US Dividend Miles - Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[pmdg7444]

Yeah, people have taken advantage of this fact for a bit (I have done it myself; also is good for splitting a long journey).

When US DM was much more loose before (LH F anyone?) some were really taking the mickey installing < 24 hour transits everywhere and maxing out the 10 sectors.

Hi guys. New to this. Tried to search for the exact golden answer, but no luck yet.


Is it a max of 10 sectors (5 each way) on any trip thats permitted, regardless of whether its AU- South Pacific, US to Asia, etc?

 

[anat0l]

Hi guys. New to this. Tried to search for the exact golden answer, but no luck yet.


Is it a max of 10 sectors (5 each way) on any trip thats permitted, regardless of whether its AU- South Pacific, US to Asia, etc?

The max is 10 (5 each way), but now that US DM has tightened up a bit, you'll likely end up with 4 per journey at best. It doesn't matter from where to where; just has to fall in the rules (e.g. can you feasibly see your route using the *A flight search tool, do you exceed MPM+25%...)

For example, I got a trip for my folks last year (flown this year) of South Pacific - USA with stop in Europe with 9 sectors. The outbound had 5: BNE-SIN-BKK-LHR (stopover)-FRA-EWR. (That actually also breaks the stopover at hub "rule", but it worked).

Sometimes it's all about the agent you get, but it's useful to know on a rough scale what is risky or not.

 

[ms1]

We want to fly from Syd-Jnb and then onto Lhr in April next year.

What's the best way to go about this? I don't know if I could get direct flights from Syd-Jnb. Might have to make it Per-Jnb? Then Jnb-Lhr. All on SAA.

Lhr-Syd maybe on SQ.

I'd appreciate if anyone has made a booking involving JNB and LHR could provide their routings.
Cheers.

 

[bcworld]

We want to fly from Syd-Jnb and then onto Lhr in April next year.

What's the best way to go about this? I don't know if I could get direct flights from Syd-Jnb. Might have to make it Per-Jnb? Then Jnb-Lhr. All on SAA.

Lhr-Syd maybe on SQ.

I'd appreciate if anyone has made a booking involving JNB and LHR could provide their routings.
Cheers.

US will not offer you a J class SQ flight between LHR and SIN. LHR-BKK-SYD no problem, LHR-ICN-SYD no problem.

 

[robcuk]

We want to fly from Syd-Jnb and then onto Lhr in April next year.

What's the best way to go about this? I don't know if I could get direct flights from Syd-Jnb. Might have to make it Per-Jnb? Then Jnb-Lhr. All on SAA.

Lhr-Syd maybe on SQ.

I'd appreciate if anyone has made a booking involving JNB and LHR could provide their routings.
Cheers.

Surely this his wouldn't be allowed with just one booking as you can't really call JNB a stopover to LHR? You would need to find an accommodating agent to get to LHR via JNB.

Can you route via Cairo and then just buy another return flight from there?

 

[anat0l]

Surely this his wouldn't be allowed with just one booking as you can't really call JNB a stopover to LHR? You would need to find an accommodating agent to get to LHR via JNB.

Can you route via Cairo and then just buy another return flight from there?

I'd give it a crack. It sounds half legit, especially if from PER, rather than my crazy suggestion if you're on the eastern seaboard, which would be something like SYD-AKL-PER-JNB... etc.

The *A tool doesn't raise it, so not that you can expect it, but then sillier things have been tried.

 

[travelislife]

You could try SYD-SIN-JNB or SYD-BKK-JNB then JNB-LHR then LHR-BKK-SYD. Will need to get lucky though with an agent as JNB is definitely not on the direct route!

 

[thehound]

We flew 2 x J PER-JNB in March this year (PER-JNB-CPT(dest)-PLZ(stop)-JNB-PER), but when I last looked availability across the Indian was non-existent (even for one ticket). If you can find availability though then I reckon PER-JNB-LHR is a very reasonable way to get to London, and certainly it's no longer than many other routings than have been successfully booked previously. Rather than stopover in JNB though, go the extra couple of hours to CPT - it's a much nicer city to visit

 

[robcuk]

Hi guys,

Looking for one business seat from a hub in Europe to New York around July time but there is nothing direct available - do you think it's due to being peak holiday season or optimistically they have released all there award seats yet?

All I'm seeing is on AC via one of the Eastern cities I.e Ottawa, Toronto or Montreal.

 

[cove]

AA and US Air merger has just been approved. They have to give up some landing slots to Low Cost Carriers.

 

[deejo77]

Thanks cove....off to buy that last lot of 100% bonus

 

[serfty]

Jan 7 will be the day (should the judge rubber stamp the settlement agreement).

 

[hummel]

I wonder if there will be a devaluation before the merger... I'd be a little surprised if there was.

 

[anat0l]

AA and US Air merger has just been approved. They have to give up some landing slots to Low Cost Carriers.

Whoa that was fast.

Looks like *A will be losing one of its key consolidators a lot faster than thought.

I wonder if there will be a devaluation before the merger... I'd be a little surprised if there was.

If they did, that's not a whole lot of advance notice. Then again, DL just issued enhancements with immediate effect.

Bets will be accepted for when enhancements will be instituted after the merger...

 

[hummel]

Whoa that was fast.

Looks like *A will be losing one of its key consolidators a lot faster than thought.



If they did, that's not a whole lot of advance notice. Then again, DL just issued enhancements with immediate effect.

Bets will be accepted for when enhancements will be instituted after the merger...

Agree on both points.

I don't think I'll be buying any more USSM miles now and just might book some trips to GUM instead!!

 

[serfty]

7th January is being touted as a Critical date.

 

[Masonic Phantom]

Here we go AMR Corporation and US Airways Announce Settlement with U.S. Department of Justice and State AGs | New American Arriving

 

[smit0847]

Agree on both points.

I don't think I'll be buying any more USSM miles now and just might book some trips to GUM instead!!

I've got a J GUM trip booked for Jan - I was hoping if all goes well to do an F GUM trip with hopefully a HKG stopover - I wonder if I should be buying miles now for it and booking it next month?

 

[hummel]

I've got a J GUM trip booked for Jan - I was hoping if all goes well to do an F GUM trip with hopefully a HKG stopover - I wonder if I should be buying miles now for it and booking it next month?

I have one for Easter next year but no travel planned after that and approx 150k miles sitting in the account.

 

[burmans]

AA and US Air merger has just been approved. They have to give up some landing slots to Low Cost Carriers.

Yes, saw that on the blogs this morning, what I'm really interested to see now is some sort of revised timeline from AA/US on when things will happen.