US Dividend Miles - Oneworld Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[sergeyvzn]

I'm not sure if this question has been asked before - what are chances of getting from Sydney (or Australia in general for that matter) to South America via anything other than the direct Sydney - Santiago flight?

I am planning a trip to South America in 2015 but it seems like it's almost impossible to get two J seats between Sydney and Santiago. QF flights don't have any J availability at all and LAN J seats are few and far between...has anyone been able to book and ticket anything between Australia and South America via Middle East (thinking Doha), Europe or the USA?

Any suggestions / ideas would be most appreciated

 

[kreuky]

had the same issue...ended up just going to USA and buying a Y return ticket from there.

 

[sergeyvzn]

had the same issue...ended up just going to USA and buying a Y return ticket from there.

I'm too old to go Y -

I could certainly do 2 different awards - say one Australia-USA or Middle East and then another one USA/Middle East to South America but that would be wasting points...

I might have to look at relevant threads on FlyerTalk to see how routing/zone/MPM restrictions influence getting to and from South America

 

[kreuky]

I thought about that too but from USA to South America is also very difficult to find J award flights...didn't really bother me as I wanted to go USA as well anyway

 

[sergeyvzn]

I thought about that too but from USA to South America is also very difficult to find J award flights...didn't really bother me as I wanted to go USA as well anyway

Should be easier - American fly from Dallas and Miami to lots of ports, plus US Airways themselves from Charlotte, plus LAN plus TAM

 

[Doggy]

Should be easier - American fly from Dallas and Miami to lots of ports, plus US Airways themselves from Charlotte, plus LAN plus TAM

Depending on the actual destination, I'm pretty that route will smash MPM. MPM is SUPER restrictive from SYD to SA. To the point where the only option is to fly direct to SCL to stay under.

Best solution:
Fly to Perth on your own coin and take QR to DOH>Europe and BA, IB or JJ SAmerica. That is under MPM and plenty of availability usually. Outlay will be 120k+tax+flight to PER. Call it 150k if you wanna use USDM to go to PER.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Depending on the actual destination, I'm pretty that route will smash MPM. MPM is SUPER restrictive from SYD to SA. To the point where the only option is to fly direct to SCL to stay under.

Best solution:
Fly to Perth on your own coin and take QR to DOH>Europe and BA, IB or JJ SAmerica. That is under MPM and plenty of availability usually. Outlay will be 120k+tax+flight to PER. Call it 150k if you wanna use USDM to go to PER.

Thanks for that. I can see one immediate improvement to it though - Qatar flies direct to several SA ports from Doha thus eliminating the need to go via Europe. I've been thinking about this routing, I should probably double check if SYD-PER-DOH-EZE maybe under MPM...

 

[Doggy]

Thanks for that. I can see one immediate improvement to it though - Qatar flies direct to several SA ports from Doha thus eliminating the need to go via Europe. I've been thinking about this routing, I should probably double check if SYD-PER-DOH-EZE maybe under MPM...

Haha, I just got back on to mention that because I forgot. Great point.

You can go DOH to somewhere like GRU, but availability is less common.

To answer your q: it is over MPM. The only route under MPM from SYD is through SCL.

 

[bcworld]

Don't forget that US can still book you a partner award on SAA...PER-JNB-GRU. You would of course have to make your own way to PER as this cannot be combined with a OneWorld carrier on SYD-PER.

 

[Timba-Jet]

Don't forget that US can still book you a partner award on SAA...PER-JNB-GRU. You would of course have to make your own way to PER as this cannot be combined with a OneWorld carrier on SYD-PER.

For a Oneworld itinerary, try JNB-GRU with TAM.

SYD-PER-JNB-GRU-xx_, might not solve the mpm issues

 

[bcworld]

For a Oneworld itinerary, try JNB-GRU with TAM.

SYD-PER-JNB-GRU-xx_, might not solve the mpm issues

Well it's not possible anyway because there is no OneWorld service on PER-JNB-GRU.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Would SYD-JNB-GRU on QF and TAM work? Will it exceed the MPM?

 

[smit0847]

Depending on the actual destination, I'm pretty that route will smash MPM. MPM is SUPER restrictive from SYD to SA. To the point where the only option is to fly direct to SCL to stay under.

Best solution:
Fly to Perth on your own coin and take QR to DOH>Europe and BA, IB or JJ SAmerica. That is under MPM and plenty of availability usually. Outlay will be 120k+tax+flight to PER. Call it 150k if you wanna use USDM to go to PER.

Would ADL-PER-DOH-EZE on QF + QR be under MPM? It would be cheaper to start in ADL than PER if you can add a ‘free’ ADL-PER flight and ADL is an extremely easy airport to transit even on two different itineraries.

 

[bcworld]

Would SYD-JNB-GRU on QF and TAM work?

There is no OneWorld service between JNB and GRU.

 

[Doggy]

Would ADL-PER-DOH-EZE on QF + QR be under MPM? It would be cheaper to start in ADL than PER if you can add a ‘free’ ADL-PER flight and ADL is an extremely easy airport to transit even on two different itineraries.

I don't have the numbers, but I believe that routing would be touch and go. Best bet is to find availability and call them up and see what happens. I hear some people have gotten routes ticketed that are over MPM in the past. Ya never know...

 

[anat0l]

Would ADL-PER-DOH-EZE on QF + QR be under MPM? It would be cheaper to start in ADL than PER if you can add a ‘free’ ADL-PER flight and ADL is an extremely easy airport to transit even on two different itineraries.

According to EF, ADL-EZE doesn't have a MPM indicator to cross the Atlantic, only (1) the Pacific directly and (2) the Pacific via North America.

The mileage of your proposal exceeds the 25M of the first indicator but not that of the second one (with a fair margin to go).

EF doesn't compute the coughulative total for some reason ("mileage data not available"); certainly from ADL-PER-DOH there is no 25M MPM exceeded on that part of the routing.

Give it a shot.

For whatever it is worth, 25M MPMs between Australia and Buenos Aires are about 10-11k miles on the Pacific only indicator, and about 20-21k miles on the Pacific via North America indicator. Add about 3k miles if starting from PER.

 

[Timba-Jet]

Don't forget that US can still book you a partner award on SAA...PER-JNB-GRU. You would of course have to make your own way to PER as this cannot be combined with a OneWorld carrier on SYD-PER.

For a Oneworld itinerary, try JNB-GRU with TAM.

SYD-PER-JNB-GRU-xx_, might not solve the mpm issues

Well it's not possible anyway because there is no OneWorld service on PER-JNB-GRU.

Would SYD-JNB-GRU on QF and TAM work? Will it exceed the MPM?

My bad, and sorry for posting misleading info, need to double check my details next time. Was thinking of SYD-JNB-GRU QF/TAM combo, but now realise TAM do not operate their own GRU-JNB service, but codeshare on the SAA metal. QR via DOH seems like the way to go.

On a side note, imagine if QF did the maths and saw an opportunity to plug the gap by extending their JNB service to do JNB-GRU (and maybe SCL tag) to give a southern hemisphere RTW.

 

[Doggy]

My bad, and sorry for posting misleading info, need to double check my details next time. Was thinking of SYD-JNB-GRU QF/TAM combo, but now realise TAM do not operate their own GRU-JNB service, but codeshare on the SAA metal. QR via DOH seems like the way to go.

On a side note, imagine if QF did the maths and saw an opportunity to plug the gap by extending their JNB service to do JNB-GRU (and maybe SCL tag) to give a southern hemisphere RTW.

Operating a route 10k kms from their nearest hub? Doubt many would call that an opportunity as much as a waste of $ they don't have.

 

[bcworld]

On a side note, imagine if QF did the maths and saw an opportunity to plug the gap by extending their JNB service to do JNB-GRU (and maybe SCL tag) to give a southern hemisphere RTW.

I'm going to guess the maths would not be very compelling!

 

[sighing]

This is more general feedback rather than a question. Quick background: buried somewhere in this thread I had a few posts around USDM availability on CX first class. At the time I'd settled on the following itinerary to be flown next week:

SYD-HKG (CX J)
HKG-LHR (CX F)
LHR-CDG (BA J)
CDG-HKG (CX F)
HKG-MNL (CX J)
MNL-SYD (QF J)

Points were 150K plus taxes at around $280US

Using KVS, I more recently found some availability from HKG-SIN on CX F, followed by SIN-SYD on BA 15 in J so I called USDM and changed for $150 US.

This week just gone, BA released more award seats in both J and F and so I again contacted USDM to change the cabin class from J to F on BA 15. BTW, for anyone interested, there are still award seats available in both classes in early November.

The interesting and slightly odd thing was how this last change request appeared initially to be destined to fail, as it took 4 calls plus $150 US. The following took place over a period of 3 and a half days. Call number 1 I was told yes, it is possible for $150 change fee AND due to BA taxes, another $500 surcharge. No thanks, I said. Second call I was told no sir it is not possible to do unless the miles are refunded, and all flights re-booked, err...definitely no thank you. The third time, the agent actually decided I was no longer on the other end of the line and hung up; the final and fourth time, a very helpful agent had absolutely no trouble change my cabin class on the flight to F for $150 US and around 5 minutes of my time.

So, I'm excited to finally have the following itinerary settled for departure next week. This will be my first time on CX F as well as BA F so the anticipation is even more heightened this time around. As always, I'm very grateful for all the advice offered within this website.

SYD-HKG (CX J)
HKG-LHR (CXF) approx 13 hr stopover
LHR-CDG (BA J) destination
CDG-HKG (CX F) approx 8 hour stopover
HKG-SIN (CX F)
SIN-SYD (BA F)

Points - 150K plus taxes ($280 US) plus 2 x change fees = $300 US, plus persistent calls to USDM using the tried and tested HUACA method!

I'm currently assigned 1E on the BA flight, so would welcome any advice noting that the last row - row 4 - is pretty much still available for selection.

This will also be the catalyst for my 2nd trip report which I'm also looking forward to sharing with you mid-Nov.