US Dividend Miles - Oneworld Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[anna2103]

Hi guys, am very new to US Dividend miles so was hoping someone knew the answer to my questions. I will be in London next year, and was thinking about a side trip to the Mexico, but flight availability looks horrible. One option I can find is to fly into Mexico City and fly out of LA. Is this allowed because they are two different regions on the award chart even though the same number of miles is required. The second question is is their anyway to avoid all the penalties for flying in/out of the UK. They seem to want to only put you on BA flights which have huge carrier imposed fees. Thanks for any advice

 

[bcworld]

Hi guys, am very new to US Dividend miles so was hoping someone knew the answer to my questions. I will be in London next year, and was thinking about a side trip to the Mexico, but flight availability looks horrible. One option I can find is to fly into Mexico City and fly out of LA. Is this allowed because they are two different regions on the award chart even though the same number of miles is required. The second question is is their anyway to avoid all the penalties for flying in/out of the UK. They seem to want to only put you on BA flights which have huge carrier imposed fees. Thanks for any advice

If you can find availability on AA (or AA/US combo) you can book that and avoid YQ...however there will still be a hefty payment for UK APD tax which is unavoidable if departing the UK. The open jaw you describe should be fine.

 

[ms1]

[h=1]Your Trip[/h]

Next stop: the airport. See terminal information and find your way.


[h=3]Original date issued:[/h][h=2]Confirmation code[/h]

[h=2]Total[/h]​

​

[h=1]Passengers[/h]





[TABLE="class: passinfo jqrypassengerinfovalidation, width: 958"]
[TR]
[TD="class: headerrow padleftmd, bgcolor: #ECF4F8"]Passenger name[/TD]
[TD="class: headerrow, bgcolor: #ECF4F8"]Frequent flyer # (Airline)[/TD]
[TD="class: headerrow, bgcolor: #ECF4F8"]Ticket #[/TD]
[TD="class: headerrow padleftmd, bgcolor: #ECF4F8"]Special needs[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: cell large padleftmd passengerame"]xx_xx_X xx_xx_xx_[/TD]
[TD="class: cell medium frequentflyer"]400xx_xx_XX (US Airways)

[/TD]
[TD="class: cell small ticketnumber"]037xx_xx_xx_XX[/TD]
[TD="class: specialneeds"]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]





[TABLE="class: passsummary, width: 958"]
[TR]
[TD="class: contactinfo dod-phone"]Day of departure phone: 61-04xx_xx_XX[/TD]
[TD="class: contactinfo email-receipt"]Email for receipt: [email protected][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]







This is the screen that appears when I use the mytrip function of usairways.com. The flight segments no longer appear however all my details including ticket number are still there. I've contacted QF and CX as they are operating carriers and they say flights are still ticketed and ready to go on their end and US Airways say no problem either and it's just a website glitch. I have another booking which isn't glitched.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[get me outta here]

I also have a bkg which has never shown properly and I have just given up trying to sort it out. USDM just say that they don't know why, "it's gibberish". I can see most of it on the QF site.

 

[Questor]

Stupid question time - given the USDM lax rules re: booking, could I book say MEL-SYD-NRT (Stopover) -JFK as part of a Aus - US Award? In J of course

I think I probably could, given what I understand of the programme, but I thought I'd get some advice from the experts!

 

[_TheTraveller_]

SYD-DXB-DOH-CDG(dest)-JFK(stop)-HKG-SYD

What are my chances? I exceed the MPM by just a tad... I also think my best chances of getting CX F from US-HKG is via one of the other ports(BOS or ORD which would push the MPM even further).

I'm trying really hard to try QF F and avoid LHR...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Stupid question time - given the USDM lax rules re: booking, could I book say MEL-SYD-NRT (Stopover) -JFK as part of a Aus - US Award? In J of course

I think I probably could, given what I understand of the programme, but I thought I'd get some advice from the experts!

that should be ok. as long as it is within MPM you're fine for the stopover.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Stupid question time - given the USDM lax rules re: booking, could I book say MEL-SYD-NRT (Stopover) -JFK as part of a Aus - US Award? In J of course

I think I probably could, given what I understand of the programme, but I thought I'd get some advice from the experts!

Beaten by Mel_Traveller!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

USDM is strict on MPM these days... even a few miles over will result in an invalid itinerary.

 

[Steady]

Stupid question time - given the USDM lax rules re: booking, could I book say MEL-SYD-NRT (Stopover) -JFK as part of a Aus - US Award? In J of course

I think I probably could, given what I understand of the programme, but I thought I'd get some advice from the experts!

Welcome to AFF ​Questor

 

[Questor]

that should be ok. as long as it is within MPM you're fine for the stopover.

Excellent, now to find some (notoriously rare) JAL availability! Do they only show their seats 3 months in advance? I've not been coming up with anything next year

And thanks for the welcome!

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Excellent, now to find some (notoriously rare) JAL availability! Do they only show their seats 3 months in advance? I've not been coming up with anything next year

And thanks for the welcome!

Sorta. Its kinda weird.

7) Awards booked on Japan Airlines are valid for the next 90 days starting from the following day of the Award Ticket issuance. Reservations for domestic JAL Award Flights within Japan must be made no earlier than 0930 Japan time, two months prior to travel.

 

[Questor]

Sorta. Its kinda weird.

I saw that clause on the USDM site - makes you want to book with someone like CX instead where you can at least plan a little bit more in advance

 

[anat0l]

USDM is strict on MPM these days... even a few miles over will result in an invalid itinerary.

I wonder how US DM (or rather, agents) "check" the MPM rule.

I just finished a recent booking, the end result was BNE-HKG-NRT (stop)-HEL-ZRH (dest)-LHR-HKG-BNE

So originally, using EF, I checked out the MPM for BNE-ZRH and it was incredibly generous (IMO), especially after taking into account the 25M number. The original routing was BNE-SIN-HND,NRT-HKG-LHR-ZRH-LHR-HKG-BNE. Now this original outbound routing was in violation of the MPM (inbound was fine), so - alright - I managed to find an alternative for NRT to ZRH, which went via HEL instead. That shaves of a couple of thousand miles off the outbound, but the agent still contends that the outbound exceeds the MPM. Apparently it is the routing to TYO for the stopover which is doing it. Luckily, whilst the agent was on hold with another person trying to work out what I could do to save the stopover, I found some availability via HKG (this only happened to open up / reappear in recent days!), so when the agent came back I changed the routing to NRT, shaving even more miles off the outbound and now I was fine.

Using EF's MPM calculator, if I punch in the full routing into the main field, it will give you a coughulative MPM calculation, which compares the coughulative mileage travelled against the MPM for the origin to progressively each destination in the routing. If I put in the routings I had before the final one that was ticketed, at some point the calculator will show that the MPM is exceeded along the way, even though once I got to the end (i.e. ZRH), I was overall within the 25M MPM.

This leads me to believe that at least the routing to the stopover point (if you choose to have a stopover) must also comply with the MPM (or 25M as it were). That said, as with anything US DM, how consistently this is applied could be anyone's guess. Furthermore, my proposal may be incorrect anyway, albeit MPM is being taken rather seriously at the moment, if not from here on in.

 

[anat0l]

Excellent, now to find some (notoriously rare) JAL availability! Do they only show their seats 3 months in advance? I've not been coming up with anything next year

And thanks for the welcome!

Sorta. Its kinda weird.

In spite of that, my latest booking includes a JL flight in it and another prospective booking coming up will include intra-Asia (not Japan domestic) JL flights. All of these seats are clearly "available" using the BA tool.

Now I'm not sure if that means JL might do a rug pull if the ticketed flights are not consumed in 3 months time. Mind you, it would be rather odd (perhaps negligent or false, even in spite of the "caveat term" that US DM have attached to the chart) if such a condition was imposed but it was still possible to book a JL flight which would have no chance of being consumed before the three months was up. I guess we'll have to see! (Will keep an eye on the ticket, as well as - as always everyone should do - check with the relevant airlines for a ticketed e-ticket record).

 

[anna2103]

Des anyone know the deal with the stopover/hub cities of partner airline. The rules are that you have have a stopover in a US airways hub (philly etc) or a partner airline hub. Its the partner airline hub that I am interested in as I would like to go LHR-MIA (dest)- JFK(stopover) - LHR. Also, I have been using AA tool to look for availability, does anyone have any experience of something better for US bound flights? Its a bit confusing with the tiered date system that have for redemptions. Thanks

 

[bcworld]

Des anyone know the deal with the stopover/hub cities of partner airline. The rules are that you have have a stopover in a US airways hub (philly etc) or a partner airline hub. Its the partner airline hub that I am interested in as I would like to go LHR-MIA (dest)- JFK(stopover) - LHR. Also, I have been using AA tool to look for availability, does anyone have any experience of something better for US bound flights? Its a bit confusing with the tiered date system that have for redemptions. Thanks

Well JFK is clearly an AA hub and a US destination so no issues there.

As for the AA search, you're not going to find less confusing than that really, the monthly calendar view there is very useful. Otherwise, use QF or BA sites to search transatlantic availability without worrying about award tier levels.

 

[anna2103]

Well JFK is clearly an AA hub and a US destination so no issues there.

As for the AA search, you're not going to find less confusing than that really, the monthly calendar view there is very useful. Otherwise, use QF or BA sites to search transatlantic availability without worrying about award tier levels.

Thanks. Its weird because when you use the USDM partner award travel search, it comes up as 270000 points which is more than double what the award chart states.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

I wonder how US DM (or rather, agents) "check" the MPM rule.

.....

This leads me to believe that at least the routing to the stopover point (if you choose to have a stopover) must also comply with the MPM (or 25M as it were). That said, as with anything US DM, how consistently this is applied could be anyone's guess. Furthermore, my proposal may be incorrect anyway, albeit MPM is being taken rather seriously at the moment, if not from here on in.

If the stopover occurred after the dest, which way do you think the MPM would be calculated from? Dest-stop or origin-stop?

 

[bcworld]

If the stopover occurred after the dest, which way do you think the MPM would be calculated from? Dest-stop or origin-stop?

MPM is calculated for travel in each direction. So your outbound could be fine and your inbound not. It will never be calculated from destination to some point on the return segments.