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

[MEL_Traveller]

Will be very interested to see what happens with the US / AA merger, although we are looking to redeem soon for an F award at the end of 2013 / beginning of 2014!

USDM will become AAdvantage miles. Rewards will become available on oneworld, which is great for premium carriers, but availability is much more patchy. And we'll likely lose stopovers. more similar to Lifemiles I would think.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Have a friend who is trying to snag 2 F/J seats, PER-LHR for travel in early August (returning late Sep) and seem to be having problems.

They have been calling USDM's every few days and can see seats available, but can't book them (don't know exactly why though).

Any suggestions??

 

[bcworld]

Have a friend who is trying to snag 2 F/J seats, PER-LHR for travel in early August (returning late Sep) and seem to be having problems.

They have been calling USDM's every few days and can see seats available, but can't book them (don't know exactly why though).

Any suggestions??

You'd really need to let us know the reasons they are being given.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

You'd really need to let us know the reasons they are being given.

The USDM agents just said that it couldn't be booked (even though there was availability), 10 days either side too. Seems really strange.

 

[NDiddy]

The USDM agents just said that it couldn't be booked (even though there was availability), 10 days either side too. Seems really strange.

Sounds weird as it should* be a fairly straight forward itin if there is availability. I take it they would be looking at PER-BKK-LHR-BKK-PER? Any stopovers that are complicating this itin?

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Sounds weird as it should* be a fairly straight forward itin if there is availability. I take it they would be looking at PER-BKK-LHR-BKK-PER? Any stopovers that are complicating this itin?

The original was a little bit complicated and was almost worthy of a RTW in F/J. However, as it was getting difficult with number of segments, it got cut to a simple - PER - Asia - LHR return, in either F or J.

The 2 pax have to be in AMS around the 8th of August for a boat cruise, AMS - BUD.

So, pax will now just do PER-Asia-LHR, stay in LHR a few days, get a el-cheapo to AMS, do the cruise, and get a el cheapo back, BUD-LHR, stay in LHR for a number of weeks, then back to PER.

Could the merger have anything to do with the availability?

 

[bcworld]

Could the merger have anything to do with the availability?

Extremely unlikely...it will be business as usual for a long time to come yet.

 

[NDiddy]

The original was a little bit complicated and was almost worthy of a RTW in F/J. However, as it was getting difficult with number of segments, it got cut to a simple - PER - Asia - LHR return, in either F or J.

The 2 pax have to be in AMS around the 8th of August for a boat cruise, AMS - BUD.

So, pax will now just do PER-Asia-LHR, stay in LHR a few days, get a el-cheapo to AMS, do the cruise, and get a el cheapo back, BUD-LHR, stay in LHR for a number of weeks, then back to PER.

Could the merger have anything to do with the availability?

What dates are they looking at? Lot of availability in J/F from PER-BKK-LHR in August and back as well in Sept.

Wouldn't have thought the merger would have an impact on this. HUACA may be in order but at a different time of day?

 

[burmans]

Extremely unlikely...it will be business as usual for a long time to come yet.

Agree, I'm thinking we have AGES for them to get this to work. Given the problems they already have with their IT merging their systems is not something they are ghoing to do in less than a year from an agreed merger.

 

[JohnK]

yes.

probably not. why not have a look?

seems like a good idea.

I have been meaning to do something for a couple of months but unfortunately keeps going to the back of the queue on my TODO list.

The other day mum says to me "Your dad and I have an appointment at the cardiologist on 25 July and make sure I am back from Greece by then!" :shock: "Mum, I thought you were going end July and August?" ;rolleyes:

Of course no point continuing conversation as the son is always wrong and since I promised her I am paying for this trip I had better do it. Another option is trying to use AA miles via DXB but it has to be one stop to ATH/SKG.

 

[anat0l]

Currently successfully have two tickets on hold with these flights:

Day 1: SQ J BNE-SIN
Day 1: TG J SIN-BKK
Day 2: TG F BKK-LHR
stop
Day 10: LH J LHR-FRA
Day 10: UA F FRA-EWR
dest
Day 20: UA F EWR-FRA (arr +1)
Day 21: LH J FRA-LHR
Day 21: TG F LHR-BKK (arr +1)
Day 22: TG J BKK-BNE (arr +1)

Pretty chuffed to get these on hold, then told the taxes.

Total: $836.35 per passenger (plus $50 booking fee). :shocked: Yikes!!!

Something wrong there? I know with the stopover there is one lot of APD payable, but I'd suspect the price should be about $500-600. All I can think is either the UK departure tax (i.e. airport fees, not the APD) might have an impact (thought it was usually GBP 100 though), or I've been charged the APD twice due to a ticketing /coupon fix.

Reservations are on hold right now but I know I'd better jump soon. What should I do now? Jump and pay then argue later? Call back and demand a reprice somehow? The agents cannot give a breakdown of taxes at all. Or, are the taxes actually correct?

Am out of laptop use for a few hours, so can't jump on ITA to do a check...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Currently successfully have two tickets on hold with these flights:

Day 1: SQ J BNE-SIN
Day 1: TG J SIN-BKK
Day 2: TG F BKK-LHR
stop
Day 10: LH J LHR-FRA
Day 10: UA F FRA-EWR
dest
Day 20: UA F EWR-FRA (arr +1)
Day 21: LH J FRA-LHR
Day 21: TG F LHR-BKK (arr +1)
Day 22: TG J BKK-BNE (arr +1)

Pretty chuffed to get these on hold, then told the taxes.

Total: $836.35 per passenger (plus $50 booking fee). :shocked: Yikes!!!

Something wrong there? I know with the stopover there is one lot of APD payable, but I'd suspect the price should be about $500-600. All I can think is either the UK departure tax (i.e. airport fees, not the APD) might have an impact (thought it was usually GBP 100 though), or I've been charged the APD twice due to a ticketing /coupon fix.

Reservations are on hold right now but I know I'd better jump soon. What should I do now? Jump and pay then argue later? Call back and demand a reprice somehow? The agents cannot give a breakdown of taxes at all. Or, are the taxes actually correct?

Am out of laptop use for a few hours, so can't jump on ITA to do a check...

APD is only relatively short - LHR-FRA-EWR. That's not too expensive. I reckon they've quoted you both sets of taxes is one. Even then at $400 per pax that seems a little high.

USDM is pretty good at managing taxes and adjusting them if necessary. Whatever happens, buy now and sort later or risk losing the seats.

You can get an estimate of taxes via ITA matrix.

 

[gzmourg]

I have been meaning to do something for a couple of months but unfortunately keeps going to the back of the queue on my TODO list.

The other day mum says to me "Your dad and I have an appointment at the cardiologist on 25 July and make sure I am back from Greece by then!" :shock: "Mum, I thought you were going end July and August?" ;rolleyes:

Of course no point continuing conversation as the son is always wrong and since I promised her I am paying for this trip I had better do it. Another option is trying to use AA miles via DXB but it has to be one stop to ATH/SKG.

John, think you might be in luck. There are 2 awards seats available in J TG/A3 SYD - ROM -ATH-SKG departing 4 June and plenty availablity for return July 8/12/13/15.

 

[Flashback]

Currently successfully have two tickets on hold with these flights:

Day 1: SQ J BNE-SIN
Day 1: TG J SIN-BKK
Day 2: TG F BKK-LHR
stop
Day 10: LH J LHR-FRA
Day 10: UA F FRA-EWR
dest
Day 20: UA F EWR-FRA (arr +1)
Day 21: LH J FRA-LHR
Day 21: TG F LHR-BKK (arr +1)
Day 22: TG J BKK-BNE (arr +1)

Pretty chuffed to get these on hold, then told the taxes.

Total: $836.35 per passenger (plus $50 booking fee). :shocked: Yikes!!!

Something wrong there? I know with the stopover there is one lot of APD payable, but I'd suspect the price should be about $500-600. All I can think is either the UK departure tax (i.e. airport fees, not the APD) might have an impact (thought it was usually GBP 100 though), or I've been charged the APD twice due to a ticketing /coupon fix.

Reservations are on hold right now but I know I'd better jump soon. What should I do now? Jump and pay then argue later? Call back and demand a reprice somehow? The agents cannot give a breakdown of taxes at all. Or, are the taxes actually correct?

Am out of laptop use for a few hours, so can't jump on ITA to do a check...

You have the flights on hold for 3 days so deal with it later today...

 

[anat0l]

You have the flights on hold for 3 days so deal with it later today...

We jumped. Booked; ticketing pending and taxes to be charged to credit card later.

The agent who handled the payment (different to the one I just called) confirmed the taxes amount. Still no idea why it was that high. Probably going to throw it to the FT brains trust to see what they think. I haven't jumped onto ITA yet to have a look on my own guess.

Even if we can never get a refund for the correct amount of taxes charged, all in all it's still a good deal in principle.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We jumped. Booked; ticketing pending and taxes to be charged to credit card later.

The agent who handled the payment (different to the one I just called) confirmed the taxes amount. Still no idea why it was that high. Probably going to throw it to the FT brains trust to see what they think. I haven't jumped onto ITA yet to have a look on my own guess.

Even if we can never get a refund for the correct amount of taxes charged, all in all it's still a good deal in principle.

when you say the agent confirmed the taxes, did you ask them to recalculate them? Or did they just confirm the taxes stated already in the booking? It might need to go back to the rate desk for a full recalculation. Did the miles comes from two separate accounts? $800+ is just way too much.

 

[anat0l]

when you say the agent confirmed the taxes, did you ask them to recalculate them? Or did they just confirm the taxes stated already in the booking? It might need to go back to the rate desk for a full recalculation. Did the miles comes from two separate accounts? $800+ is just way too much.

Miles came from separate accounts.

And yes it was $800+ per passenger.

The second agent took a while, so I assume they had sent the itinerary back through the system to get a price. She announced the same figure as before, so it wasn't really a "confirmation" of the number, but rather she priced it the same as the other agent.

I agree it's rather much, but I'd already spent about 100 minutes on the phone to agents in total and about 1 week in researching all various options getting the best itinerary for my folks as I could, I'd rather secure the seat, even if I overpaid $400-800 for what I want.

I'll deal with it later, if need be, hopefully without jeopardising the now-set bookings.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Ok, spoke to my friends.

PER - Asia - LHR (return)

Depart PER around the 18 August.

Depart LHR around 12 - 15 October

2 pax, F or J.

They are 'very' flexible on departure and return dates (ie, +/- 10 days)

Called USDM for the booking. Went through. Can book the flights, but the agent can't confirm the booking, so no ticket was issued. Most of the flights were on TG. Called about 6 times now, all different operators. No go.

Seems strange.
Are they blacklisted?
Any suggestions?

 

[anat0l]

Should also mention that it only emerged when I got the first "confirmation" emails from USDM that one of my folks was charged an additional expedited booking fee, but the first flight is not until August.

Probably should raise that.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Should also mention that it only emerged when I got the first "confirmation" emails from USDM that one of my folks was charged an additional expedited booking fee, but the first flight is not until August.

Probably should raise that.

something screwy is going on. ITA matrix is easy to use I'd get an estimation of the taxes and then call back and say you think they're wrong. My total itinerary (out via Asia to USA and back via Europe) was only $221. Then add your UK departure tax for medium haul - doesn't seem right.