shall see how we go......
I'm sure your kids will be proud one day when they learn what you did for them 
