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

[MEL_Traveller]

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).

yup - they will have to split the PNR and create two bookings. a good agent should be able to do this without cancelling one and then having to rebook it.

or, if they do take the easy way, make sure there is another seat available to be booked immediately!

 

[Alanslegal]

This is very last minute but for those interested in signing up to US DM, there is a sign up bonus of 2,000 points (worth $55USD) for new memberships. Signing up now means the next time one of these "bonus miles" promotion pops up, you'll have a headstart and won't need to wait those 12 active account days.

Signing up has to be done by 31 March 2011 "their" time. Based on the last double points promo, we could buy points until 630pm the next day (ie plus 1 day) before it was removed from their website.


US Airways | Just for fans & followers

 

[Alanslegal]

I played the agent roulette last night (trying to book AMS-SYD-AMS) and one agent offered a AMS-xx_-LAX-xx_-SYD-BKK-HKG-MUC-AMS but in C class, when I wanted F.

Anyway, I placed on 72 hour hold a simple itinerary AMS-ZRH-BKK-SYD-BKK-HKG-MUC-AMS .... but coming to think about it, the departure date needs to be moved back one day (I know its only one day, but AMS is the end of a 7-8week trip and I prefer a specific date). My question is, if I want to make changes, do they cancel this booking and start all over again? Or is it a simple of keep everything and change the first flight or so.

 

[mos]

I played the agent roulette last night (trying to book AMS-SYD-AMS) and one agent offered a AMS-xx_-LAX-xx_-SYD-BKK-HKG-MUC-AMS but in C class, when I wanted F.

Anyway, I placed on 72 hour hold a simple itinerary AMS-ZRH-BKK-SYD-BKK-HKG-MUC-AMS .... but coming to think about it, the departure date needs to be moved back one day (I know its only one day, but AMS is the end of a 7-8week trip and I prefer a specific date). My question is, if I want to make changes, do they cancel this booking and start all over again? Or is it a simple of keep everything and change the first flight or so.

I had a booking on hold recently (SIN-BKK-MUC-FRA / CDG-BKK-SIN), no problem with changing individual flights and actually added in an extra segment when it came to ticketing (SIN-BKK-MUC-FRA-MRS / CDG-BKK-SIN) so I think it should be simple.... (famous last words).

 

[sr81]

I moved the last flight in a three string segment by one day. Took about 15 mins but all good. They find the available seat, add it to the booking, then cancel the other seat.

Last night I booked MEL-BKK-DEL / BOM-BKK-MEL for 90,000 (USD1564 - bought miles from 0) and USD 158 in taxes and charges. All Thai C. With the AUD up this comes to just over AUD1600 all told. Not bad when QF and SQ have a sale in economy at the moment for AUD1400.

 

[Alanslegal]

Cheers guys!

 

[casanovawa]

So how many miles was it for this booking and in what class was it???

AMS-xx_-LAX-xx_-SYD-BKK-HKG-MUC-AMS

and also if it costs 40,000 miles to go in first class from South Pacific to South Pacific, if I am flying out of Perth there doesn't seem to be any airline on the award chart which flies from Perth reasonably directly to the South Pacific (not sure if Air NZ has any tie in with Virgin Blue codeshare?) so would you be able to pick a first class connecting flight via singapore on SQ or Thai?

 

[Alanslegal]

So how many miles was it for this booking and in what class was it???

I didn't price it as I didn't want business class, but it would have been 120,000 being the Europe to South West Pacific rate.

and also if it costs 40,000 miles to go in first class from South Pacific to South Pacific, if I am flying out of Perth there doesn't seem to be any airline on the award chart which flies from Perth reasonably directly to the South Pacific (not sure if Air NZ has any tie in with Virgin Blue codeshare?) so would you be able to pick a first class connecting flight via singapore on SQ or Thai?

Can't help you with this one, but as a data point calvinoeh from milepoint confirms that:

I recently tried to book a North Asia to North Asia redemption from HKG to ALA and tried to route HKG-BKK-ZRH-FRA-ALA-FRA-CDG-BKK-HKG to try the 77W F in Thai but was told this exceeded the MPM for a single zone redemption. Settled for HKG-ICN-FRA-ALA, ALA-FRA-BKK-HKG with F on OZ, TG and LH.

 

[casanovawa]

So calvinoeh's description does sound like you can go outside of your region as long as you end at the one for the miles you are using (so go South Pacific to South Pacific via Asia if necessary)

And Alan, so with the Europe-SP-Europe award you were able to go via the US in one direction and Asia back... And just seems like a lot of airports on the way back but is only one of them a stop and the other transits or are they all transits???

 

[Alanslegal]

I was asked by the agent if I wanted to go from AMS to AUS via USA as she saw some business class seats available. I declined as I could wanted first class and all the flights I wanted eg. JFK/ORD/LAX/SFO-ICN/NRT were not available for two award seats. And if I booked it that way, would have been a stopover somewhere in Asia (either ICN or BKK).

Anyway rang the US last night and changed my flights to one day later Spoke to a very helpful agent (Sharon) and changed all the flights as necessary. (I know peachy3333 will think this is un-creative ) and my route ended up being a simple AMS-MUC(lh c)-BKK(stop)-SYD(dest)-BKK-HKG(all tg f)-MUC(lh f)-AMS(lh c). Taxes $217 + $50 service fee. From there I will be making my way from AMS-LAX somehow for my QF12 flight in March 2012, which was 96K and $245 in taxes!

 

[kamchatsky]

So how many miles was it for this booking and in what class was it???



and also if it costs 40,000 miles to go in first class from South Pacific to South Pacific, if I am flying out of Perth there doesn't seem to be any airline on the award chart which flies from Perth reasonably directly to the South Pacific (not sure if Air NZ has any tie in with Virgin Blue codeshare?) so would you be able to pick a first class connecting flight via singapore on SQ or Thai?

NZ has flights from PER-AKL direct. From there you can hook up with other NZ flights to all the South Pacific Islands. NZ does not have F but their J is pretty good.

 

[jdlover23]

This is very last minute but for those interested in signing up to US DM, there is a sign up bonus of 2,000 points (worth $55USD) for new memberships. Signing up now means the next time one of these "bonus miles" promotion pops up, you'll have a headstart and won't need to wait those 12 active account days.

Signing up has to be done by 31 March 2011 "their" time. Based on the last double points promo, we could buy points until 630pm the next day (ie plus 1 day) before it was removed from their website.


US Airways | Just for fans & followers

Thanks Alan - had joined up without any promo code earlier in the month - now i have decided on holding off buying these miles this time around - I have rejoined using the above - so cheers!

 

[spudwa]

Hi All

Well my wife and I just returned from our First class trip the UK from Perth using Thai. It was a truly amazing experience and for $3500.00 each incredible value. Thanks to US Airways miscalculation on miles 120k not 150k and their recent 75% bonus I'm already up top 117k for the next trip for only AU$1500.00 I'm wondering how much the US eat coast will be

 

[spudwa]

To be on the safe side I would contact US and get them to charge the additional 30,000 miles. Otherwise you may find your ticket changed to biz class the whole way. (You should also check right now that the TG sectors BKK-Europe vv are in 'O' class anyway.)

Well all went well and I got to fly first class for business class price. It just get better and better. With my 75% bonus I'm up to 117,000 miles for only AU$1500

 

[spudwa]

My wife and I are already starting to plan the next trip with our FF miles. We have a wedding coming up this year in New York. After a quick look the ideal flight would be with Singapore Airlines from Perth and then the one long leg to NY in J class. I've seen posts saying this is very hard. Should we just forget it or is there a possibility if we book early?

What other route or Airline would you recommend for this trip?

Thanks Paul

 

[auriga]

My wife and I are already starting to plan the next trip with our FF miles. We have a wedding coming up this year in New York. After a quick look the ideal flight would be with Singapore Airlines from Perth and then the one long leg to NY in J class. I've seen posts saying this is very hard. Should we just forget it or is there a possibility if we book early?

What other route or Airline would you recommend for this trip?

Thanks Paul

Singapore Airlines to NY? I would say it is very very hard. I think sometimes they do release seats very close to travel, but pretty risky that way, unless you book something else first, and pay the change fee if something comes up.

 

[Flashback]

Singapore Airlines to NY? I would say it is very very hard. I think sometimes they do release seats very close to travel, but pretty risky that way, unless you book something else first, and pay the change fee if something comes up.

You can easily get F on the older 744 PER-FRA-JFK.

 

[cove]

Typically ex PER to LAX runs at 114750 SQ points and then I use QF points on AA at 50,000. All these numbers are J class.
I have not tried US *A partners for domestic USA travel.
You may get Saver on the leg from SIN to LAX as well.
Also try the direct flight from SIN-EWR on the A340-500 which I have not tried.

 

[cove]

I think Flashware's solution thru Frankfurt would be excellent to get to New York on the 747 in First (I would call that the KRUG champagne run).

 

[Flashback]

I think Flashware's solution thru Frankfurt would be excellent to get to New York on the 747 in First (I would call that the KRUG champagne run).

Yup! I did PER-SIN in J (highest cabin available) then SIN-FRA in F ... the Krug was plentiful :mrgreen: It then obviously continues on to JFK from FRA.