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

[spudwa]

Ok, so you managed a RTW itin as well...

I thought flying to Europe would up the cost to 120,000 miles, but because your just transiting it was just the cost of North America it seems...

You should post in the successful initeraries thread Spudwa...

Can't wait to book mine...

Was that a stopover in Bangkok on the way back as it seems to be more than 24 hours, but only just or did you not take a stop over, just flight to New York and flight back home???

Its not a stopover in Bangkok just a long wait between planes as they don't fly to Perth every day. Remember we are the MOST isolated city in the world ;-)

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Well just made my second redemption since joining. We were hoping for First class but availability was just not there. I was also surprised about how hard it was getting over the Atlantic. Still very pleased especially as the extra miles cost -10,000 miles compared to our London trip at the beginning of the year. We even got an email confirmation this time

Cost per person: 110,000 miles + $178.73 taxes + $50 processing fee

I had another look.
Flying SQ on that sector. My bad
Is that all in J or a mix of F and J?

 

[spudwa]

I had another look.
Flying SQ on that sector. My bad
Is that all in J or a mix of F and J?

all J only F that we could of got was Thai coming home but not really worth with the overnight stopover

 

[Oneworldplus2]

That's still very good value.
How is US Airways still in business, it must be costing them an arm and a leg???
If l can save up the miles each year, l'd rather do this than pay $2-$3k with QF for a Y seat (who wouldn't?) to Europe.

I was also having a look in the 'Successful award bookings' thread.
Some great itineraries.
Hitting myself for not finding out about this earlier.

 

[Shanye2233]

Well just made my second redemption since joining. We were hoping for First class but availability was just not there. I was also surprised about how hard it was getting over the Atlantic. Still very pleased especially as the extra miles cost -10,000 miles compared to our London trip at
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06/14 Singapore 25 New York to Frankfurt departing at 9:25PM and arriving at 11:15AM (+1 day)
06/15 Thai 921 Frankfurt to Bangkok departing at 2:45PM and arriving at 6:25AM (+1 day)06/17 Thai 481 Bangkok to Perth departing at 7:50AM and arriving at 3:35PM

Spudwa I wouldn't count my chickens before they hatch. If you have an itinerary which is incorrectly priced they can audit your account and cancell your ticket. And since you have 8 months before you fly there will be numbers changes and which you may even have to call us airways . ESP with TG .

I was reading somewhere once it has been ticketed for more then 40 days they can not cancell the ticket as most people would have incurred expenses towards their trip I.e advance hotel purchases

 

[spudwa]

Spudwa I wouldn't count my chickens before they hatch. If you have an itinerary which is incorrectly priced they can audit your account and cancell your ticket. And since you have 8 months before you fly there will be numbers changes and which you may even have to call us airways . ESP with TG .

I was reading somewhere once it has been ticketed for more then 40 days they can not cancell the ticket as most people would have incurred expenses towards their trip I.e advance hotel purchases

The trip is correctly priced. Its just one of those weird airline things. Europe is 120,000 and US is 110,000 for J. Just check the *Alliance site

 

[spudwa]

P.S.

My last Europe trip was F so I should of paid 150,000 but was only charged 120,000 probably because the agent only looked at the Perth-Bangkok leg. The guy who helped me with the booking advised that this is typical of badly trained agents and told me to keep the booking and indeed it was First class on the relevant legs. If anyone wants the email of this guy I use please PM me. Its worth it

 

[Shanye2233]

i rang up 4 times and tried going to usa then onto europe and back to syd . 3 said no valid routing 1 said RTW ticket in J is 300k or F 400k.

You should have at very min got charged 120k.

Thats my opinion anyway and im wrong 75% off the time :mrgreen:

 

[slodki]

Now I don't want you getting any ideas....BUT...

If you make a revenue booking on US (bizarre concept I know) they have an option where you can pay money to get more miles...it's called miles multiplier. So you can pay extra $$$ to get 2x or 3x the normal miles. The interesting thins is that the bonus miles post immediately AND if you cancel your booking you keep the miles and US keeps the fee it charged you to multiply the miles.

So you need a stash of cash but here is an example I saved a while back - the numbers might be a little different now.

Refundable J class ticket on US from SFO to Tel Aviv = $4855. Earns 24856 miles.

When you get toward the tail end of booking you are offered the 3x miles multipler option for $599. Total miles = 74568 miles.

Hence for $599 you get 49712 miles. And remember these post as soon as you book, NOT when you fly. The $599 is non refundable but you also don't have to give the miles back.

So assuming you can cancel at no penalty that's 1.2 cents per mile - you'd want to factor in credit card fees etc - these would be high on such a large $ figure so use something like 28degrees Mastercard which doesn't charge trans fee - you'd still lose some on the ex rate, although you could actually make money if you were lucky!

US Airways | Fly with US

Question is...is it legit to do this...are you setting yourself up to be auditted!?

This seems very tempting to do. To be safe you can just setup a new account and do 3x refundable purchases over the course of a few months to build up almost enough for a return F AUS-Europe.

I wouldn't see it as much of an issue - but if you start doing it every second week (assuming you can absorb the 4-6week wait for a refund) then it may raise a few eyebrows. I wonder if anyone on the other forums (flyertalk etc) have done something similar to this?

 

[casanovawa]

Shayne, your saying you tried an award to the US then Europe and back to Oz and were told 3 times no and once its a RTW itin, but haven't u said that you have booked itins of Oz to Europe then onto US and instead of having to backtrack that you have then gotten flights straight from the US back to Oz so in effect a RTW for only 120k in J i am assuming (if they insist on direct routings it is probably the shortest route to return straight to Oz across the Pacific)??? That's what i interpreted you as saying and if so how is that different to what SpudWA has done except in the opposite direction (although i think I have read you can't fly to Europe via the US, but then he isn't really flying to stop in Europe, only transiting)???

SpudWA i think if you had stayed in US and then stopped in Europe as well then u should be up for 120k if it was even valid, but maybe because its just a valid routing for a return (so no stopver as such in Europe) they are just giving it to you for the US J price...

Yes Oneworldplus2 bit annoying to only find out about this now, i am always finding out about good deals either just before they close or after they have been curtailed... I am annoyed that i could have bought more miles in september using the registry that i opened up when they were at 2.7 cents (or 1.35 with 100% bonus) and only bought 100k right before they went up in price, grrr... But will probably still use these type of awards in the future...

Edit: The only annoying thing about US Air is that they don't offer one way awards, its the same price if you decide to fly one way or return...

One thing people, just noticed this post on another website about more *A carriers imposing fuel fines
More Fuel Surcharges Coming to Aeroplan - Live and Let's Fly
Does this mean that if we try to book seats on these airlines via US Air the taxes/surcharge price will increase or will these hikes only be passed on if booking through Aeroplan or the websites of the airlines that have hiked the fuel prices???

Lastly who is this guy you use SpudWA, is he a badly trained/incompetent booking agent that we can contact and hopefully get an underpriced award routing??? Or exactly how is he helpful... If you want to PM me his details and he is useful i would appreciate it...

 

[Shanye2233]

My experiences from calling is if you try to go to Europe have it as a stop over then onto US as a destination and then return directly to Sydney it's RTW ticket or invalid routing. I will give you a tip once you give the agent the legs for your trip the computer takes time to process the taxes and this is were they throw it to the rate desk . This is the time
To buy time talk about the route the flight the airlines anything to stop her/him sendin it to the rate desk for the taxes. I did end up booking a ticket (4) on the routing I want . I'm trying to get the in laws on the same trip . Still waiting for a GS sweep.

I'm impressed with Shane2603 hits of 28 . I took a holiday checking in and out of hotels renting cars returning cars. But the big help came from
The velocity status match. Alot of US residents needed an Au address so I gave them one and in return
Asked for a few hits so really worked out well for me
And only costs me the postage to send their platinum packs
To the US .

 

[Shanye2233]

I even hired a pro who tried and couldn't get the routing. I still paid him tho he was helpful

 

[Oneworldplus2]

My experiences from calling is if you try to go to Europe have it as a stop over then onto US as a destination and then return directly to Sydney it's RTW ticket or invalid routing.

Shanye2233, can you somehow do this the other way around, taking a break in Europe, while passing through USA?

 

[casanovawa]

I'll be trying to fly to Europe then do a stop over in the US before hopefully flying back via Europe to Oz...

And yes i will try to distract the agent and talk about anything and everything...

Shayne, so you want to let in on the secret of how you got those car hires for about $7 or whatever u said it was?? Both for normal car hire opportunities when i travel and for GS 12??? I might take a holiday Septemberish next year to give me more opportunities to earn some hits, but if i travel for any reason before GS 12 starts I will try to stay at least one night in the cheapest hotels of all 9 chains to hopefully secure 9 hits or enough points to maybe transfer to the 9 different programs... Here's hoping i can wangle a work trip for at least some of it...

 

[Shanye2233]

There are codes you put in when you rent cars with Hertz. Avis , etc . I put in the code and it priced as free and only paying the taxes. I tried it
Once and the location never asked for the voucher they seemed to be more amused that i wasnt picking
Up the car or dropping off . I also brought them a latte each on my third rental did two more then 5 for my wife . I don't want to give out the code until after y trip next year.
But a good tip is use the hertz.ie website not hertz.com.Au it's alot cheaper .

As for the routing you can do anything you like. Just keep
Callin until you get what you want . Call at different timed
But I found our midnight is the best clueless agents .

But remember if they check your europe USA Asia routing
They will cancel it and you won't have a leg to stand on . I rang dept. Fair tradig they said they can't investigate a co. Outside australia . So no back up plan either

 

[Shanye2233]

The pro I hired name Is belrocks that's hid FT handle . He charges only $10 to book the award or $20 to find the availability and call to book it. Others I asked about where charging $80-$110 so he is super cheap

 

[casanovawa]

Thanks Shayne, lastly, with those rental codes you were using, were you renting the cars here in Oz (via the Ireland Hertz website i assume) or did you go overseas on a holiday???

And I guess if they can cancel it because of an invalid routing, wonder if it is best to try and book it within a short time of flying, say a month or less, rather than like 6 months out, even with the chance of reduced availability trying to book it so close...

 

[spudwa]

P.S.

My last Europe trip was F so I should of paid 150,000 but was only charged 120,000 probably because the agent only looked at the Perth-Bangkok leg. The guy who helped me with the booking advised that this is typical of badly trained agents and told me to keep the booking and indeed it was First class on the relevant legs. If anyone wants the email of this guy I use please PM me. Its worth it

Ok after reading the FAQ I think I'm allowed to post the name of the guy I used to help with my bookings as its a recommendation not an advert. I've used PointsPros.com twice now and both times Ben has been helpful, quick and efficient. I'd say he's just one of us who has attained Zen Master status and decided to make a business out of it. He has literally saved me hours and hours of scouring flight schedules, learning arcane routing rules and time on the phone searching for the "right" agent.

The most concerning thing he told me this time around is that award flights are getting harder to book as more and more people get in on these special deals. Also First class will become rarer because of the change over to cabin type 1st and the reconfiguration to smaller 1st cabins after the GFC.

 

[Shanye2233]

What's the GFC ? Is that the things the manly sea eagles won ?

I rented the cars in Sydney Australia I used the hertz.ie website . The codes I used are for discounted rentals . The codes I got from someone selling on CC on FT .

I think alot of people know about this points system since I have discovered it 6 months ago . I'm usually a loud mouth but I haven't told a soul how to do this ,and I don't think they would understand either.

I'm still waiting for a sale to get the in-laws over in F. I'm waiting for MEL-TRAVELLER to report
Back with the miles multiplier trick

 

[JohnK]

I am losing the will to live!