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

[Alanslegal]

No points have showed up in US Airways yet, it's been 2 days.

Just checked the confirmation e-mail and read this: We received your request to transfer Starpoints® to USAirways. Please allow up to four weeks for the transfer to be completed.

Four weeks! :shock: :shock:

My transfer last week took 5 days, I think you'll be right. [And no I didn't use the registry].

So not to gloat or anything but I just made a booking MEL-BCN-MEL and the taxes+booking fee were $192. So I was pretty much spot on the money with $200!

Are you flying with SQ?

 

[travelislife]

How did you route?

Significant savings can be made if you can avoid the UK or at least avoid departing the UK on a longhaul premium sector.

The other higher charges are some of the ports within the German-ish block, which have notable airport and government charges (e.g. for noise abatement or environmental impact).

Given that fuel surcharges are almost non-existent on US DM bookings, a final sum of around $200 - $350 for a return Euro itinerary is probably not unusual (plus the booking fee for US DM). My total ancillary was about $250.

All done very quickly on the phone, simple routing with no stopovers, had sourced availability from the Aeroplan tool and did need to state the flights as at first search by the agent when I stated origin and destination she couldn't find any availability in Business.

Routing is the following:

MEL-SIN (SQ)
SIN-IST (TK)
IST-BCN (TK)

BCN-BRU (SN)
BRU-BKK (TG)
BKK-MEL (TG)

Departing Mid July, Returning first week of August, all in Business Class.

Taxes and Charges were $142 + $50 booking fee. Imagine if all FF programmes just charged Taxes and not Fuel Fines, life would be a dream!

 

[travelislife]

As a side note, with another account I bought 50,000+25,000 bonus points about 4hrs ago and they still haven't posted to my account (money appears to have come off credit card). I also signed up to the points.com account for the extra 25,000 points by adding in the US airways program and registering my US dividend miles account. I hope these more convoluted promos aren't going to cause more issues and the need to chase points. Is a lot more at risk when paying hard cold cash rather than chasing miles through credit card sign ups, etc.

 

[Hubbins]

Given all the Bonus's US Airways have been issuing
1. Dec 2011 100% Bonus Buy Miles
2. The Current Buy Miles Bonus of 50% and addition 50% with Points.com and
3. The Special with SPG with an extra 50% for transfers

Is US Airways in trouble ? or is this due to the GFC and diminishing consumer demand on purchases on credit cards leading to diminished transfer of points from the Credit Cards Companies to Airlines and this another way of bring forward revenue ? As most redemptions don't take place straight away ?

I suppose this question could also apply to Virgin Australia 15% bonus
Virgin Atlantic 30% bonus
Singapore 15% Bonus
British Airways 40% Bonus (US and UK Amex MR Customers)
Better redemptions with Thai Malaysian and Asian Miles

Or are these bonus issued to be competitive with the other airline ? or just because the airlines love us :mrgreen:

A Great Topical Question (Should this be an separate thread) I will let the Moderator decide that

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Given all the Bonus's US Airways have been issuing
1. Dec 2011 100% Bonus Buy Miles
2. The Current Buy Miles Bonus of 50% and addition 50% with Points.com and
3. The Special with SPG with an extra 50% for transfers

Is US Airways in trouble ? or is this due to the GFC and diminishing consumer demand on purchases on credit cards leading to diminished transfer of points from the Credit Cards Companies to Airlines and this another way of bring forward revenue ? As most redemptions don't take place straight away ?

I suppose this question could also apply to Virgin Australia 15% bonus
Virgin Atlantic 30% bonus
Singapore 15% Bonus
British Airways 40% Bonus (US and UK Amex MR Customers)
Better redemptions with Thai Malaysian and Asian Miles

Or are these bonus issued to be competitive with the other airline ? or just because the airlines love us :mrgreen:

A Great Topical Question (Should this be an separate thread) I will let the Moderator decide that

US Airways needs cash - but this is no different to AA selling points ($1 billion worth to a bank) in order to raise cash on hand. US Air is not going to go bankrupt, it will enter chapter 11 is anything (unlikely s they have been more profitable recently) and tickets will still be valid.

 

[thehound]

This system looks great on paper, but my only concern is availability. For example, I want to go to the US early next year - KrisFlyer is showing plenty of availability on multiple dates for saver J awards PER-SIN-LAX/SFO, but searching for the same dates on the ANA/US Air/United tools doesn't show this availability.

Does anyone have any clues on this? If SQ is showing availability of these flights, can they be booked via the US Air call centre even if they can't be seen on other *A booking tools?

I'm keen to utilise the current bonus offer, but would hate to sink some cash into the points only to not be able to book SQ flights I can see availability for on KrisFlyer!

Does anyone also have any experience with buying SQ upgradeable Y fares, then upgrading to J using Dividend Miles?

 

[kpc]

If you share miles, how long does it take for the miles to hit the recipient's account? It is not instantaneous as I found out tonite....

FYI, it took 2 business days

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This system looks great on paper, but my only concern is availability. For example, I want to go to the US early next year - KrisFlyer is showing plenty of availability on multiple dates for saver J awards PER-SIN-LAX/SFO, but searching for the same dates on the ANA/US Air/United tools doesn't show this availability.

Does anyone have any clues on this? If SQ is showing availability of these flights, can they be booked via the US Air call centre even if they can't be seen on other *A booking tools?

I'm keen to utilise the current bonus offer, but would hate to sink some cash into the points only to not be able to book SQ flights I can see availability for on KrisFlyer!

Does anyone also have any experience with buying SQ upgradeable Y fares, then upgrading to J using Dividend Miles?

No experience on upgrading Y fares.

As for seeing availability, I think the best course of action is going to be to call US Airways (you could do it now) and check availability. You can do that even with a zero miles balance. Ask them what they can see.

ANA doesn't seem to be updated to reflect SQ in a lot of cases (for example I have seen SQ available on UA via Mileage Plus, but this hasn't shown on ANA).

With other partners, people are reporting seeing LH available on UA/AC websites, but US still can't see it. So it can be hit and miss.

I would call and see and go from there.

 

[spudwa]

No experience on upgrading Y fares.

As for seeing availability, I think the best course of action is going to be to call US Airways (you could do it now) and check availability. You can do that even with a zero miles balance. Ask them what they can see.

ANA doesn't seem to be updated to reflect SQ in a lot of cases (for example I have seen SQ available on UA via Mileage Plus, but this hasn't shown on ANA).

With other partners, people are reporting seeing LH available on UA/AC websites, but US still can't see it. So it can be hit and miss.

I would call and see and go from there.

I booked a few months ago from Perth to New York and it was quite difficult. Ended up PER-BKK-ICN-JFK flying Thai/Asiana Coming back it was JFK-FRA-BKK-PER flying Singapore and Thai. All J

 

[trooper]

Any upgrade of that type (if even possible.. not all airlines belong to the *A upgrade program) is only possible from Y or B fares...

No way is it worth paying that much for a shot at an upgrade....

As already mentioned, it looks like ANA haven't got the word about the easing of SQ award seats... they still have the blanket prohibition on SQ "new" C etc listed on their website IIRC...

Why not go vi ICN and give OZ's new C class a try? Food and service are better than SQ IMO (YMMV!!!) Availability seems pretty good.. I just booked 2 seats for May....ICN-SFO....

 

[jcb12]

Anyone had any experience booking child fares on this deal? Last time we travelled, my son was an infant and we paid cash for his fare, but now he needs a child fare. I assume the number of points is the same, but just wondering if there would be any issues with us having him on a PNR by himself (since we'll have points in 3 different accounts), even though we'd all be travelling together?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Anyone had any experience booking child fares on this deal? Last time we travelled, my son was an infant and we paid cash for his fare, but now he needs a child fare. I assume the number of points is the same, but just wondering if there would be any issues with us having him on a PNR by himself (since we'll have points in 3 different accounts), even though we'd all be travelling together?

My friends did this - they had a four year old. He has his own account which they used to buy his ticket. So must have been a separate PNR. They've had no problems on the couple of flights they've done so far.

 

[Mrmaxwell]

I've been using the Aeroplan site to search availability...is it wise to try some others? I was originally using the ANA tool but with its blanket blocking of SQ award seats I stopped using it.

 

[bcworld]

I've been using the Aeroplan site to search availability...is it wise to try some others? I was originally using the ANA tool but with its blanket blocking of SQ award seats I stopped using it.

I like United.com, but the only 'premium' SQ inventory I'm seeing there is the A345 flights betwen SIN and LAX/EWR...still never any A380/77W flights between Aus and SIN or SIN-LHR etc.

 

[Alanslegal]

This system looks great on paper, but my only concern is availability. For example, I want to go to the US early next year - KrisFlyer is showing plenty of availability on multiple dates for saver J awards PER-SIN-LAX/SFO, but searching for the same dates on the ANA/US Air/United tools doesn't show this availability.

.....

I'm keen to utilise the current bonus offer, but would hate to sink some cash into the points only to not be able to book SQ flights I can see availability for on KrisFlyer!

It is great in practice - check the success thread for your data

One of the key elements in these awards is you need to have some flexibility. Restricting yourself to just SQ might give you some headaches, so if its not available, try routing via BKK, ICN to USA. Plenty of past evidence folks can get to the USA that way.

And what KF releases to their own flyers, does not necessarily mean they will release it to their *A partners.

 

[laffer]

Anyone had any experience booking child fares on this deal? Last time we travelled, my son was an infant and we paid cash for his fare, but now he needs a child fare. I assume the number of points is the same, but just wondering if there would be any issues with us having him on a PNR by himself (since we'll have points in 3 different accounts), even though we'd all be travelling together?

Hey jcb12. How did you pay cash for the infant? I have two accounts ready to go but we have an infant who needs to come with us and I want to know the best way to ticket her?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

deleted, error

 

[jcb12]

Hey jcb12. How did you pay cash for the infant? I have two accounts ready to go but we have an infant who needs to come with us and I want to know the best way to ticket her?

It was (fairly) simple. When I phoned up to book the flights, I simply told them that I needed to book an infant too, they went off and worked out the fare and then I paid it on the credit card. Just bear in mind that it'll be 10% of a full adult fare for whatever class you're in, so ended up costing us somewhere over $1000 for the baby in First (but still a bargain!)

 

[jcb12]

My friends did this - they had a four year old. He has his own account which they used to buy his ticket. So must have been a separate PNR. They've had no problems on the couple of flights they've done so far.

Brilliant, thanks MEL_Traveller

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Brilliant, thanks MEL_Traveller

I spoke with them about this last night in fact - they purchased separate ticket, separate PNR, and US made sure the PNR of child were linked to one of the parent's PNRs.