US Dividend Miles - Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[anat0l]

Any feedback on availability on going from SYD to Europe? What are people generally using? CX vis HKG or BA via SIN?

CX via HKG is generally alright except closer months to departure, though sometimes at last minute CX will open up seats.

MH is also an option if you have no heebie jeebies flying them.

QF of course is another option but availability can vary wildly.

BA usually has quite good availability, but remember that you will pay the fuel surcharges for BA segments if you select them.

 

[get me outta here]

It wasn't so for me, I had a lot of trouble seeing the meal choice and seat allocation, but did eventually and that was a couple of months ago or more.

OK spoke to Thai in MEL this morning - advice from them is that seat selection / changes online can only be done within 24hrs of dep - whether this is accurate or not I have no idea as I am a Thai virgin.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

CX via HKG is generally alright except closer months to departure, though sometimes at last minute CX will open up seats.

MH is also an option if you have no heebie jeebies flying them.

QF of course is another option but availability can vary wildly.

BA usually has quite good availability, but remember that you will pay the fuel surcharges for BA segments if you select them.

Thanks anat0l. Yeah, l'll be honest, I won't ever set foot on a MH plane ever (if I can avoid it).

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

Any feedback on availability on going from SYD to Europe? What are people generally using? CX vis HKG or BA via SIN?[/QUOTE]

QR seem to also have very good avaliablity from CDG to Doha, they have 3 flights a day. From there you could then go to Perth then on to Sydney. Other options from Doha are DXB or Hong Kong then on to Sydney from there.

 

[travelislife]

OK spoke to Thai in MEL this morning - advice from them is that seat selection / changes online can only be done within 24hrs of dep - whether this is accurate or not I have no idea as I am a Thai virgin.

That's BS. It is the opposite it locks out within 24 hours of departure and you can't do it online. When you go to manage your booking down the bottom it should show something like the following:



Click on the modify button on the top right, is this what you are doing? It will open up another screen which will then let you click on 'select seats'.



This should let you select your seat. Clicking on the seat number already allocated in the first screen will just show you the seat map but won't let you change anything.

 

[travelislife]

Note also this ISN'T the screen to do your first or business pre order meal selection. The meal selection here is just with regard to special meals.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Thanks til - yep that works - to get over the line I had to clear original seat selection first then manually type in the seat I wanted and then the system accepted it. But for 1 sector - FRA-BKK in F it just will not display seat map at all - no biggie I am seated where I want to be anyway on the sector - I think - thanks for your help good people.

 

[bismarck]

Well now I am just confused.

Called Asiana this morning and they said "nope, US haven't revalidated the ticket yet".

Woops....ring US - "yep, we've revalidated it. Here's the Asiana ticket number. Not sure what more you want us to do".

Fine....ring Asiana back - "yep, I can see everything, all looks fine".

Think....hmmm, I should check with Thai. Thai say "everything fine on our end, but did you know Asiana will auto-cancel if not revalidated by 21 August? We've removed our auto-cancel though, so don't worry about Thai."

Bugger.

Maybe Thai just haven't pulled the data yet? I will have to call Asiana again later today but this is getting a little tedious.

Haha....this is like whac-a-mole!!!

Spoke to Asiana again who said their ticketing time limit was still there. After some back and forth and time on hold I was told she'd removed the Asiana time limit.

Hooray!

But... [dun dun dun]

A Thai time limit has now popped up!



Off I go to call Thai now...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Haha....this is like whac-a-mole!!!

Spoke to Asiana again who said their ticketing time limit was still there. After some back and forth and time on hold I was told she'd removed the Asiana time limit.

Hooray!

But... [dun dun dun]

A Thai time limit has now popped up!



Off I go to call Thai now...

They have removed the OZ time limit... but has it actually ticketed properly? Sounds like USDM needs to actively manage the revaliation of this ticket and push the revalidation through to all airlines concerned.

There shouldn't be any time limits.

 

[bcworld]

Something for those with TG bookings to be aware of...and I'm guessing LifeMiles bookers will see it here too - it seems that TG is dramatically changing the FRA schedule from Dec 1st, moving from 13 to 7 per week and (re)introducing service to DUS instead.

THAI Proposes Dusseldorf Service Resumption from Dec 2014; Frankfurt Service Cuts | Airline Route

This is going to play havoc with award bookings in the busy Xmas period I'd expect given rebooking typically results in misconnects etc. and the likely lack of availability on the TG920/1 (A380) service.

 

[smit0847]

Something for those with TG bookings to be aware of...and I'm guessing LifeMiles bookers will see it here too - it seems that TG is dramatically changing the FRA schedule from Dec 1st, moving from 13 to 7 per week and (re)introducing service to DUS instead.

THAI Proposes Dusseldorf Service Resumption from Dec 2014; Frankfurt Service Cuts | Airline Route

This is going to play havoc with award bookings in the busy Xmas period I'd expect given rebooking typically results in misconnects etc. and the likely lack of availability on the TG920/1 (A380) service.

Interesting commentary from Lucky @ OMAAT on this about what an absolute disaster TG's management (esp route planning) is and how cutting a route to a major tourist and business destination (and major *A hub) and replacing with flights to a secondary airport is a terrible decision:

Thai Airways Starting Bangkok To Dusseldorf Flights - One Mile at a Time

The most interesting part of the article for me was: 'They’ve admitted time and again that they lose money on first class and basically keep it for royalty, which makes you wonder whether they’re even trying to run a for-profit business'.

This makes a lot of sense in relation to all of our F award bookings!

 

[bismarck]

They have removed the OZ time limit... but has it actually ticketed properly? Sounds like USDM needs to actively manage the revaliation of this ticket and push the revalidation through to all airlines concerned.

There shouldn't be any time limits.

I'm just not sure how to independently confirm this myself? Every airline I call will say they've done what they need to do, but then another problem will pop up.

Not to mention that different people at different airlines say different things. It is quite tiresome.

Thai came back straight away and said the tickets were fine from their perspective. Asiana lady said she would keep an eye on the booking.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm just not sure how to independently confirm this myself? Every airline I call will say they've done what they need to do, but then another problem will pop up.

Not to mention that different people at different airlines say different things. It is quite tiresome.

Thai came back straight away and said the tickets were fine from their perspective. Asiana lady said she would keep an eye on the booking.

The best way, as you have done, is to confirm with the respective airlines that they have a ticket number against the booking.

If OZ is telling you there is no ticket number (evidenced by the auto-cancel) you need to get USDM to fix that. Calling USDM and telling them OZ is going to cancel the ticket because they don't have a ticket number might spur them into action... perhaps even that USDM will need to call OZ and sort it out.

If this doesn't resolve itself by the day of travel, you will likely be refused to fly as OZ hasn't received payment for the ticket.

The other possibility is that OZ doesn't know what they're doing.

Either way - better to get it sorted.

 

[burmans]

The most interesting part of the article for me was: 'They’ve admitted time and again that they lose money on first class and basically keep it for royalty, which makes you wonder whether they’re even trying to run a for-profit business'.

This makes a lot of sense in relation to all of our F award bookings!

I dont think we should be complaining about the fact they offer F!! (Yes I know US no longer workable but LifeMiles still are in some cases).

 

[Sheenaec7]

Re: US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards

Four weeks going goggled-eyed with availability searches and phone calls to US Airways and still getting no-where. Whenever I find award availability it doesn't show up on the USDM system. This is my first time redeeming miles and I'm about ready to give up on my 360,000 miles and go by ship instead. I'm looking at flying MEL- anywhere in Italy (or thereabouts) anywhere in the first 2 weeks of June 2015 (or thereabouts) and returning ANYTIME after 20th July 2015. So, I'm pretty flexible. I know the USDM system is only going up to about 23 July so far so that doesn't show too many options.

One good thing in all these phone calls was that one of the support staff did say that it would soon be possible to book one way flights with half the points of a round trip. Yay!! So you could lock in an outbound flight while waiting for a return to come up.

Anyway, my question is. Am I trying too early? Can I ignore it for a while and try again in a month or 3 or 6 and still be safe?

 

[hummel]

Re: US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards

Four weeks going goggled-eyed with availability searches and phone calls to US Airways and still getting no-where. Whenever I find award availability it doesn't show up on the USDM system. This is my first time redeeming miles and I'm about ready to give up on my 360,000 miles and go by ship instead. I'm looking at flying MEL- anywhere in Italy (or thereabouts) anywhere in the first 2 weeks of June 2015 (or thereabouts) and returning ANYTIME after 20th July 2015. So, I'm pretty flexible. I know the USDM system is only going up to about 23 July so far so that doesn't show too many options.

One good thing in all these phone calls was that one of the support staff did say that it would soon be possible to book one way flights with half the points of a round trip. Yay!! So you could lock in an outbound flight while waiting for a return to come up.

Anyway, my question is. Am I trying too early? Can I ignore it for a while and try again in a month or 3 or 6 and still be safe?

What routing are you trying? Have you considering flying out of SYD/BNE/ADL etc? Could maybe do ADL-HKG-MXP?

With regards to one-ways being bookable soon, I'd love that but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[whole-lotta-moxie]

Re: US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards

Four weeks going goggled-eyed with availability searches and phone calls to US Airways and still getting no-where. Whenever I find award availability it doesn't show up on the USDM system. This is my first time redeeming miles and I'm about ready to give up on my 360,000 miles and go by ship instead. I'm looking at flying MEL- anywhere in Italy (or thereabouts) anywhere in the first 2 weeks of June 2015 (or thereabouts) and returning ANYTIME after 20th July 2015. So, I'm pretty flexible. I know the USDM system is only going up to about 23 July so far so that doesn't show too many options.

One good thing in all these phone calls was that one of the support staff did say that it would soon be possible to book one way flights with half the points of a round trip. Yay!! So you could lock in an outbound flight while waiting for a return to come up.

Anyway, my question is. Am I trying too early? Can I ignore it for a while and try again in a month or 3 or 6 and still be safe?

I wanted to fly into mxp June 2015 using cx but I found it almost impossible to find 2 seats. Try flying in and out of cdg using qr. There seems to be quite a few seats in and out of Doha. From Doha you could go via dxb or kl or Hong Kong then on to oz. I also did find a lot of seats using jal into / out of Europe. You could then get a cheap flight into mxp.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards

This seems really unlucky. Especially as it seems that you and your wife have identical tickets and it has only happened to one?

You may have the same routing but separate pnrs particularly if the points came out of two accounts.

I wanted to fly into mxp June 2015 using cx but I found it almost impossible to find 2 seats. Try flying in and out of cdg using qr. There seems to be quite a few seats in and out of Doha.

From Doha you could go via dxb or kl or Hong Kong then on to oz. I also did find a lot of seats using jal into / out of Europe. You could then get a cheap flight into mxp.

If you lob into another European city and getting the train isn't an option you could also search for chesp5 flight ex that city into Linate (LIN) which is used for lot of intra Europe flights.

 

[sioux]

Re: US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards

Four weeks going goggled-eyed with availability searches and phone calls to US Airways and still getting no-where. Whenever I find award availability it doesn't show up on the USDM system. This is my first time redeeming miles and I'm about ready to give up on my 360,000 miles and go by ship instead. I'm looking at flying MEL- anywhere in Italy (or thereabouts) anywhere in the first 2 weeks of June 2015 (or thereabouts) and returning ANYTIME after 20th July 2015. So, I'm pretty flexible. I know the USDM system is only going up to about 23 July so far so that doesn't show too many options.

One good thing in all these phone calls was that one of the support staff did say that it would soon be possible to book one way flights with half the points of a round trip. Yay!! So you could lock in an outbound flight while waiting for a return to come up.

Anyway, my question is. Am I trying too early? Can I ignore it for a while and try again in a month or 3 or 6 and still be safe?

I just booked a trip to FCO in June 2015 ex PER for 3 people. Now that was difficult as couldn't go via DOH no availability when we wanted to leave due to school holidays. We're going PER-HKG-HND-LHR-FCO (mixture of J&F-1Y PER-HKG) - on way back we're doing LHR-DOH-PER (F&J) - killer fees departing LHR but had to leave from there.

When I was looking there was availability out of BNE & SYD but we weren't allowed to go that way as backtracking so if you're on the east coast then you've got more options. I was going to PER-BNE-SIN-DOH-MXP if I was allowed to book. You just need to be creative with your routing.

So it is possible if you're flexible which it sounds as if you are. USDM could see everything that I could see in KVS so don't loose heart & keep trying.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

So I am now at T-4days to lose my TG virginity - what can I expect in TG J - PJs? Amenity kit? More importantly - what champagne do they serve please?