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

[Masonic Phantom]

Just the 1800 number rang at about 10:30pm and was on until nearly 1am

Sorry to ask....but which 1800 number was that??

 

[jcb12]

I have tried using this multiple times but it forever just says 'search in progress' without ever showing any results?

I had a few instances of it not doing anything, but most of the time it's worked fine. Takes a little while to start bringing back results though.

 

[thehound]

Has anyone managed to book award flights with South African airways? Was looking into PER-JNB, and I note SAA is a star alliance partner, but all their flights from Perth are code-shared with Qantas. Anyone with experience on this?

 

[smit0847]

Has anyone managed to book award flights with South African airways? Was looking into PER-JNB, and I note SAA is a star alliance partner, but all their flights from Perth are code-shared with Qantas. Anyone with experience on this?

Never heard of anyone getting redemptions on SAA - thats not to say they're not available. SAA isn't known as being a particularly premium airline.

If they're not available on SAA you might consider if TG or Egypt Air fly to JNB that might be an option (noting is not very direct)

 

[shane2603]

I have flown SAA a couple of times and they are way better than qantas on the route JNB-PER. In saying that I also have struggled to find inventory in J

 

[kpc]

Has anyone managed to book award flights with South African airways? Was looking into PER-JNB, and I note SAA is a star alliance partner, but all their flights from Perth are code-shared with Qantas. Anyone with experience on this?

I have booked SA in J for 2 in Oct for Cpt-Jnb-Vfa return. I saw lots of availability on the ANA tool.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry to ask....but which 1800 number was that??

its the standard 800 number for US airways with the 1 added in front for international dial to the USA.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi folks,

After a little routing assistance. My wife had a trip booked July 21 in J YUL-ORD-ICN-SYD and was informed that the ORD-ICN flight has been cancelled so they moved her to a flight the next day. She called up to discuss, and has now been told that the rebooked flight does not meet the MCT time and is invalid and they can't seem to find anything else.

Any suggestions on routing? Also, will they make an exception to the number of segments that are allowed for exceptional circumstances?

Thanks...

yes - they will allow more than the standard 4 segments if there is a compelling need - such as not being able to complete your itinerary in 4 (for example if you have to re-route, or simply because there are no driect-ish flights)

 

[Masonic Phantom]

its the standard 800 number for US airways with the 1 added in front for international dial to the USA.

Thanks for that MEL_ Traveller, I thought it may be another number.

Cheers Gary.

 

[arraitch]

Has anyone managed to book award flights with South African airways? Was looking into PER-JNB, and I note SAA is a star alliance partner, but all their flights from Perth are code-shared with Qantas. Anyone with experience on this?

Booked? No, but I've certainly seen inventory when searching on UA.

 

[Myrna]

A question on fees and taxes for award flights with US.

I understand that after checking for award flight availability, people would phone US Airways reservation toll-free number in the US to make the booking. I think the fee for this would be US$30. Is this correct?

What about the taxes? Is there anyway we can find out about these taxes in advance? Or, we will only be told when the booking is made?

Thanks.

 

[anat0l]

A question on fees and taxes for award flights with US.

I understand that after checking for award flight availability, people would phone US Airways reservation toll-free number in the US to make the booking. I think the fee for this would be US$30. Is this correct?

What about the taxes? Is there anyway we can find out about these taxes in advance? Or, we will only be told when the booking is made?

Thanks.

I think US$30 sounds about right. I know it's the higher booking fee (I think domestic or US Airways only itineraries attract a smaller fee), but too lazy to find that out right now

The real taxes will only be found when the booking is made, but you can get a general idea by making a dummy booking / using ITA and investigating the tax component, then take a generous pinch off any fuel surcharges (YQ) component.

In general, per passenger you won't be paying much taxes compared to most other airlines' redemptions. To give you an idea, [post=557118]check out this post of my successful US DM redemption in February (recently flown)[/post]. Note that the APD on LCY-FRA in this case applied to the shortest band due to the way the outbound ended up being ticketed, which again saved a decent scratch.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

A question on fees and taxes for award flights with US.

I understand that after checking for award flight availability, people would phone US Airways reservation toll-free number in the US to make the booking. I think the fee for this would be US$30. Is this correct?

What about the taxes? Is there anyway we can find out about these taxes in advance? Or, we will only be told when the booking is made?

Thanks.

If you are booking an international itinerary, which cannot be booked on line, the fee is $50. Taxes are generally pretty low as long as you are avoiding high tax areas such as London where premium cabin supplements apply. You'd generally be looking at the $100-200 mark.

(If you are booking within three weeks of travel an express fee of $75 applies in addition. If you book an itinerary which could other wise be booked on-line (US airways flights only) then an additional call centre handling fee would apply, but for those of us in AU it is unlikely you'd be booking something which could be done on-line)

 

[Myrna]

I think US$30 sounds about right. I know it's the higher booking fee (I think domestic or US Airways only itineraries attract a smaller fee), but too lazy to find that out right now

The real taxes will only be found when the booking is made, but you can get a general idea by making a dummy booking / using ITA and investigating the tax component, then take a generous pinch off any fuel surcharges (YQ) component.

In general, per passenger you won't be paying much taxes compared to most other airlines' redemptions. To give you an idea, [post=557118]check out this post of my successful US DM redemption in February (recently flown)[/post]. Note that the APD on LCY-FRA in this case applied to the shortest band due to the way the outbound ended up being ticketed, which again saved a decent scratch.

Thanks, anat0l, for your reply - much appreciated. I have looked at your post and others in the other thread (successful redemption) which were very helpful.

 

[Myrna]

If you are booking an international itinerary, which cannot be booked on line, the fee is $50. Taxes are generally pretty low as long as you are avoiding high tax areas such as London where premium cabin supplements apply. You'd generally be looking at the $100-200 mark.

(If you are booking within three weeks of travel an express fee of $75 applies in addition. If you book an itinerary which could other wise be booked on-line (US airways flights only) then an additional call centre handling fee would apply, but for those of us in AU it is unlikely you'd be booking something which could be done on-line)

Thanks, MEL_Traveller, for your extended reply. Unfortunately, we are in London, so will have to pay the higher taxes! Hubby said maybe we should take Eurostar to Paris and start our trip from there, to save on the taxes. However, the costs of the Eurostar may negate the higher taxes.

We are thinking of a trip back to Oz to visit families either later this year or next year. So, will start planning now.

 

[kamchatsky]

All,

I have been thinking about whether to update the first post of this thread with all the info required (like FAQ or sticky) so that people don't ask the same questions again and again. However, the contrary is that in order for people to take advantage of this, they should do their own research. Let me know what you all think over the next 7 days. Opinion from everyone are welcome.

Cheers,

Edison

 

[travelislife]

All,

I have been thinking about whether to update the first post of this thread with all the info required (like FAQ or sticky) so that people don't ask the same questions again and again. However, the contrary is that in order for people to take advantage of this, they should do their own research. Let me know what you all think over the next 7 days. Opinion from everyone are welcome.

Cheers,

Edison

Yep, you could pretty much copy and paste a lot of the stuff from flyertalk. But just the basics like the star alliance award chart, phone number to call using skype, availability search tools, basic routing rules, basic costs (100,000 miles = 1881 USD when on 50% bonus), miles expiration rule, etc.

 

[thehound]

All,

I have been thinking about whether to update the first post of this thread with all the info required (like FAQ or sticky) so that people don't ask the same questions again and again. However, the contrary is that in order for people to take advantage of this, they should do their own research. Let me know what you all think over the next 7 days. Opinion from everyone are welcome.

Cheers,

Edison

I think that's a great idea and would be very welcome. I, for one, am in the category of having amassed points without yet making a booking, and I feel like when it comes the time to book I would have to start again from the top. I'm sure others reading this thread are in the same boat. Perhaps the "Ultimate Guide to US Airways Dividend Miles"?!

 

[anat0l]

Thanks, MEL_Traveller, for your extended reply. Unfortunately, we are in London, so will have to pay the higher taxes! Hubby said maybe we should take Eurostar to Paris and start our trip from there, to save on the taxes. However, the costs of the Eurostar may negate the higher taxes.

We are thinking of a trip back to Oz to visit families either later this year or next year. So, will start planning now.

To give you a rough idea (and this is skimming-research for me), Eurostar gives a price of GBP 69 for a return ticket to Paris. We can assume that the price of a return ticket from London Paddington to Heathrow via the HEX is about the same as Paris Gare du Nord to CDG via the RER.

The lowest band of APD (0 - 2000 miles, post-April 2012) in premium class travel is GBP 26. The next band is higher than a return on the Eurostar, priced at GBP 130 (2001 - 4000 miles); maximum APD payable is for journeys 6001 miles and over, at GBP 184.

To get the lowest band of APD, you'd have to route carefully such that the first sector ex-LON ended up on a separate "journey". If the routing you have tickets as a journey with multiple connections, even if your first sector is a short one, you will pay APD at the rate based on the mileage of the final destination in that journey.

The easiest way to cut a journey is a stopover, but that's not necessarily desirable. A long transit under 24 hours may also cause a break in the journey without consuming your stopover (like I did in my redemption, LCY-FRA followed by FRA-ZRH-...)


Remember that APD is payable only for departing the UK.


Avoiding the APD headache can be done by repositioning in Paris, however I've no idea on the top of my head what are the relative taxes between France and UK (the latter sans APD). Plus, there's also the time to get to Paris and match that with your departing flight (is it a good timing?), possibility that you may have to overnight, etc. ... you might just decide in the end, "stuff it, just pay whatever HMRC wants and let's depart from London".


Hope that helps a bit.

 

[anat0l]

All,

I have been thinking about whether to update the first post of this thread with all the info required (like FAQ or sticky) so that people don't ask the same questions again and again. However, the contrary is that in order for people to take advantage of this, they should do their own research. Let me know what you all think over the next 7 days. Opinion from everyone are welcome.

I like the idea, but what kinds of things would we put in the FAQ that aren't answered in the Flyertalk thread?

I know some questions do keep coming up, but I haven't kept even a mental track of what those questions are (apart from the basics which can be found in the Flyertalk thread)...