US Dividend Miles - Oneworld Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks, all good advice. Not happy re unattended luggage ... I wonder if as I am at the lounge in a meeting, the buggy man might bring the case to me.

The lounge is in a sterile area. The bag would need to pass through security, which would be possible if you had a small hand luggage sized bag I guess. But there may be other security issues why someone would not want to carry an bag into a sterile area.

 

[boomy]

Thanks, all good advice. Not happy re unattended luggage ... I wonder if as I am at the lounge in a meeting, the buggy man might bring the case to me.

I don't think they are allowed to do it for safety reasons.

 

[get me outta here]

So close and yet so far. I do want to take a case as shopping this time otherwise, if HLO, would presumedly just go to lounge on the buggy clutching my smallish bag and BP, before heading out to the hotel for a sleep.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So close and yet so far. I do want to take a case as shopping this time otherwise, if HLO, would presumedly just go to lounge on the buggy clutching my smallish bag and BP, before heading out to the hotel for a sleep.

IIRC TG on-line check-in is 24 hours prior to departure. I'm not sure how early an outstation can issue a connecting boarding pass, considering they will probably see no need to do so as there is a presumably a stopover in the ticket.

 

[get me outta here]

Actually, just checked timing, it is a 16 hour connection o/night. I'll ask, but I don't feel this is going to work. If only the bag weren't out there I still could go to a lounge meeting for a while.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Actually, just checked timing, it is a 16 hour connection o/night. I'll ask, but I don't feel this is going to work. If only the bag weren't out there I still could go to a lounge meeting for a while.

16 hours is ok! the bag can be through-checked for that time (as opposed to over 24 hours for which it cannot).

you should also be able to get your connecting boarding pass, if not on departure in AU then at the transit/transfer counter at BKK. If you have BP and bags checked the buggy can take you straight to the lounge if you tell them you are just in transit.

 

[get me outta here]

Terrific Have all o/night stuff in hand luggage and hope I am all chkd all through SYD BKK HKG TPE GUM, and enjoy the lounge. Can email my hotel transport p/up from BKK to delay for say 2 hours and have a massage and dinner etc and what ever else.

I feel a quite petty with this whilst all the MH sadness is also going on in parallel.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

What are the chances for an outbound flight like this? PER-MEL-DXB-LHR-JFK? Do I have to find someone geographically challenged?

 

[sergeyvzn]

What are the chances for an outbound flight like this? PER-MEL-DXB-LHR-JFK? Do I have to find someone geographically challenged?

Significant backtracking...I would say the chances are low but you can always try

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Significant backtracking...I would say the chances are low but you can always try

Yeah, what do you think about ADL-MEL instead?

Edit: Another question about QF F awards, is it safe to assume that QF only releases 1 F seat then maybe at a later date the yield management may decide to release another F seat?

 

[anat0l]

Searching for some broad options for my sister, and CX is a pretty bleak landscape! I'm finding more and better timed forward options on QF compared to CX....that's nuts. I guess there's also "Murphy's Law of Availability: All the availability between two cities is always in the wrong direction".

One thing that's also a hurt is CX timing to BNE. The flight leaves around midday which doesn't meet any flight from Japan without needing to overnight. Even if the product is inferior, I'd rather put her on QF, or JL direct from Japan (via SYD).

I guess that's the breaks if you don't live in SYD or MEL.

 

[Doggy]

Hey peeps, pleased to say I'm pretty close to my first J booking with USDM. Need some outside thoughts to balance my view here. Have to get to GRU for a wedding in Feb '15. Managed to get PER-DOH-CDG(stop)-GRU ret in J all the way on hold -- which would be great but I'm in Sydney, got knocked back by MPM when I add the Sydney legs.

So I'm a little concerned that the cost has blown out a bit. Add the cost of the SYD-PER legs and we're looking at 150k pp. After crunching the #s, the cost is AUD3k each. Obviously great value to visit Paris and Brazil in J, but it's more than I originally planned to pay.

What would you guys do? Book it, or wait for the next trip? I do have to go to India in June as well so the miles will be put to use.

 

[thehound]

Hey peeps, pleased to say I'm pretty close to my first J booking with USDM. Need some outside thoughts to balance my view here. Have to get to GRU for a wedding in Feb '15. Managed to get PER-DOH-CDG(stop)-GRU ret in J all the way on hold -- which would be great but I'm in Sydney, got knocked back by MPM when I add the Sydney legs.

So I'm a little concerned that the cost has blown out a bit. Add the cost of the SYD-PER legs and we're looking at 150k pp. After crunching the #s, the cost is AUD3k each. Obviously great value to visit Paris and Brazil in J, but it's more than I originally planned to pay.

What would you guys do? Book it, or wait for the next trip? I do have to go to India in June as well so the miles will be put to use.

Is the huge time spent in travelling west from SYD to GRU worth it? If so just book cheap SYD to PER Y fares and save the extra miles.

 

[jgm]

For me the extra MEL-PER-MEL flights - 30k in J & US$78.38, was a lot better than I could buy flights for. I really needed J as we are skiing & need the luggage allowance. As the extra miles were purchased at 1c/mile, it brings the total cost to around A$400. A quick check on the QF website shows A$442 for red-e deal on coughstar Y as the cheapest available, plus additional baggage charges (and a reduced limit of 23kg per bag from the 32kg for J). So to me that says that if you have some miles remaining so you can take advantage of the next transfer deal, it is well worth spending the miles now.

 

[Doggy]

Thanks jgm and thehound. First-world problems huh?

 

[curtainbounce]

The above posts have got me starting to think about our baggage allowances for next year. We are on Qantas and Qatar from Sydney via Perth and Doha to Berlin, airberlin from Berlin to New York and then Cathay home back to Sydney via HK. All in J.

I've done some googling but it's leaving me stumped as to exactly which carrier's baggage applies. Since we are crossing from Tariff Area 3 to Tariff Area 2 following these MSC rules when we fly from Perth to Doha:
Cathay Pacific MSC

Am I right in thinking that Qatar's policy will then apply for our entire trip? This appears to be 40kg max per person.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The above posts have got me starting to think about our baggage allowances for next year. We are on Qantas and Qatar from Sydney via Perth and Doha to Berlin, airberlin from Berlin to New York and then Cathay home back to Sydney via HK. All in J.

I've done some googling but it's leaving me stumped as to exactly which carrier's baggage applies. Since we are crossing from Tariff Area 3 to Tariff Area 2 following these MSC rules when we fly from Perth to Doha:
Cathay Pacific MSC

Am I right in thinking that Qatar's policy will then apply for our entire trip? This appears to be 40kg max per person.

I've had this issue before with USDM tickets - one of the operating airlines (TG) refused to accept MSC rules because the ticket, as issued, made no reference to the MSC baggage allowance. TG said they would only honour the baggage allowance printed on the USDM ticket, and if we wanted MSC benefits, we would need to go back the USDM and have the ticket resissued.

So i would check by calling the relevant airline.

 

[QF029]

I'm finding the JAL tool excellent for CX availability searching. I'm close to booking MEL-HKG-NYC and playing with dates. On the return I can see a whole leg EWR-HKG-MEL but if I search for them separately I can't see the HKG-MEL component. The DM agent I spoke to couldn't see it HKG-MEL leg searching either way. Any suggestions aside from trying a different agent?

 

[sergeyvzn]

I'm finding the JAL tool excellent for CX availability searching. I'm close to booking MEL-HKG-NYC and playing with dates. On the return I can see a whole leg EWR-HKG-MEL but if I search for them separately I can't see the HKG-MEL component. The DM agent I spoke to couldn't see it HKG-MEL leg searching either way. Any suggestions aside from trying a different agent?

Try HKG-BNE or ADL and then QF to Melbourne

 

[Kangol]

I'm finding the JAL tool excellent for CX availability searching. I'm close to booking MEL-HKG-NYC and playing with dates. On the return I can see a whole leg EWR-HKG-MEL but if I search for them separately I can't see the HKG-MEL component. The DM agent I spoke to couldn't see it HKG-MEL leg searching either way. Any suggestions aside from trying a different agent?

Seems like you are dealing with an issue called "married segments".
The bottom line is you can't book them separately.
Is there a problem with departing from EWR?
A bird in the hand and all that...