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

[anat0l]

Most people (especially those who read FT) would know this, but just to have it said, LH and LX F seats (along with SQ F) are effectively unbookable for US DM redemptions.

Apparently the Lufthansa group has actively blocked these for US DM. LX F purportedly is only released to Miles and More. LH F is apparently released 14 days before departure, but US DM maintains a block on such seats anyway (however, if you had, e.g. UA miles, you could possibly get these seats).

This really starts to thin out the *A F field quite a bit. Even TG F is hard to book the new routes (well, in one direction anyway for the routes I'm searching; in the other direction, plenty....)

Thanks. I use it as we'll but it just uses ana (and maybe some others) as the backend. I was wondering if us airways could see more united availability than ana shows?

I've found ANA quite reliable and also quite fast (compared to some of the other engines). ANA auto-blocks SQ F and long haul J (i.e. non-regional product), but they are usually near unbookable anyway.

Not sure about variance in availability, particularly UA, but UA F is difficult to find at the best of times, particularly Trans-Pacific.

My beef with Awardtravlr is that it is not as agile as ANA for searching several months for availability. ANA allows a 7 day search which you can just flick to the next week with one button. With Awardtravlr you need to re-enter the new week into the calendar and refresh, which is quite tedious.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks. I use it as we'll but it just uses ana (and maybe some others) as the backend. I was wondering if us airways could see more united availability than ana shows?

I doubt USDM will see more than ANA. USDM agents know it is very difficult to secure UA between USA and AU... the seats open to their members 365 days out and pretty much get snagged right away. There are times when UA releases availability but generally it's not that easy (for AU-USA - other routes are so-so).

You can fly via Asia - it adds a lot of time, but the choice of airlines are far superior.

awardtravlr is fairly good, it uses ANA and UA and I think Aeroplan as well. I have yet to find a route rejected that has shown availability on awardtravelr. (If you want to double check a route it shows then you can always do segment by segment on ANA to confirm).

UA can also be very good for immediate award availability to the USA.

 

[smit0847]

Do people really enjoy using ANA to search?!? It's so incredibly clunky - even entering the origin takes ages and is annoying.

I am a massive fan of awardtravelr - I dont think the layout and functionality could be much better (apart from including selfish options like excluding unwanted carriers). I love how you can sort results, choose the transit cities, narrow down results to exclusively one class and remove options with long layovers. With my USDM booking I made last week, I simply entered a search in awardtravelr and then read off the my first choice of results to the US agent and she booked them no problem at all. I think the big difference between awardtravelr and ANA, Aeroplan etc is that AT is designed and laid out for people like us, looking for award flights that will not be booked through that site, where as ANA and AC are obviously giving you results on the assumption you will book through their site.

I would be extremely interested to know if US can ever see things awardtravelr but I guess you would only work this out on a trial and error basis.

If Lifemiles upgraded their amatuer site to be something like AT I would be over the moon.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I would be extremely interested to know if US can ever see things awardtravelr but I guess you would only work this out on a trial and error basis.

in my experience USDM can pretty much see awardtravelr results. with odd exceptions here and there like NH not always showing.

 

[smit0847]

in my experience USDM can pretty much see awardtravelr results. with odd exceptions here and there like NH not always showing.

Does anyone have any complaints about AT then? Im surprised people aren't singing its praises on here when compared to the alternatives!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Does anyone have any complaints about AT then? Im surprised people aren't singing its praises on here when compared to the alternatives!

people do. Not much more that can be said except to let people know it's there!

 

[anat0l]

Does anyone have any complaints about AT then? Im surprised people aren't singing its praises on here when compared to the alternatives!

ANA is slower at the start if you have no miles in ANA (then you need to do the 'workaround' to use *A carriers). But after that, I find it faster. (I managed to snaffle an easy 100 ANA points by doing some survey they asked for, which gives me a balance until those points expire).

I normally search in segments rather than journeys, i.e. if I'm looking for SYD to LHR, I'll search, for example, SYD-BKK, BKK-LHR or SYD-ICN, ICN-LHR, and so on. Of course, if you are not accustomed to searching based on IATA code, and/or prefer to search for journeys rather than segments, then ANA will be slower. (Certainly knowing IATA codes and entering this in speeds up that part considerably).

I also now usually use the 7-day award availability search. This is great as I can cut down the search by class (although the advantage of having F and J at least displayable at the same time is something). I can search a week-period at a time, and if I want to keep searching I just click the 'next week' or 'previous week' button and it goes again. Fast and effective. The only 'disadvantage' of 7-day award availability search is that it will only display direct flights. But this is not a problem for me.


With Awardtravlr, the interface and the filtering ability is great. So what do I find annoying about it?

The advantage of searching more than one award engine is offset by the longer time it takes to return search results. Given that US DM will not ticket anything F on LH, LX or SQ (at least for now), seeing that availability on Awardtravlr as compared to not being able to see it on ANA (if it will display it) doesn't mean much to me. I'd rather go for speed.

Whilst you can search up to 7 days ahead, every time you want to advance a week or so you need to retype the date in the relevant field. There is no quick 'next' or 'previous' week button, and the date chooser sometimes defaults back to the current month rather than around the month you are searching (which means time wasted flicking ahead to the correct month again). One way to overcome this is to directly modify the date in the URL. Also, when you re-run the search, filter options are reset.

Awardtravlr is great because you don't have to know the IATA codes, and can search based on journeys rather than segments, but when I use it I still search on segments. What I find annoying sometimes is something like the QF award engine dilemma: I've had an odd occasion where an "F" option is returned, but it's an indirect where the shorter sector is in F but the longest one is in Y (or J). Or, look at a "J" option and again the short sector is in J but the long one is in Y.

Overall, Awardtravlr is much friendlier as far as interface and audience goes compared to ANA.

On average, one will probably do more searches on ANA than on Awardtravlr for the same itinerary. But for me, I often want to get multiple options for months ahead, and usually search on segments (e.g. if I'm looking for SYD to CDG via BKK in F, I'll keep searching BKK-CDG on ANA because I know from history that SYD-BKK in F will typically be good availability). ANA gives me the speed to do this.

 

[Flashback]

ANA is slower at the start if you have no miles in ANA (then you need to do the 'workaround' to use *A carriers). But after that, I find it faster. (I managed to snaffle an easy 100 ANA points by doing some survey they asked for, which gives me a balance until those points expire).

I normally search in segments rather than journeys, i.e. if I'm looking for SYD to LHR, I'll search, for example, SYD-BKK, BKK-LHR or SYD-ICN, ICN-LHR, and so on. Of course, if you are not accustomed to searching based on IATA code, and/or prefer to search for journeys rather than segments, then ANA will be slower. (Certainly knowing IATA codes and entering this in speeds up that part considerably).

I also now usually use the 7-day award availability search. This is great as I can cut down the search by class (although the advantage of having F and J at least displayable at the same time is something). I can search a week-period at a time, and if I want to keep searching I just click the 'next week' or 'previous week' button and it goes again. Fast and effective. The only 'disadvantage' of 7-day award availability search is that it will only display direct flights. But this is not a problem for me.


With Awardtravlr, the interface and the filtering ability is great. So what do I find annoying about it?

The advantage of searching more than one award engine is offset by the longer time it takes to return search results. Given that US DM will not ticket anything F on LH, LX or SQ (at least for now), seeing that availability on Awardtravlr as compared to not being able to see it on ANA (if it will display it) doesn't mean much to me. I'd rather go for speed.

Whilst you can search up to 7 days ahead, every time you want to advance a week or so you need to retype the date in the relevant field. There is no quick 'next' or 'previous' week button, and the date chooser sometimes defaults back to the current month rather than around the month you are searching (which means time wasted flicking ahead to the correct month again). One way to overcome this is to directly modify the date in the URL. Also, when you re-run the search, filter options are reset.

Awardtravlr is great because you don't have to know the IATA codes, and can search based on journeys rather than segments, but when I use it I still search on segments. What I find annoying sometimes is something like the QF award engine dilemma: I've had an odd occasion where an "F" option is returned, but it's an indirect where the shorter sector is in F but the longest one is in Y (or J). Or, look at a "J" option and again the short sector is in J but the long one is in Y.

Overall, Awardtravlr is much friendlier as far as interface and audience goes compared to ANA.

On average, one will probably do more searches on ANA than on Awardtravlr for the same itinerary. But for me, I often want to get multiple options for months ahead, and usually search on segments (e.g. if I'm looking for SYD to CDG via BKK in F, I'll keep searching BKK-CDG on ANA because I know from history that SYD-BKK in F will typically be good availability). ANA gives me the speed to do this.

It's ANA for me also!

 

[Insaneous]

a couple of quick questions

1) I know there is a +330 day limit on some of the searching tools, however KVS can get around this (by selecting +6 search). When making a booking, does the US Airways reservation desk have the same +330days limitation? Or if I feed them the flight details, can they book it?
2) When making the booking, do I request the PNR number after they locking in each flight? Not quite sure on this PNR number part...
3) Awardtravlr down for anyone else? Can get on site, but wont let me search (just says it is searching.)

 

[Insaneous]

oh an one more for those of you with way more flight experience than me:

Whats better on the flight to BKK-ICN in J?

TG in the 773, TG in the 777, OZ in the 763, or OZ in the 333

They all depart roughly around the same time and arrive in the morning. I'm looking to connect to a OZ F flight to LAX in ithe afternoon if that makes a difference.

 

[bcworld]

oh an one more for those of you with way more flight experience than me:

Whats better on the flight to BKK-ICN in J?

TG in the 773, TG in the 777, OZ in the 763, or OZ in the 333

They all depart roughly around the same time and arrive in the morning. I'm looking to connect to a OZ F flight to LAX in ithe afternoon if that makes a difference.

Is the 773 the 773ER flight that continues to LAX? If so - that would be your pick.

 

[anat0l]

oh an one more for those of you with way more flight experience than me:

Whats better on the flight to BKK-ICN in J?

TG in the 773, TG in the 777, OZ in the 763, or OZ in the 333

They all depart roughly around the same time and arrive in the morning. I'm looking to connect to a OZ F flight to LAX in ithe afternoon if that makes a difference.

Nutshell: Much of muchness.

Detail: What is your inbound flight to BKK?

If you inbound is on TG, choose the TG flight, as they will try to look after your connection better than if it was OZ. This is especially so if your inbound to BKK is on TG F.

In almost any other case, choose whatever you want. TG will give you an amenity kit; OZ won't. You get a snack and breakfast on TG. OZ give you supper only (which means you sleep for practically the rest of the flight). Seat comfort-wise is the same.

At ICN, OZ have no meet and greet unlike TG at BKK. If you fly TG, you'll arrive at The Concourse and must take the shuttle back to the Main Terminal. Since all OZ flights operate at the Main Terminal, taking OZ to ICN avoids the need to take the shuttle.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AustFreqFly

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Is the 773 the 773ER flight that continues to LAX? If so - that would be your pick.

i think the lax flight with full flat beds departs in the morning? I was looking at the same options - I am taking the red-eye to ICN - none of the TG 777s at that time continued on.

to answer insaneous - OZ will have better service. TG will have better ground handling.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

a couple of quick questions

1) I know there is a +330 day limit on some of the searching tools, however KVS can get around this (by selecting +6 search). When making a booking, does the US Airways reservation desk have the same +330days limitation? Or if I feed them the flight details, can they book it?
2) When making the booking, do I request the PNR number after they locking in each flight? Not quite sure on this PNR number part...
3) Awardtravlr down for anyone else? Can get on site, but wont let me search (just says it is searching.)

i think partner awards can be booked 330 days out. other search engines will show award availability for longer depending on the airline - so obviously UA's members can book 365 days out, TGs own members can book 365 days out etc etc.

the PNR is specific to each airline. If you have three airlines operating your itinerary you will get 4 PNRs - a USDM one, and one for each of the others. You get those at the end of the call. You won't get one for OZ. You have to enter your ticket number in their website and get it that way.

 

[Insaneous]

I will be taking the OZ202 flight to LAX in F class, departing around 4.30pm on a 744. Only one in F.

According to KVS, only other OZ flight is the OZ204 in the 77L departing at 8.20pm (J only), and the TG flight is TG692 departing at 4.25pm (no award seats though)

 

[Insaneous]

Nutshell: Much of muchness.

Detail: What is your inbound flight to BKK?

If you inbound is on TG, choose the TG flight, as they will try to look after your connection better than if it was OZ. This is especially so if your inbound to BKK is on TG F.

In almost any other case, choose whatever you want. TG will give you an amenity kit; OZ won't. You get a snack and breakfast on TG. OZ give you supper only (which means you sleep for practically the rest of the flight). Seat comfort-wise is the same.

At ICN, OZ have no meet and greet unlike TG at BKK. If you fly TG, you'll arrive at The Concourse and must take the shuttle back to the Main Terminal. Since all OZ flights operate at the Main Terminal, taking OZ to ICN avoids the need to take the shuttle.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AustFreqFly

Yep my inbound will be TG F, so looks like a no brainer to fly with TG to ICN. I"ll have plenty of time to make my way over to main terminal in ICN. Thanks for the detailed info!

So for a relatively 'simple' itinerary such as this one, do I ask for bags to be checked all the way through to LAX? Or will i need to pick up and drop off at ICN (when changing from TG to OZ)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yep my inbound will be TG F, so looks like a no brainer to fly with TG to ICN. I"ll have plenty of time to make my way over to main terminal in ICN. Thanks for the detailed info!

So for a relatively 'simple' itinerary such as this one, do I ask for bags to be checked all the way through to LAX? Or will i need to pick up and drop off at ICN (when changing from TG to OZ)

just relax a little!! you're thinking a bit too much! the check-in staff know exactly what to do and will look after you the whole way. (not sure why you'd want to collect your bags at seoul, but they will automatically be checked through to your final destination unless you ask otherwise)

 

[Insaneous]

just relax a little!! you're thinking a bit too much! the check-in staff know exactly what to do and will look after you the whole way. (not sure why you'd want to collect your bags at seoul, but they will automatically be checked through to your final destination unless you ask otherwise)

haha too used to flying Jetstar I think... collecting bags at every stop you make. Not that my bags will have anything in them, the fiance has decided that we are going to pack empty bags and buy new clothes once we get to LA....

 

[Oneworldplus2]

As TG seem to be fairly easy to snag in F, thought I'd share someone's post on FT, TG F A380 pictures. Looks great.

Enjoy!

Pictures of A380 First - FlyerTalk Forums

 

[ferni]

So I've just put on hold a couple of itineraries for the mrs and I.

I'm heading MEL BKK BRU in March next year in TG Business (If there was F out of MEL i'd take F but I can't be bothered stuffing around with an extra leg each way to get me to/from SYD). The Mrs is following me exactly a week after, same flights/days. Then we fly home together BRU CDG BKK <stop> MEL.. There was no Business flights available home out of BRU on the way home so routing via CDG (and get to check out the 380), the BRU CDG leg is only in econ, but with SN(Brussels airline).. the CDG BKK MELL is all TG J...

Anyway weird thing is despite exactly the same flights/days of week for the wife and I except her outbound flights a week later her taxes came to $194, mine to $284... I asked the lady on the phone why the difference (she did both bookings in one call for me) and she said she's not sure, maybe because my wife's flights were on different dates... That doesn't sound right to me? Anyone else got any ideas? I checked the booking with the Thai PNR on the Thai website and can see its been booked(put on hold) correctly for both of us

I tried to price it up on ITA to get the taxes and adding up all the surcharges they come to around $280 for both itineraries...

This is what ITA shows me... the only difference is this ITA one is business from BRU CDG as I don't think I can specify different class for different legs in ITA?

Australian Passenger Movement Charge (AU) AU$55.00
Australian Safety & Security Surcharge (WG) AU$3.98
Australian Int'l Passenger Service Charge (WY) AU$3.98
TG YR surcharge (YR) AU$30.00
Belgium Passenger Service and Security Charge (BE) AU$35.50
(YQ) AU$55.70
French Aviation Civile Tax (FR) AU$9.90
French International Passenger Service Charge (QX) AU$18.80
French Airport Tax (FR) AU$15.10
Australian Int'l Passenger Service Charge (WY) AU$15.75
Thailand Passenger Service Charge (TS) AU$23.40