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

[Alanslegal]

pretty straightforward - AMS-ZRH on LX. ZRH-HKG on LX. HKG-BKK-SYD-BKK on TG F. BKK-MUC i think is operated by both TG and LH? I would take LH as you would already have had the full TG ground service on your previous flights. MUC-AMS on LH. As an arriving F passenger you will get a limo to the plane if it is at a remote gate (key here is to select a small aircraft if there is one operating - like an Avro or RJ... IF they fly to AMS - I know they do on the MUC-ZRH sector)

thanks for that, yeah I was looking at the LX flights ams-zrh-hkg, TG hkg-bkk-syd-bkk and *hopefully* bkk-xx_ with LH. Only issue now is that LH award seems limited given they are halving F class from 16 -> 8 seats.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

While it was easier to secure seats on the 747 due to numbers, I have to say that there has never been much problem getting seats on the A340 series either - and they only have 8 seats as standard.

 

[spudwa]

I'm struggling with the concept of BAD seats in first class ;-) but its a bit late to change.

I'll let you know

Well we've just finished our first First class flight and it was very impressive. But I've just had a terrible thought. As Thai don't fly first to Perth we will do the last leg business. Does that mean that even though we've just flown first from Zurich to Bangkok in First well have to use the business lounge???

 

[Flashback]

Well we've just finished our first First class flight and it was very impressive. But I've just had a terrible thought. As Thai don't fly first to Perth we will do the last leg business. Does that mean that even though we've just flown first from Zurich to Bangkok in First well have to use the business lounge???

More than likely as access depends on your next onward flight.

 

[anat0l]

Note that F availability on LH is very limited now due to reduction of cabin seats from 16 to 8. On 744s you should be able to see a peppering of 1 or 2, except on routes where they will be eaten up by the 388s. On 388s I think you might be out of luck, unless you try booking within a week (and even then).

From what I hear, LH are restricting 388 F redemptions to LH SEN and HON only (although they would pay regular F rates, not special types).

Same kind of deal for new SQ F and J (close to dead right impossible to get availability cross-alliance unless sometimes within a week of departure).

Some people say they try and encourage the US agents to "manual sell" seats that might be tough nuts, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, and it relies on you having a cooperative agent.



As for lounge access, frequently the rule across *A is that you are only entitled access based on the class of the onward flight. (This of course assumes you have no status with the carrier who operates the lounge, otherwise there are exceptions.)

 

[benhadi]

Well we've just finished our first First class flight and it was very impressive. But I've just had a terrible thought. As Thai don't fly first to Perth we will do the last leg business. Does that mean that even though we've just flown first from Zurich to Bangkok in First well have to use the business lounge???

You will be able to use the F lounge in BKK if you have arrived on a TG F flight.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well we've just finished our first First class flight and it was very impressive. But I've just had a terrible thought. As Thai don't fly first to Perth we will do the last leg business. Does that mean that even though we've just flown first from Zurich to Bangkok in First well have to use the business lounge???

You will be met by the golf cart on arrival (provided you are on TG!!) and then transferred to the First class lounge.

You may or may not get a buggy ride back to the Perth flight as that's in business. BUT, as there is no F cabin you might just get lucky. They'll advise you.

 

[Alanslegal]

While it was easier to secure seats on the 747 due to numbers, I have to say that there has never been much problem getting seats on the A340 series either - and they only have 8 seats as standard.

I am finding it harder to find LH F award on 747's given that they are now down to 8 F seats. It appears that LH are blocking all window seats so that each pax in F has two seats (as these planes are undergoing a cabin upgrade where the window seat will be converted to a permanent bed, and one sits in the aisle).

For eg. a friend's booking was changed from allocated seats A,B to now B & D where A and E is now blocked.

Note that F availability on LH is very limited now due to reduction of cabin seats from 16 to 8. On 744s you should be able to see a peppering of 1 or 2, except on routes where they will be eaten up by the 388s. On 388s I think you might be out of luck, unless you try booking within a week (and even then).

This would confirm my thoughts and example, re: 8 seats on the 747s.


Just another related question:

With searching for LH F awards, ANA now shows very very little F, if any at all. But when I play with AwardNexus and use CO's search, it reveals much more LH F seats. Does anyone have any experience on which is generally more accurate?

 

[anat0l]

With searching for LH F awards, ANA now shows very very little F, if any at all. But when I play with AwardNexus and use CO's search, it reveals much more LH F seats. Does anyone have any experience on which is generally more accurate?

If you examine loads using your favourite seatcounter.com substitute (paid or free), you should be able to ascertain whether there are any seats in F at all (at a good guess).

Bottom line is there will almost always be seats, and ANA will be "coloured" because it can only see just as well as it can as if you were an ANA customer trying to redeem, where such customers also come up against similar cross-alliance difficulties.

The difference is whether you can actually get at those seats if you know they are there. The answer in almost every case will probably be no. So the accuracy of one or the other is almost irrelevant. Perhaps adopting the one showing the least inventory is more conservative, but in the end it may not matter: if you can't book it, knowing it's there is no help to you at all.

 

[peachy3333]

Alanslegal: I've got a few suggestions.

Firstly, ANA is more calibrated with US' inventory. I'd go with ANA. Sometimes you'll get availability that is not matched with ANA though.

Secondly, for AMS-SYD, I would do something like this (or try to get away with it): AMS-MUC-NRT-BKK-SYD, using LH F on the muc-nrt flight and 773 on the NRT-BKK flight. Transferring from LH C to LH F you'll get a car pick up and a car drop off, which is lovely. If you are only travelling by yourself, I would try to get the change to AMS-MUC-NRT-BKK-SYD, with MUC-NRT on NH F. They release seats sporadically 2 weeks prior and you can grab some.
Going back, I would probably do SYD-BKK-HKG-ZRH-AMS, or similar. Going via HKG with LX F means you get to go to the CX first lounges, and then in ZRH you'll get to taste the LX F lounge.

Personally, I'd try to do something like AMS-FRA-IAD-NRT-BKK-SYD, and just agent roulette =). Or AMS-FRA-SFO-NRT-BKK-SYD, with the A380 on LH F. But I'm crazy.

You've got the TG F lounge, the LH F lounge, the LX F lounge. Those are the main things I would look for. I'd also look to get on the TG 773, the LX 333, and any NH F plane =)

Thirdly, yes LH F inventory in 747's are becoming scarce, mainly because they are the newer cabins. You really have to look quite far in advance to find some.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

 

[spudwa]

You will be met by the golf cart on arrival (provided you are on TG!!) and then transferred to the First class lounge.

You may or may not get a buggy ride back to the Perth flight as that's in business. BUT, as there is no F cabin you might just get lucky. They'll advise you.

Cool we are flying TG

 

[Alanslegal]

Bottom line is there will almost always be seats, and ANA will be "coloured" because it can only see just as well as it can as if you were an ANA customer trying to redeem, where such customers also come up against similar cross-alliance difficulties.

The difference is whether you can actually get at those seats if you know they are there.

Yep that's part of the game we play and *hope* we can book some nice cabins/flights etc.

I have booked simple ones for family ones, see my post on this thread a few months back, but that was like late last year and between then and now, things have changed - namely, I can't see many LH awards anymore when once I could see plenty. I refer to LH awards as anything non-TATL (given the issues with LH TATL).

Hope that gives you some ideas.

I like your style peachy thanks

 

[slodki]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of booking my first ever award tickets.

I already have them on hold for a few days so I'm buying points.

I have 3 Pax, so I setup 3 new accounts and a 4th account with the trial silver preferred member. The reason for the 4th account was because I was under the impression that if silver members gift miles the recipient will receive an additional 25% bonus.

I've tried this, but I have not received any bonus. I called up US airways and they advise me there is no such thing and that the only thing similar is that sharing miles results in a 20% bonus. I can't find any information for this online.

It may seem the trial membership was a waste, as I could've just as easily opened the 4th account and purchased miles with the 75% bonus, and spent a small sum sharing them.

Any ideas?

 

[mos]

Hey guys,

I'm in the process of booking my first ever award tickets.

I already have them on hold for a few days so I'm buying points.

I have 3 Pax, so I setup 3 new accounts and a 4th account with the trial silver preferred member. The reason for the 4th account was because I was under the impression that if silver members gift miles the recipient will receive an additional 25% bonus.

I've tried this, but I have not received any bonus. I called up US airways and they advise me there is no such thing and that the only thing similar is that sharing miles results in a 20% bonus. I can't find any information for this online.

It may seem the trial membership was a waste, as I could've just as easily opened the 4th account and purchased miles with the 75% bonus, and spent a small sum sharing them.

Any ideas?

I think the 25% bonus for Silver Preferred members gifting miles was a temporary promotion that expired in January or February - I was looking to do the same recently, but couldn't find anything about it on the current US airways website. I did a search on FT and found an old post with a link to the promo, which had the expiry date in it (sorry, don't still have that link).

Bit of a pain if you won't get any benefit from the Silver membership, but even so it will probably be the cheapest J/F flights you've ever booked (I know it was for me)

Cheers,
Mike

 

[slodki]

Hmm..that's no good. I wonder if I could buy miles with the 75% bonus and then use this account to partially pay the tickets. Or will this plan not work? Do I have to keep all points in the accounts of travellers? No way to make partial payments from accounts?

But you're right...these will be the first and cheapest J tickets!

 

[mos]

Hmm..that's no good. I wonder if I could buy miles with the 75% bonus and then use this account to partially pay the tickets. Or will this plan not work? Do I have to keep all points in the accounts of travellers? No way to make partial payments from accounts?

But you're right...these will be the first and cheapest J tickets!

Unfortunately you can't make partial payments - the full amount for a passenger has to come from one account. It doesn't have to be their account though (you can redeem an Award flight for someone else), and last time I booked with US I got them to make a booking for 2 passengers to hold the seats and then split on to 2 separate PNRs when it came to issuing the tickets (I had the points for each passenger in separate accounts). Made the booking process a bit easier because they could search for 2 seats on each flight at the same time, although was on hold for a while when it came to splitting the booking into 2 PNRs.

 

[sr81]

Try and avoid getting them to spilt PNR's. This creates all sorts of problems and some agents do this by cancelling one booking then rebuilding it. This can mean that the seat you had may not be released back.

Just tell the agent you need two bookings from the start and it also saves a lot of pain further down.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hmm..that's no good. I wonder if I could buy miles with the 75% bonus and then use this account to partially pay the tickets. Or will this plan not work? Do I have to keep all points in the accounts of travellers? No way to make partial payments from accounts?

But you're right...these will be the first and cheapest J tickets!

The total points for a single ticket need to come from a single account.

You can of course share miles, there is a cost to that, but cheaper than buying outright. Sharing needs to be done to top up the account before payment for the ticket.

Many non US residents are just buying the extra miles full price. With the increasing ozzie dollar the price actually works out almost the same as it did with the 100 per cent bonus early last year!!

(edited to apologise for repeating information already posted while I was writing my reply!)

Agree with sr81 - easier to make two separate bookings from the start. but I tried this once and the agent STILL made it on one PNR which then had to be split when it came time to pay! Couldn't have been more explicit that i had two passengers, two separate accounts. thankfully it worked out ok.

 

[mos]

Fair points MLE and sr81 - only ever booked twice through US airways, and found things easier when the PNRs were split at the end but perhaps that was more to do with the agent than the actual process.

 

[slodki]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'll have to double check if it's worth buying with the 75% bonus and then sharing miles at the additional cost verses just buying extra points outright.

I hope I don't have any problems, as for a booking I made for 2 passengers, I only received the one booking code (but I will be paying from two seperate accounts, not one).

Hopefully everything should be OK. Now to rip out the CC and start spending on points! (and earning some points and buying points to boot )