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

[MEL_Traveller]

Phew!


Thanks... I have now managed to pull up some details on the Thai website and on the OS website... It's a bit strange; Thai lists the flight as BKK-SIN-CPH-VIE(which is where stopover is meant to be), then it picks up the return leg from the destination of MLA-MUC-BKK-SYD; showing one Lufthansa flight there but not the VIE-FRA-MLA leg? On the Austrian site, it just picks up from BKK (no Syd-BKK leg!), but does include the rest (BKK-SIN-CPH-VIE-FRA-MLA-MUC-BKK-SYD). So between them both, all legs are showing at least somewhere! (incl. Lufthansa ones). I'm feeling more confident...


Yep, similar experience here... all looked to be working but then it says it can't save...

each airline will usually only display relevant information for the purpose of your journey with them.

they will need to know the immediate flight you are arriving on (in case you are delayed) and they will need to know your final destination for that day of travel (so they know how far to check your bags). that explains why certain sites only show certain flights.

 

[repete]

Thanks heaps MEL_Traveller, that aligns perfectly then with what each one is displaying (with OS extending it to all the way home). I'll rest easier tonight now ... and perhaps chase up the particular Lufthansa ticket number in due course :-| ...
Will fill in the rest of my experience in the next day or so... all in all I'm stoked!

 

[LordGarlic]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

I just got off the phone from USDM and have now re-booked my tickets. After getting so close to booking completion last Friday and having our telephone call disconnect as I was providing our passport details, it took around 3.75days for the same seats to be re-released back into the award inventory pool.

My confirmed routing is a simple SYD-xBKK-LHR//SPU-xFRA-xBKK-SYD with 20hrs, 22hr and 13hr transits in BKK, FRA, BKK respectively. Taxes were $157.xx plus $50 booking fee.

Can I ask how much miles does that cost you?? and is that 2 seperate bookings??? pardon my ignorance

 

[deejo77]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

The bonus points sale finishes soon - to buy or not to buy...........if you are sitting on the fence now is the time to make that decision

 

[hummel]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

The bonus points sale finishes soon - to buy or not to buy...........if you are sitting on the fence now is the time to make that decision

The first time in a long time I'm going to sit on the fence for this promo. Only really looking for 10.000ish points so thr bonus wasn't very attractive.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

Anyone wanting to bet on when the next buy promo will be? I'm going late june, to coincide with holidays in the US.

 

[smit0847]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

Anyone wanting to bet on when the next buy promo will be? I'm going late june, to coincide with holidays in the US.

The last promo just finished yesterday - do you need to buy more?!?

 

[PapaRubbery]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

The last promo just finished yesterday - do you need to buy more?!?

A friend bought $8000 worth of miles. He still needs another $4000 at 100% promo rates.

Not going to pay full price now, are we? Where's your FF spirit!

 

[smit0847]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

A friend bought $8000 worth of miles. He still needs another $4000 at 100% promo rates.

Not going to pay full price now, are we? Where's your FF spirit!

How many people is he going to be booking flights for? He will need to be careful if he is buying through various peoples accounts that he does not get audited!

 

[PapaRubbery]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

How many people is he going to be booking flights for? He will need to be careful if he is buying through various peoples accounts that he does not get audited!

The irony of an accountant getting audited is not lost on me. Haha.

Nah he's paying for his family to go SYD-BKK-LHR//MUC-BKK-SYD in F. Going as 2 groups of 2; very flexible, happy to take J for some legs, etc

Looking at ~$3k pp inc taxes, fees.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

A friend bought $8000 worth of miles. He still needs another $4000 at 100% promo rates.

Not going to pay full price now, are we? Where's your FF spirit!

Is he purchasing all the miles himself and through 1 account?

Might have been easier/faster to set up 4 (or 5) accounts (mum/dad/siblings), then you only need 2 (or 3) promo's.

 

[Flashback]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

Just logged into usairways.com using the US Airways trip reference and brought up my booking and it now shows the PNR for TG + UA (but not SQ) in addition to the US reference. Wonder if this is a new feature?

 

[Alanslegal]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

Just a newbie SQ redemption question; C class is booking with USDM right, even 388,77W flights. And would I awardtraveller or even SQKF account to search for availability (I guess having Saver Awards might help).?

 

[bcworld]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

Just a newbie SQ redemption question; C class is booking with USDM right, even 388,77W flights.

I'm not sure I understand the question! You can't book 388 or 77W flights with US unless there is some sort of mistake somewhere. Use awardtravelr to find A333, 772, 773 flights etc.

 

[Alanslegal]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

I'm not sure I understand the question! You can't book 388 or 77W flights with US unless there is some sort of mistake somewhere. Use awardtravelr to find A333, 772, 773 flights etc.

Ah so you can't book 388/77W flights with USDM, even in C (business)?. I just thought that with SQ's release of Saver Awards a while back to its own FF that award availability may have reached their *A partners.

 

[hummel]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

Ah so you can't book 388/77W flights with USDM, even in C (business)?. I just thought that with SQ's release of Saver Awards a while back to its own FF that award availability may have reached their *A partners.

Nope unfortunately. The *regional* J is still quite nice for a day flight however...

 

[mhen]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

New promo for June
https://membership.usairways.com/en-US/dividendmiles/programdetails/purchasemiles/sharemiles.html?CAMPAIGNCODE=USSharelanding

Limited time offer: Give a 50% bonus and skip the processing fee when you Share Miles!
Now through June 30, 2013, when you share miles, you won’t pay the processing fee. Plus, you’ll give 50% more – up to 25,000 bonus miles.


Works out at $21.50 per 1,000 extra miles. Not as good as some share promos in the past nor as good as 100% bonus buy but still better than full price if you need to top-up miles for an award.

 

[PapaRubbery]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

Is he purchasing all the miles himself and through 1 account?

Might have been easier/faster to set up 4 (or 5) accounts (mum/dad/siblings), then you only need 2 (or 3) promo's.

Sorry I wasn't clear. Each passenger has their own acct. He's just footing the bill.

New promo for June
https://membership.usairways.com/en...s/sharemiles.html?CAMPAIGNCODE=USSharelanding

Limited time offer: Give a 50% bonus and skip the processing fee when you Share Miles!
Now through June 30, 2013, when you share miles, you won’t pay the processing fee. Plus, you’ll give 50% more – up to 25,000 bonus miles.


Works out at $21.50 per 1,000 extra miles. Not as good as some share promos in the past nor as good as 100% bonus buy but still better than full price if you need to top-up miles for an award.

LOL!

That'll do it, I reckon. Haha lordy that was fast!

So Person A shares say 50,000 miles to person B.

Person B now has +75,000 miles, and person A has -50,000 miles.

Person B shares 50,000 miles to Person A, and now person A has +25,000 miles, and Person B has +25,000 miles.

Am I correct in thinking this?

 

[mhen]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

Sorry I wasn't clear. Each passenger has their own acct. He's just footing the bill.

LOL!

That'll do it, I reckon. Haha lordy that was fast!

So Person A shares say 50,000 miles to person B.

Person B now has +75,000 miles, and person A has -50,000 miles.

Person B shares 50,000 miles to Person A, and now person A has +25,000 miles, and Person B has +25,000 miles.

Am I correct in thinking this?

Yes
But it will still leave him 25K short if he is aiming for 150K in each account and currently has 100K.
If he wants to book soon (and is prepared to pay more) he can get the remaining 25K by joining everyone to Starwood, waiting 14 days and then purchasing 20K Starwood points each at $35 per 1,000 (same as US air but no 7.5% tax). However these 20K points can then be transferred to US air with a 5K bonus giving everyone the 25K required.

Also Diners and David Jones Amex allow for transfers to Starwood (1 starwood point for 2 credit card points) and then on to US Air or numerous other airlines.

 

[repete]

Re: US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

So, as posted in the 'successful' thread, managed to book a J-return for my parents to visit Europe next year. It was quite an experience! Happy to share any helpful tips, but don't want to just re-hash old ground? A few things I thought were interesting from my experience:
- bought all points from scratch during 100% promo; each account bought 30K miles with 30K bonus, and were gifted 30K plus 30K bonus to make up 120K. Was pleased to see points post instantly.
- bought points after flights had been reserved. Initial phone call to book flights took 18minutes! I'd researched using a combination of AwardTravelr and the new Award Nexus (thanks AFF!) to find flights and just quoted flight numbers etc. Interesting there was some differences between the two search engines. All flights were available when I called up except last leg - since I was trying to book for 338 days in advance! That's where some troubles arose...
- next day I rang back and within 5 minutes booked last leg since it was now available. Then hung up to buy points and rang back to ticket afterwards. When I called back, the agent said they weren't on separate accounts, despite me telling the first agent to set them up that way since points would be coming from two accounts (as tipped off to do here!) Best to double check that if you're using points from two accounts!!
- somehow one agent managed to work around that and said she ticketed it. Said to hang up and itinerary would come through in a few mins. By next morning, 240K points were missing but no tickets!! Rang back next chance I could only to discover they were having trouble with my credit card!? Very helpful agent kept on trying and trying and trying (different addresses etc)... till finally it processed!!
- so yes, I'd say agent lottery continues... some were pleasant and helpful, others one or the other, a couple none of the above!