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

[Oneworldplus2]

What about OZ F? Is there availability flying to the USA with them, in F?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

5) Is SQ F (F on 777-300 / 777-300ER - not suites) available for redemption via US Airways?

6) Are there any *A carriers other than TG, SQ and UA which offer an F cabin to/from Australia?

7) I know most people despise UA's trans-Pacific service, but does this opinion extend to their F cabin - i.e. is their trans-Pacific F product as bad as their Y and J?

8) Is there a particular reason most people heading to the USA via Dividend Miles are going via Oz-Asia-Europe-USA, rather than via Oz-Asia-USA? Is it just because of availability of seats? Or something else?

9) Given we're starting from a base of 0 miles each, my partner and I will each need to acquire 110k / 140k. Obviously we'll get 100k each via buying 50k miles and receiving the 100% bonus. For the remaining 10k/40k, it looks like there's a 100% bonus for gifting miles at the moment too - does anyone know if this can be combined with the buy miles promo, so we can just gift each other 5k / 20k to make up the extra required?

Thanks all, apologies for the big list of questions and sincerely appreciate any responses.

The rules for the promo specifically state you can only get a maximum of 50K bonus miles from this current promotion. So if you buy 50K miles and get the bonus you can't get anymore. You can just wait a few days for the next promo however and buy more miles in that round (or, if you find seats now, just pay the full price and secure the seats).

UA Y is not considered to be any good and probably rightly so if you score an aircraft without PTVs. But any regular economy traveller flying in UA C will think it's great. My friend from was upgraded to UA business class and thought it was fantastic. The main thing about UA C is that it is fully lie flat. For that reason alone it outranks TG and LH business class (except for the limited 77W services TG operates with full flats).

Just about everyone agrees UA F hard product is one of the better ones. The soft product is anyone's chance, much the same as a bad QF F crew can lead to a disappointing flight.

SQ F on 773 refurbs is considered in the same category as suite class as far as I can determine. I have seen no award availability on 773 services out of MEL since the refurbs came in. I have been on several flights where the cabin has gone out empty, or with one or two pax, but award seats are non-existent. For all practical purposes, the only F option out of AU is TG from SYD.

As for travel to the USA via asia - it's generally because UA availability is very hard to come by and is snapped up as soon as it is released. Others do want to stop in Asia, and then there are others again that as using these miles for a once in a lifetime premium trip and want to maximise the number of glasses of champagne or lounge visits

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What about OZ F? Is there availability flying to the USA with them, in F?

OZ F and NH F is possible, but hard to come by. OZ also has award black-out dates.

 

[drron]

Just a point re getting the required miles.I am about to buy my first lot of Dividend miles but the site is down right now.My plan is to use my SPG points to supplement the required miles.SPG transfers to US at 1:1 and 5000 bonus if you transfer 20000 points.You can transfer to SPG from either DC or Amex.I am going to transfer my Amex to SQ as 1:1 but my DC points to US via SPG-transfers to SPG and SQ are both 2:1 so better to transfer via SPG.

 

[wafliron]

9. I'm not sure this is answered anywhere...there is a thread on Flyertalk about the current promo...some recent promos have specifically ruled out benefitting from both buy & gift.

The rules for the promo specifically state you can only get a maximum of 50K bonus miles from this current promotion. So if you buy 50K miles and get the bonus you can't get anymore. You can just wait a few days for the next promo however and buy more miles in that round (or, if you find seats now, just pay the full price and secure the seats).

Firstly, bcworld and MEL_Traveller, thank-you very much for answering my questions - appreciated.

Regarding the quoted text above, MEL_Traveller, are you able to point me to the T&Cs which state the overall maximum bonus is 50k miles? Not trying to be argumentative, just want to clarify as the only T&Cs I can find are the brief ones at the bottom of the "buy miles" and "gift miles" forms (emphasis mine):

Offer available for purchases made between June 1 and 30, 2012, 11:59 MT. All purchases are non-refundable. Bonus miles will be awarded upon completion of the transaction. The maximum number of Buy Bonus miles that can be received by one member for this offer is 50,000 bonus miles. All miles purchased beyond this limit will not be eligible for a bonus. Offer is subject to change. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer. Share transactions are not eligible for bonus. Only purchases made online are eligible for the bonus. Miles are sold for $0.035 per mile plus a tax recovery charge of 7.5%. GST/HST will be charged to Canadian residents. Miles purchased through Buy, Share or Gift Miles do not count towards Dividend Miles Preferred status. All other Dividend Miles Terms and Conditions apply. Miles may be used based on award availability at the time of booking. Please note that Dividend Miles accounts less than 12 days old are not permitted to Buy, Share or Gift Miles. All purchases are non-refundable.

Offer available for Gift Miles purchases made between June 1 and 30, 2012, 11:59 MT. All purchases are non-refundable. Bonus miles will be awarded to the recipient of the miles upon completion of the transaction. The maximum number of Gift Bonus miles that can be received by one member for this offer is 50,000 bonus miles. All miles purchased beyond this limit will not be eligible for a bonus. Offer is subject to change. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer. Share transactions are not eligible for bonus. Only purchases made online are eligible for the bonus. Miles are sold for $0.035 per mile plus a tax recovery charge of 7.5%. GST/HST will be charged to Canadian residents. Miles purchased through Buy, Share or Gift Miles do not count towards Dividend Miles Preferred status. All other Dividend Miles Terms and Conditions apply. Miles may be used based on award availability at the time of booking. Please note that Dividend Miles accounts less than 12 days old are not permitted to Buy, Share or Gift Miles. All purchases are non-refundable.

My reading is that they quite specifically differentiate "Buy Bonus" and "Gift Bonus" miles (as per the emphasised sentences) when it comes to applying caps on the number of bonus miles each member is eligible for, and hence the cap is 50,000 of each type.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Firstly, bcworld and MEL_Traveller, thank-you very much for answering my questions - appreciated.

Regarding the quoted text above, MEL_Traveller, are you able to point me to the T&Cs which state the overall maximum bonus is 50k miles? Not trying to be argumentative, just want to clarify as the only T&Cs I can find are the brief ones at the bottom of the "buy miles" and "gift miles" forms (emphasis mine):





My reading is that they quite specifically differentiate "Buy Bonus" and "Gift Bonus" miles (as per the emphasised sentences) when it comes to applying caps on the number of bonus miles each member is eligible for, and hence the cap is 50,000 of each type.

hmmm - interesting point. It used to be the way that you could buy and gift miles and get the bonus for each. The last few promos (although granted they have just been for buy miles I think??) have stated the 50K max per promo.

However - there seems to be a catch-all which is that the offer cannot be combined with any other offer. The consensus on FT seems to be only one set of 50K.

If you tried it and missed the second 50K I'm not sure how it would work out. US would likely refer you to points.com (almost impossible to reach - they only have a live chat service which runs from 10am to 4pm ET - which is like midnight AU time and takes a while to get through). Even if they didn't, would you get a refund of your $ spent which didn't accrue the extra bonus? Unlikely. So it would be a case maybe of trying the gift with a small amount and seeing if it works...

 

[wafliron]

If you were prepared to buy the miles at full cost anyway then well worth trying to see if you can get double now!

I'd prefer not to pay full cost, but will if I have to.

That actually leads to one more question: the trip in question isn't until May next year, so still a long way off. No doubt more DM bonuses will pop up before then so I definitely can wait and buy more miles with a bonus if I don't also get the bonus miles for gifting under the current promo. That being said, I'd been working under the assumption that the earlier I book the better the trip will be (better routing, less need to be flexible on dates, greater chance of scoring more sectors in F and better product, etc), but perhaps this is wrong - anyone care to speculate how much "better" the trip would be booked 11 months out instead of, say, 9 months out (if I wait for another bonus promo)?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'd prefer not to pay full cost, but will if I have to.

That actually leads to one more question: the trip in question isn't until May next year, so still a long way off. No doubt more DM bonuses will pop up before then so I definitely can wait and buy more miles with a bonus if I don't also get the bonus miles for gifting under the current promo. That being said, I'd been working under the assumption that the earlier I book the better the trip will be (better routing, less need to be flexible on dates, greater chance of scoring more sectors in F and better product, etc), but perhaps this is wrong - anyone care to speculate how much "better" the trip would be booked 11 months out instead of, say, 9 months out (if I wait for another bonus promo)?

I'd be playing around now to look for availability. I'm having a really hard time now trying to find two F seats ex BKK on TG to europe at ANY time in OCT or NOV. I only want to be away for ~14 days and trying to find availability that will let me do that is pretty hard. A few weeks ago I was looking for a friend and the same months were wide open. So it seems even TG is drying up a bit unless you can get in early.

 

[burmans]

If you were prepared to buy the miles at full cost anyway then well worth trying to see if you can get double now!

I did this previously, like you had to get 110K miles, bought 50+50, then gifted 10K (and hoped I'd get a bonus given the site showed a bonus when I entered my details). In this case the offer specifically said "buy or gift" in the wording of the offer limits but clearly US IT had not coded it that way! I got the full 120K and have read in previous offers of people doing > 50K (buy + gift or in some cases buy + buy)

 

[kamchatsky]

For your proposed route, correctly NRT is your destination with MNL as your stopover.

As a betting man, the odds of you being able to book that ticket first go (even with MNL as the non *A hub stopover) is equal to Julia Gillard losing the next federal election.

May not be a good bet. Will Julia still have a chance to contest for PM at the next election!

 

[wafliron]

I did this previously, like you had to get 110K miles, bought 50+50, then gifted 10K (and hoped I'd get a bonus given the site showed a bonus when I entered my details). In this case the offer specifically said "buy or gift" in the wording of the offer limits but clearly US IT had not coded it that way! I got the full 120K and have read in previous offers of people doing > 50K (buy + gift or in some cases buy + buy)

Coincidentally, the T&Cs of a "remember you only have four days left" e-mail I got from US Airways overnight answered the question I was asking pretty succinctly: "The maximum number of Buy and Gift Bonus miles that can be received by one member for this offer is 50,000 bonus miles.". So, technically 50k is the max bonus per account.

Sounds like your experience was different though burmans - was this during the current promo, or a previous one? Either way I'm going to find out tomorrow (will buy 50k per account, and then do a small test-gift to see what happens) and will post the results. Thanks for the info.

 

[anat0l]

Regional SQ J shouldn't be all that difficult to find (not free flowing, but not hen's teeth either).

Even longhaul SQ J shouldn't be completely impossible, though if ANA haven't changed they won't stubbornly show availability either, so other programs' tools are useful for this (or ExpertFlyer).

Whether it's real or not... well, depends on how well you can convince the agent. I remember looking up seats on ANA that when I tried to book with BD would seem to be beyond the reach of the agent.

I wonder if anyone with GDS experience might work out how to fool LifeMiles agents into grabbing seats that may not be within the normal reach (e.g. like the old "long selling" technique at US DM).

 

[burmans]

Coincidentally, the T&Cs of a "remember you only have four days left" e-mail I got from US Airways overnight answered the question I was asking pretty succinctly: "The maximum number of Buy and Gift Bonus miles that can be received by one member for this offer is 50,000 bonus miles.". So, technically 50k is the max bonus per account.

Sounds like your experience was different though burmans - was this during the current promo, or a previous one? Either way I'm going to find out tomorrow (will buy 50k per account, and then do a small test-gift to see what happens) and will post the results. Thanks for the info.

This was a previous one but even in a recent promo after buying 50K when I went back in it was still showing as available. Not sure how fast they post with this one but when they post fast you can do a trial(1K + 1K) and see what happens.

 

[Shanye2233]

So I have a friend who wants to fly sydney to south Africa in December what's the cheapest J option life miles or dividend miles? He doesn't want a stop over as direct as you can get. Im
not a life miles member as yet but planning to join shortly

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So I have a friend who wants to fly sydney to south Africa in December what's the cheapest J option life miles or dividend miles? He doesn't want a stop over as direct as you can get. Im
not a life miles member as yet but planning to join shortly

looks like PER-JNB on South African would be the quickest way (buy a cheapie SYD-PER on QF or something to connect). But good luck frinding availability - there are random dates where 1 and 2 seats are showing available... for example there is nothing PER-JNB 1-6 Dec, but there are two 2 seats on 7 dec, coming back there are a couple of seats on 30 DEC (i didn't check any other days).

Given everything else is sold out solid I'd be booking asap - whether that was via US or lifemiles. I think the general rule seems to be that lifemiles would be cheaper if they have the 100% bonus. If not, US might be the way to go.

 

[cove]

Oneworldplus2 sent me a text this morning from the Thai Air First class cabin where he was one of two passengers in that section and he had a glass of Dom Perignon in his hand. I hope he doesn't get lonely on his SYD-BKK sector.

 

[drron]

Well bought my miles yesterday eventually after Amex initially declined the charges.
After getting it fixed up the Amex Lady said-"Why are you always buying miles"
Me-"because I like flying First Class at 75% off"

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Go for f if u can......

Just landed in BKK from my first SYD-BKK, TG, F flight.

All l can say is, if you are unsure about the F and J points differentiation (something like ~60k), trust me, GO FOR F if you can.
It's worth it.

As numerous people have said on AFF so far, and l can now back it up, go for it. (I'm sure that MEL_Travelller and Alanslegal have already stated their sides of the picture, and l back them up 100%)

Data point; Out of 10 seats, guess how many were filled in F........2.
Me and some other guy.
Wow.
Gold Service 101!!!

Relaxing in the BKK F Lounge right now for the next sector - BKK-FRA. Wish me luck.

(PS, l took a few pictures, but they weren't the best, l'll do my best to take some more on the next sector and upload them in a TR in a few days)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: Go for f if u can......

Just landed in BKK from my first SYD-BKK, TG, F flight.

All l can say is, if you are unsure about the F and J points differentiation (something like ~60k), trust me, GO FOR F if you can.
It i worth it.

As numerous people have said on AFF so far, and l can now back it up, go for it. (I'm sure that MEL_Travelller and Alanslegal have already stated their sides of the picture, and l back them up 100%)

Data point; Out of 10 seats, guess how many were filled in F........2.
Me and some other guy.
Wow.
Gold Service 101!!!

Relaxing in the BKK F Lounge right now for the next sector - BKK-FRA. Wish me luck.

(PS, l took a few pictures, but they weren't the best, l'll do my best to take some more on the next sector and upload them in a TR in a few days)

even better only 30K difference in points, which in the grand scheme of things, if you are flying ex SYD to Europe, works out at about $125 a sector. By the time you thrown in the golf carts and massage in BKK, the ability to actually get decent sleep makes the difference worth it.

I just booked a couple tickets ex MEL, J class to BKK and F onwards to FRA (new 9F over and 77W 'suites' coming back). I consider that a no brainer as well - the prime thing you want on the BKK-Europe is sleep, and F gives you the ability to eat quick and go flat

Enjoy the rest of your flight!

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Re: Go for f if u can......

even better only 30K difference in points, which in the grand scheme of things, if you are flying ex SYD to Europe, works out at about $125 a sector. By the time you thrown in the golf carts and massage in BKK, the ability to actually get decent sleep makes the difference worth it.

I just booked a couple tickets ex MEL, J class to BKK and F onwards to FRA (new 9F over and 77W 'suites' coming back). I consider that a no brainer as well - the prime thing you want on the BKK-Europe is sleep, and F gives you the ability to eat quick and go flat

Enjoy the rest of your flight!

Yes, sorry, forgot to add, got the 'Golf Buggy' and am booked in for a massage in about 30 minutes.

Thank you MEL_Traveller for the tips (x100), it has really helped me out. I really appreciate it.