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

[NDiddy]

Cheers fellas!

 

[casanovawa]

And on one of my TG flights my ordered meal - Lobster Thermidor - was on board ..... its just they served it to the lady in 1A rather than to me. And I had her pre-ordered meal .... guess what it was? it was fried rice!!!! Unbelievable!

Doh!!! But yes, had to laugh as well...

 

[Alanslegal]

lol I had a chuckle at that

Doh!!! But yes, had to laugh as well...

I should add that the lady in 1A was flying on US points too. We had a nice chat, her daughter had booked her the flights and had ordered her fried rice meal so she didn't realise she was given the wrong meal. She was served first and started eating, so I couldn't exactly say "hey that's my lobster! let's swap back" I should have complained to TG and receive 400K ROP points

 

[anat0l]

Well, from the last Share Miles promo I supercharged up two new accounts - one for each of my folks - with 150k miles apiece. Today, I gave them an early Christmas present and anniversary gifts (one owed, one future) rolled in one.

They took it rather well, I think.

Of course, they were always concerned how the hell did I manage to get these. But the discussion quickly turned to when and where they were going to burn the awards.

It wasn't quite fun telling them that what they could and could not book (explaining one en route stopover at a hub took the most time). I also raised the small possibility of being able to do North America with stop in Europe, which has expanded ideas. And they are thinking of a J trip rather than an F one, pocketing the excess 30k for another time (I didn't tell them that a J itinerary of the same kind next time will likely cost them the same amount I paid for the F miles this time, because the Buy Miles promo is "not as good" as the Share Miles one).

Of course, I'm standing by as travel advisor / agent

 

[MEL_Traveller]

And they are thinking of a J trip rather than an F one, pocketing the excess 30k for another time

If you want them to fly First just tell them 30K is not enough for anything to use in the future, or that the 30K will expire so they have to be used all in one go

 

[mhen]

Well, from the last Share Miles promo I supercharged up two new accounts - one for each of my folks - with 150k miles apiece. Today, I gave them an early Christmas present and anniversary gifts (one owed, one future) rolled in one.

They took it rather well, I think.

Of course, they were always concerned how the hell did I manage to get these. But the discussion quickly turned to when and where they were going to burn the awards.

It wasn't quite fun telling them that what they could and could not book (explaining one en route stopover at a hub took the most time). I also raised the small possibility of being able to do North America with stop in Europe, which has expanded ideas. And they are thinking of a J trip rather than an F one, pocketing the excess 30k for another time (I didn't tell them that a J itinerary of the same kind next time will likely cost them the same amount I paid for the F miles this time, because the Buy Miles promo is "not as good" as the Share Miles one).

Of course, I'm standing by as travel advisor / agent

Well done. Try to head them in the direction of F IMHO its worth the 30K over J. Hope they and you have many happy hours planning their trip.

There should be more children like you. I seem to have got it the wrong way round as I have used miles for 5 first class returns to Europe this year for 2 offspring plus their partners plus 1 grandchild! I do tell them its their inheritance come early and they will have to look after me in my old age.

 

[robcuk]

Well, from the last Share Miles promo I supercharged up two new accounts - one for each of my folks - with 150k miles apiece. Today, I gave them an early Christmas present and anniversary gifts (one owed, one future) rolled in one.

They took it rather well, I think.

Of course, they were always concerned how the hell did I manage to get these. But the discussion quickly turned to when and where they were going to burn the awards.

It wasn't quite fun telling them that what they could and could not book (explaining one en route stopover at a hub took the most time). I also raised the small possibility of being able to do North America with stop in Europe, which has expanded ideas. And they are thinking of a J trip rather than an F one, pocketing the excess 30k for another time (I didn't tell them that a J itinerary of the same kind next time will likely cost them the same amount I paid for the F miles this time, because the Buy Miles promo is "not as good" as the Share Miles one).

Of course, I'm standing by as travel advisor / agent

How about a trip to the states via Europe in first for 140k and they can still keep 10k in there accounts ;-) Maybe to snag tickets to Fra or Cdg on the A380 all
the way from Syd by then?

 

[Alanslegal]

Any routing suggestions for getting to BUE ...... preferably flying F ex-SYD?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Any routing suggestions for getting to BUE ...... preferably flying F ex-SYD?

a good starting point would be to use the star alliance booking tool and aeroplan - both of which US may use to try and work out if your itinerary is a valid one.

Sth America is hard - a friend of mine tried to piece together an itinerary and it was going to take over 36 hours or something via Asia (before the MPM rule kicked in). And it involved overnights and routing via IAH on UA (which was in coach)

 

[bcworld]

Any routing suggestions for getting to BUE ...... preferably flying F ex-SYD?

If you take UA SYD-LAX (not go via any other Asia cities) the MPM (25M) should allow you 20440 miles to play with. However, F is hard to come by on that route. I would try united.com or Aeroplan to see what they come up with but EZE definitely goes in the very hard basket...especially in F.

 

[robcuk]

Any routing suggestions for getting to BUE ...... preferably flying F ex-SYD?

Would you have to fly via the states? Or is there a South American carrier based in Sydney?
Wanting first will narrow down your choices though surely?

Have heard its a great city - quite fancy a trip there when my redundancy comes through!

 

[anat0l]

Any routing suggestions for getting to BUE ...... preferably flying F ex-SYD?

We could load you with ideas, though...and this is a crazy suggestion...perhaps this is one where letting the phone agent find an option for you is at least a good foundation.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AustFreqFly

 

[smit0847]

Would you have to fly via the states? Or is there a South American carrier based in Sydney?
Wanting first will narrow down your choices though surely?

Have heard its a great city - quite fancy a trip there when my redundancy comes through!

No - LAN and QF are OW and Aerolinas is Sky Team.

Sth America is the trickiest continent to get to on USDM because there are no direct flights there from Australia, or the next best thing (Asia).

If you were going from Perth I would attempt PER-JNB-BUE on SAA the whole way (if they fly to BUE?).

Most logical is SYD-LAX/SFO on UA and then try and find a way down to Sth America.

Your options will be very limited in F - obviously Asia and Europe are the best destinations for Australians in this program.

If you are happy with J and can book a stopover in ICN I would be looking at SYD-ICN-LAX/SFO/ORD on OZ then UA or maybe Taca or Avianca down.

 

[bcworld]

No - LAN and QF are OW and Aerolinas is Sky Team.

Sth America is the trickiest continent to get to on USDM because there are no direct flights there from Australia, or the next best thing (Asia).

If you were going from Perth I would attempt PER-JNB-BUE on SAA the whole way (if they fly to BUE?).

Most logical is SYD-LAX/SFO on UA and then try and find a way down to Sth America.

Your options will be very limited in F - obviously Asia and Europe are the best destinations for Australians in this program.

If you are happy with J and can book a stopover in ICN I would be looking at SYD-ICN-LAX/SFO/ORD on OZ then UA or maybe Taca or Avianca down.

My reading of the MPM (which could be wrong) was that if you touched Asia then the MPM allowed was significantly lower (25M = 10983)...you'd never make it to EZE with that.

 

[Insaneous]

If you take UA SYD-LAX (not go via any other Asia cities) the MPM (25M) should allow you 20440 miles to play with..

Really? KVS seems to indicate it is around 11,000-12,000 (dont have it on me at the moment. This is when you plug in SYD-LAX in the KVS MPM tool.


I dont think going via Asia or some other continent affects the MPM (as per your last post).. isn't it based on the distance between Start Point and Destination?

Therefore he should find out what the MPM (25M) is for SYD-BUE on the KVS or something similar and try to plan around that.

 

[burmans]

No - LAN and QF are OW and Aerolinas is Sky Team.

Sth America is the trickiest continent to get to on USDM because there are no direct flights there from Australia, or the next best thing (Asia).

If you were going from Perth I would attempt PER-JNB-BUE on SAA the whole way (if they fly to BUE?).

Most logical is SYD-LAX/SFO on UA and then try and find a way down to Sth America.

Your options will be very limited in F - obviously Asia and Europe are the best destinations for Australians in this program.

If you are happy with J and can book a stopover in ICN I would be looking at SYD-ICN-LAX/SFO/ORD on OZ then UA or maybe Taca or Avianca down.

I did when searching previously find J via JNB as an option (online as well) but no F availability.

 

[smit0847]

I did when searching previously find J via JNB as an option (online as well) but no F availability.

I don't think SAA have F?

 

[bcworld]

I dont think going via Asia or some other continent affects the MPM (as per your last post).. isn't it based on the distance between Start Point and Destination?

There's more than one way to skin a cat (or an MPM). The MPM does vary depending on the global indicator (essentially the general way of travel)...the numbers I gave were from KVS, both of them:

         GI       M      5M     10M     15M     20M     25M     
MPM      PA    8787    9226    9665   10105   10544   10983     
MPM      PN   16352   17169   17987   18804   19622   20440

To the best of what I can work out:

PA = via the Pacific
PN = via the Pacific & North America (I read somewhere else the definition including NOT Asia for both of these)

...of course we don't know if US arbitrarily chooses one of these numbers, or uses the actual proposed routing to determine the GI. It all gets too complicated this stuff!

 

[smit0847]

My reading of the MPM (which could be wrong) was that if you touched Asia then the MPM allowed was significantly lower (25M = 10983)...you'd never make it to EZE with that.

Could someone start a new thread (that could hopefully be turned into a sticky) on this MPM and explain it in simple terms? I don't really understand it.

I think it means you are only allowed to fly a certain number of max miles from origin to destination but how do you work out what you are allowed? How much flex is there?

 

[bcworld]

Could someone start a new thread (that could hopefully be turned into a sticky) on this MPM and explain it in simple terms? I don't really understand it.

I think it means you are only allowed to fly a certain number of max miles from origin to destination but how do you work out what you are allowed? How much flex is there?

Like a lot of things related to airline ticketing I don't think it can be explained in simple terms! Added to the fact that we don't know for sure how US applies the rules in many situations I'm not sure it will be all that much help.