US Dividend Miles - Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[anat0l]

Bit of a left-field segue.

Anyone here speak Spanish? I know when you call up US DM, there's a bit of Spanish at the beginning. Obviously these are instructions for those who wish to speak Spanish for this call.

What exactly are they saying you have to do?

Just curious. I can't speak Spanish; not about to attempt to do so (would be handy in dealing with AV LM, but anyway....)

 

[shellthom]

I don't speak a word of spanish but my assumption was "to hear this in spanish say spanish" or something along those lines
I am sure someone here knows for reals though

Bit of a left-field segue.

Anyone here speak Spanish? I know when you call up US DM, there's a bit of Spanish at the beginning. Obviously these are instructions for those who wish to speak Spanish for this call.

What exactly are they saying you have to do?

Just curious. I can't speak Spanish; not about to attempt to do so (would be handy in dealing with AV LM, but anyway....)

 

[PapaRubbery]

Have you tried Eva Air? (BR) Direct flight from LHR-BKK, or LHR-TPE, LHR-BRU-CDG-BKK, etc.

Eva Air just routes through SIN - good try though!

I can get him to Asia easy enough, it's the PEK/PVG/BKK/SIN/ICN - MEL leg that I'm struggling with.

If 'they' means US then they will let you book 2 of the 4 daily flights on SQ SIN-MEL. True that it looks like there are no seats though in mid Jan. Same for TG.

So are you just booking a oneway?

Sorry, by 'they' I mean no availability showing on the United booking tool.

I did dummy bookings a month or two back and saw plenty of availability - now next to nothing - very strange.

I imagine calling wouldn't be helpful - what I can see is probably what they can generate, yeah?

 

[PapaRubbery]

Woah you guys are fast - cheers bcworld and smit0847!

Looking at leaving 14-16 Jan - returning back 4-6 Feb - outbound is easy - wide open - inbound as you can see, quite full!

Thinking of potentially routing via the US?

 

[bcworld]

Woah you guys are fast - cheers bcworld and smit0847!

Looking at leaving 14-16 Jan - returning back 4-6 Feb - outbound is easy - wide open - inbound as you can see, quite full!

Thinking of potentially routing via the US?

You've got that the wrong way around right?

I suspect there is nothing into MEL on the dates you are looking for...so it's not going to happen.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Potentially? My understanding was:

LHR-MEL - the leg terminating at MEL being the inbound leg?

MEL-LHR - the leg terminating at LHR being the outbound leg?

~~~~~~~~~~

If there's nothing available on those dates - short of changing dates - any chance of availability opening up, like SQ do for KrisFlyer ~month out from booking?

 

[smit0847]

Woah you guys are fast - cheers bcworld and smit0847!

Looking at leaving 14-16 Jan - returning back 4-6 Feb - outbound is easy - wide open - inbound as you can see, quite full!

Thinking of potentially routing via the US?

If he wants to leave then he will have to either do the last leg in Y (such as a daytime SQ A330 leg - not the end of the world), or else wait until the 19th in order to snag the BKK-MEL leg in J. It's his choice. Of course he's welcome to have a stopover in SIN or BKK for a few days to leave LHR when he wants but have J all the way (and break up the trip).

Going back to the UK there is loads of all J availability - no probs at all.

 

[bcworld]

What exactly are they saying you have to do?

For Spanish press 9.

 

[PapaRubbery]

If he wants to leave then he will have to either do the last leg in Y (such as a daytime SQ A330 leg - not the end of the world), or else wait until the 19th in order to snag the BKK-MEL leg in J. It's his choice. Of course he's welcome to have a stopover in SIN or BKK for a few days to leave LHR when he wants but have J all the way (and break up the trip).

Going back to the UK there is loads of all J availability - no probs at all.

Yep, I figured that'd be the case.

Might look at using the USDM miles as a europe-SE Asia redemption, then getting him back from SIN with an SQ/QF redemption.

Fun fun fun!

Cheers all, sorry for any confusion.

Just while I have a captive audience however - with USDM leaving *A on 30-3-14 - if one was to make a booking for say 1-12-14 and return 10-1-15 - I imagine those redemption tickets wouldn't be changeable for the $300 cost through USDM as they no longer have access. So does that make any redemption post 30-4-14 unchangeable?

Thanks again!

 

[Flashback]

Eva Air just routes through SIN - good try though!

Ummmmmmmmmm, take a look at BR067 and BR068.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Ummmmmmmmmm, take a look at BR067 and BR068.

Sorry Flashback, I wasn't being clear.

Eva Air don't do a direct TPE-MEL service. I see they do a direct to SYD service, but this doesn't show up on the United booking tool.

I'm currently investigating something like MUC-PVG with LH, then PVG to SYD with CA. Or perhaps just going LHR-PVG-SYD-MEL to cut out an extra stop, and eat the heathrow departure tax.

 

[smit0847]

Yep, I figured that'd be the case.

Might look at using the USDM miles as a europe-SE Asia redemption, then getting him back from SIN with an SQ/QF redemption.

Fun fun fun!

Cheers all, sorry for any confusion.

Just while I have a captive audience however - with USDM leaving *A on 30-3-14 - if one was to make a booking for say 1-12-14 and return 10-1-15 - I imagine those redemption tickets wouldn't be changeable for the $300 cost through USDM as they no longer have access. So does that make any redemption post 30-4-14 unchangeable?

Thanks again!

It seems like a massive waste of QF/SQ points just to get the final leg in J when you get either get a day flight in Y on SQ (which is fine) or wait a few days later and get the whole thing in J. That's my 2 cents.

Bookings for travel after 30-3-14 cannot be changed under the current conditions after 30-3-14 as US/AA will no longer have access to the *A system. You *may* be able to change them for OW flight on AA conditions but that is a very big may as nothing has been announced. You should be able to cancel a booking after 30-3-14 and get your miles back.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry Flashback, I wasn't being clear.

Eva Air don't do a direct TPE-MEL service. I see they do a direct to SYD service, but this doesn't show up on the United booking tool.

I'm currently investigating something like MUC-PVG with LH, then PVG to SYD with CA. Or perhaps just going LHR-PVG-SYD-MEL to cut out an extra stop, and eat the heathrow departure tax.

I think this is what you meant but you won't be able to do SYD-MEL on an award, it'll either have to be SYD or MEL.

BR does fly LHR-BKK, with connections to TG from there.

 

[burmans]

While I don't think this will happen for a second (I think the USDM rules and chart will be thrown out the window on April 1st) ...

Well I'm certainly not denying thats a possibility and in my opinion at some time they are definitely going to align awards at some stage, just noting that alignment of USDM rules/charts to AA are not what has been announced to date, so am far from convinced that time is now. I'm not quite so sure they will do this April 1st for two reasons

1. Recent events would suggest they will need to give plenty of notice of this, in my opinion if they wanted to do this April 1 they would have probably already announced that
2. They have a lot of work to do to get their systems merged, without truely understanding their IT systems there is every chance that changing the rules and chart in their system is a significant task and the management decision may be to put the effort to the real integration of US and AA rather than a pseudo-integration that making the US chart/rules look like AA would be (and throw away effort it should be noted)

 

[PapaRubbery]

It seems like a massive waste of QF/SQ points just to get the final leg in J when you get either get a day flight in Y on SQ (which is fine) or wait a few days later and get the whole thing in J. That's my 2 cents.

Bookings for travel after 30-3-14 cannot be changed under the current conditions after 30-3-14 as US/AA will no longer have access to the *A system. You *may* be able to change them for OW flight on AA conditions but that is a very big may as nothing has been announced. You should be able to cancel a booking after 30-3-14 and get your miles back.

I agree the final leg may be a waste of points for a redemption - so that's probably off the cards. He could do the day flight - but he seems set on getting as much out of this as possible - even if it means additional stops.

Thanks for the tip for future redemptions! Might just sit on my USDM, wait for them to carry across to OW and book MEL-JFK R/T through AA. At least it'll open up Etihad as well as QF/CX, etc

I think this is what you meant but you won't be able to do SYD-MEL on an award, it'll either have to be SYD or MEL.

BR does fly LHR-BKK, with connections to TG from there.

Sorry, yes it's either SYD or MEL - but its looking like just Syd.

BR does do LHR-TPE with a stop in BKK - sorry, United wasn't showing it when I searched LHR-BKK. I see it now when I go LHR-TPE.

Unfortunately that lone BKK-SYD flight on the 16th is gone - it seems PVG-SYD is the only way to get J into Australia from the 14th-16th of Jan now.

Thanks everyone for all the help, much appreciated!

 

[smit0847]

Might just sit on my USDM, wait for them to carry across to OW and book MEL-JFK R/T through AA. At least it'll open up Etihad as well as QF/CX, etc

Yeah, ummm, I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[bcworld]

Might just sit on my USDM, wait for them to carry across to OW and book MEL-JFK R/T through AA. At least it'll open up Etihad as well as QF/CX, etc

Yup...you need to acquaint yourself with AA's rules in case they apply.

There may be a lot of restrictions about how you can get from MEL-JFK and also what you can with book Etihad on a single award.

Don't expect US's flexibility.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Yeah, ummm, I wouldn't bet on it.

Booking a *A trip which is potentially unchangeable in March 2014, for Dec 2014 may be worse. If I can't fly and I can't get the miles back, I don't want to loose them! My precious!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Booking a *A trip which is potentially unchangeable in March 2014, for Dec 2014 may be worse. If I can't fly and I can't get the miles back, I don't want to loose them! My precious!

of course you get your miles back. there is no question about that.

 

[bcworld]

of course you get your miles back. there is no question about that.

I wonder what happens if you've flown the outbound...then get stymied by a schedule change for the inbound? Will they find a way...or refund half miles??