US Dividend Miles - Oneworld Award Booking Questions and General Discussion

[get me outta here]

Some creative guru options plse : I still have 30K miles left over and am wondering how best to use starting in CBR or SYD or where ever necessary, and taking a swing to NZ (anywhere, leaving from AKL), and over to Broome and return to wherever, preferably CBR? Maybe in August.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Some creative guru options plse : I still have 30K miles left over and am wondering how best to use starting in CBR or SYD or where ever necessary, and taking a swing to NZ (anywhere, leaving from AKL), and over to Broome and return to wherever, preferably CBR? Maybe in August.

i think the best you can achieve is an open jaw.

make your own way to auckland, and fly from there to Broome, and then back to SYD/CBR (or whatever variation you want on that type of trip).

you won't be able to do a round-trip that includes auckland and Broome (and there's no stopover allowed anyways).

 

[get me outta here]

OK, so say AKL - Broome (stop). Then Broome - (SYD/MEL/PER/ADL) - CBR.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

OK, so say AKL - Broome (stop). Then Broome - (SYD/MEL/PER/ADL) - CBR.

essentially yes. Although vv would also work.

 

[get me outta here]

triffic, thanks for that.

essentially yes. Although vv would also work.

 

[paultiffen]

Hi is double open jaw possible ie hnd zrh and mxp kul

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi is double open jaw possible ie hnd zrh and mxp kul

Nope. One open jaw or one stopover per itinerary.

You could however close the loop (with an extra sector KUL-Tokyo... provided USDM allow that routing) and just skip the last leg.

 

[Limewood]

We have 60K USDM left possible go say 2 x J SYD/NAN/SYD?

 

[get me outta here]

What about somewhere even more exotic in the South Pacific? Any more ideas?

We have 60K USDM left possible go say 2 x J SYD/NAN/SYD?

 

[Limewood]

Well not exotic maybe Noumea, Cook Islands?.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well not exotic maybe Noumea, Cook Islands?.

Where does oneworld or the remaining USDM partners fly to? I don't think there is coverage for the Pacific islands, unless you can get Qantas metal there.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Noumea is the only place really....as of March 2015 when the program's merge we should be able to go to Fiji with Air Fiji as they are a partner of AAdvantage

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Noumea is the only place really....as of March 2015 when the program's merge we should be able to go to Fiji with Air Fiji as they are a partner of AAdvantage

except under AA it will be a lot more expensive - round-trip will be 60K in business instead of 30 it is now.

 

[sergeyvzn]

Always like it - you have to pay for everything in this life

 

[baggyred]

Some may remember a few days ago I asked whether a flight amendment could be put on hold with USDM whilst you already had a booking. I rang up USDM and was told no.

The leg which I wanted was DXB -> LHR on QF1. What was interesting is this leg showed availability on the BA/AA tools, but not on the QFF tool. JAL tool kept coming up with an error message so I couldn't use that.

Given I already had a booking routed via AMS, I didn't want to pay 2 changes fees whilst I waited for my return leg to open up coming home from Vienna via Doha.

What I did to ensure that flight was still available was use my AA account to put the flight on hold online - which you can do for up to 5 days. Then the moment I rang USDM to make my changes, I simply logged on to AA site and cancelled the hold and the seats reappeared.

My fear was that the seats may not come back to award inventory once the hold was released, however I "practised" on another couple of QF1 flights that I could see on BA/AA but not QF and literally as soon as they went on hold they disappeared and as soon as I cancelled the hold they re-appeared (I also double checked by calling USDM to be told no space was available, then released the hold and called back and they could be seen). So I took the punt on the QF flight I wanted and it worked perfectly.

I think it might be different (seats going back to award inventory) if an actual booking was made, but the hold function of AA was perfect - you can literally make the award space appear/disappear instantly. Obviously it only works for those airlines visible on the AA tool - like Qantas.

Anyway, I have gleaned a lot on here, so just wanted to share something I discovered. For those wanting to hold an outbound leg whilst waiting for the return, this may be perfect - simply cancel the hold and re-do it within a minute might a viable alternative to the $150 change fee - albeit, only for about another 4-6 months.

 

[get me outta here]

I checked availability QF SYD - RAR, but not available as an award.

Would US Air allow (having 30,000 points) this: CBR - SYD - AKL (for a long transit if possible), NAN - SYD - CBR?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I checked availability QF SYD - RAR, but not available as an award.

Would US Air allow (having 30,000 points) this: CBR - SYD - AKL (for a long transit if possible), NAN - SYD - CBR?

Which airline for AKL-NAN?

As an open jaw (own arrangements AKL-NAN) it should theoretically be fine.

Qantas doesn't fly to RAR, so there would be no award availability.

 

[get me outta here]

FJ and there's availability. So, I couldn't do the whole trip on points? Bu**er.

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: location"]12:55AucklandDuration: 3h 05m[/TD]
[TD="class: location"]16:00NadiStops: 0[/TD]
[TD="class: flight-number"]FJ410[/TD]
[TD="class: fare FF_ECOA, bgcolor: #F8F8F8, align: center"]Seat Available
[/TD]
[TD="class: fare FF_BUSA last-col, bgcolor: #F8F8F8, align: center"]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Which airline for AKL-NAN?

As an open jaw (own arrangements AKL-NAN) it should theoretically be fine.

Qantas doesn't fly to RAR, so there would be no award availability.

 

[sergeyvzn]

FJ and there's availability. So, I couldn't do the whole trip on points? Bu**er.

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: location"]12:55AucklandDuration: 3h 05m[/TD]
[TD="class: location"]16:00NadiStops: 0[/TD]
[TD="class: flight-number"]FJ410[/TD]
[TD="class: fare FF_ECOA, bgcolor: #F8F8F8, align: center"]Seat Available
[/TD]
[TD="class: fare FF_BUSA last-col, bgcolor: #F8F8F8, align: center"]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Can't book FJ with USDM

 

[MEL_Traveller]

FJ and there's availability. So, I couldn't do the whole trip on points? Bu**er.

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: location"]12:55AucklandDuration: 3h 05m[/TD]
[TD="class: location"]16:00NadiStops: 0[/TD]
[TD="class: flight-number"]FJ410[/TD]
[TD="class: fare FF_ECOA, bgcolor: #F8F8F8, align: center"]Seat Available[/TD]
[TD="class: fare FF_BUSA last-col, bgcolor: #F8F8F8, align: center"][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Code shares are almost always excluded from award redemption. (For example you can't book EK flights with a QF code though USDM)

Qantas doesn't operate its own metal to RAR, and Fiji Airways is not a partner of USDM.