US Dividend Miles - post your SUCCESSFUL award bookings here.

[anat0l]

SYD-BKK TG F
(25 hour stopover in BKK)
BKK-HKG TG A380 F
(5 night stopover in HKG)
HKG-TPE BR J
TPE-GUM BR J
(destination)

GUM-NRT UA J
NRT-ICN OZ F
ICN-HKG TG J
HKG-BKK TG A380 F
BKK-SYD TG F


40,000 miles + $182 taxes + $50 booking fee pp.

1 call. 20 minutes. Not a single problem. Agent asked me to suggest flights and told me it would be 40k pp without me mentioning it.

Very excited to get 5 legs in F. Breaks almost every rule in the DM guidebook. With the recent share promo this was less than $US700 including everything pp. Gosh I am going to miss this program.

Very good itinerary, but apart from the possibly the GUM routing intricacies, which rules did you "break"?

More legs in F is not breaking any rule, and the price is on par (apart from, once again, GUM tricks).

 

[thehound]

SYD-BKK TG F
(25 hour stopover in BKK)
BKK-HKG TG A380 F
(5 night stopover in HKG)
HKG-TPE BR J
TPE-GUM BR J
(destination)

GUM-NRT UA J
NRT-ICN OZ F
ICN-HKG TG J
HKG-BKK TG A380 F
BKK-SYD TG F


40,000 miles + $182 taxes + $50 booking fee pp.

1 call. 20 minutes. Not a single problem. Agent asked me to suggest flights and told me it would be 40k pp without me mentioning it.

Very excited to get 5 legs in F. Breaks almost every rule in the DM guidebook. With the recent share promo this was less than $US700 including everything pp. Gosh I am going to miss this program.

That is an unbelievably phenomenal itinerary! Well done

 

[Flashback]

Very good itinerary, but apart from the possibly the GUM routing intricacies, which rules did you "break"?

More legs in F is not breaking any rule, and the price is on par (apart from, once again, GUM tricks).

Stopover on a 1 region award.. in fact, 2 stopovers!

 

[anat0l]

Stopover on a 1 region award.. in fact, 2 stopovers!

Aaah gotcha! Still, that's only one rule broken besides GUM stuff.

Maybe they let it slip because it seemed close enough to 24 hours. Maybe they couldn't do the math .

 

[smit0847]

Very good itinerary, but apart from the possibly the GUM routing intricacies, which rules did you "break"?

More legs in F is not breaking any rule, and the price is on par (apart from, once again, GUM tricks).

Not to toot my own horn, but:

1. No stopovers on an intra-region award
2. No transits longer than 24 hours
3. Must be within MPM
4. Must be a logical, direct routing (NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK purely to get an OZ F when there is direct NRT-BKK is not logical or direct!)
5. Maximum of 8 legs per redemption

 

[anat0l]

Not to toot my own horn, but:

1. No stopovers on an intra-region award
2. No transits longer than 24 hours
3. Must be within MPM
4. Must be a logical, direct routing (NRT-ICN-HKG-BKK purely to get an OZ F when there is direct NRT-BKK is not logical or direct!)
5. Maximum of 8 legs per redemption

#1 is a GUM facet.

#2 definitely broken - got me there.

#3 no idea, but anyway doesn't seem solid anyway (I've ticketed two itineraries that seem to break the "destination or stopover" rule and/or the MPM one too)

#4 your routing seems direct enough - they don't seem to care IME as long as it seems to be in a mainly single direction. Had you tried to ticket this under AA style rules, you may have struggled for sure, since AA take a more rigid view on ticketing the "most direct routing".

#5 is not the rule - it has been maximum 10 legs (5 per journey) for a long time.

 

[smit0847]

#1 is a GUM facet.

#2 definitely broken - got me there.

#3 no idea, but anyway doesn't seem solid anyway (I've ticketed two itineraries that seem to break the "destination or stopover" rule and/or the MPM one too)

#4 your routing seems direct enough - they don't seem to care IME as long as it seems to be in a mainly single direction. Had you tried to ticket this under AA style rules, you may have struggled for sure, since AA take a more rigid view on ticketing the "most direct routing".

#5 is not the rule - it has been maximum 10 legs (5 per journey) for a long time.

I understood 8 was the max legs allowed?

Also a stopover must be at a *A hub city and you must fly into that city on that home airline (I know this is the least enforced rule of the program).

 

[anat0l]

I understood 8 was the max legs allowed?

Also a stopover must be at a *A hub city and you must fly into that city on that home airline (I know this is the least enforced rule of the program).

It's been 10 legs per booking (5 per journey) as long as I've known it, read from the FT thread that gave me the 101. Certainly I've had 2 bookings that have had 9 legs on them. 5 legs per journey is in some cases difficult, I guess, depending on how you go (because to use up the fifth leg can make your itinerary look odd or awkward).

The stopover rule has become more cloudy as time has gone on. I have managed to book a couple of itineraries - one with a non *A stopover, and both arriving at that stopover on a carrier not hubbed at that port!

It's kind of funny as both of these are not really part of the official US DM rules, but have been discovered by others as part of the process. The stopover rule was flagged in the FT thread as something which is not necessarily followed to a T.

Anyway, still a cracking itinerary. Only thing that may have really sealed it good is if you had managed, say, GUM [OZ J] ICN [OZ F] NRT [TG F] BKK [TG F] SYD. There's a bit of backtracking in that, plus availability on TG F on NRT/BKK is not easy, but suffice to say!

 

[jgm]

The destination is actually at HKG (4599 miles from SYD - GUM is only 3308), so GUM is really the stopover.

 

[stueyjones]

Another data point. Just booked a gum trip from brisbane. 1 night in gum, 5 nights in bkk. The usual single zine charge for J. Agent certainly realised what was happening (going as far as saying 'we won't call that a stopover, just a long transit'). Much as I'd love to say it was my charm, the care factor was so obviously low so I'm wondering if they are thinking they are overboard when the amalgamation happens? So why bother?

 

[legroom]

SYD-BKK TG F
(25 hour stopover in BKK)
BKK-HKG TG A380 F
(5 night stopover in HKG)
HKG-TPE BR J
TPE-GUM BR J
(destination)

GUM-NRT UA J
NRT-ICN OZ F
ICN-HKG TG J
HKG-BKK TG A380 F
BKK-SYD TG F


40,000 miles + $182 taxes + $50 booking fee pp.

1 call. 20 minutes. Not a single problem. Agent asked me to suggest flights and told me it would be 40k pp without me mentioning it.

Very excited to get 5 legs in F. Breaks almost every rule in the DM guidebook. With the recent share promo this was less than $US700 including everything pp. Gosh I am going to miss this program.

Even to an AFFer, this is spectacular value.

BTW, what's in GUM that so many AFFers are clamouring to get there ?

 

[Flashback]

Even to an AFFer, this is spectacular value.

BTW, what's in GUM that so many AFFers are clamouring to get there ?

Cheap flights in J / F on USDM..........

 

[get me outta here]

SYD-BKK TG F
(25 hour stopover in BKK)
BKK-HKG TG A380 F
(5 night stopover in HKG)
HKG-TPE BR J
TPE-GUM BR J
(destination)

GUM-NRT UA J
NRT-ICN OZ F
ICN-HKG TG J
HKG-BKK TG A380 F
BKK-SYD TG F


40,000 miles + $182 taxes + $50 booking fee pp.

1 call. 20 minutes. Not a single problem. Agent asked me to suggest flights and told me it would be 40k pp without me mentioning it.

Very excited to get 5 legs in F. Breaks almost every rule in the DM guidebook. With the recent share promo this was less than $US700 including everything pp. Gosh I am going to miss this program.

smit, may I ask how long you will need to be in each place (apart from BKK and HKK which you mentioned)?

 

[anat0l]

Even to an AFFer, this is spectacular value.

BTW, what's in GUM that so many AFFers are clamouring to get there ?

GUM is in the same zone as Australia (South Pacific). However since it's so difficult to get there, if you find the right agent they will let you go through other (more expensive) zones and still pay the price for an intrazonal (South Pacific) award.

As you can see, this pretty much flies in the face of some of the key US DM redemption rules.

 

[smit0847]

smit, may I ask how long you will need to be in each place (apart from BKK and HKK which you mentioned)?

14 hrs (all day) in TPE
27 hrs in GUM lol
2 hrs in NRT
18 hrs in ICN
23.5 hrs in HKG again.

ths purpose of the trip is to visit HKG not GUM!

 

[smit0847]

Some of you heading to GUM on United may be interested to read this TR - UA Island Hopper December 2013 In J — Trip Reports Forum | Airliners.net

 

[get me outta here]

Some of you heading to GUM on United may be interested to read this TR - UA Island Hopper December 2013 In J — Trip Reports Forum | Airliners.net

That is definitely a take your own food route. At first when I opened the link I quite interested in a possible way of going HNL to GUM, but was less so after the reading.

 

[markis10]

That is definitely a take your own food route. At first when I opened the link I quite interested in a possible way of going HNL to GUM, but was less so after the reading.

Pits the scenic route that some prefer, there is also a direct 777 service daily.

 

[smit0847]

That is definitely a take your own food route. At first when I opened the link I quite interested in a possible way of going HNL to GUM, but was less so after the reading.

Pits the scenic route that some prefer, there is also a direct 777 service daily.

The food doesn't look too bad - apart from the repetition. Apart from the spectacular scenery Im not sure why you would do the island hopper unless you were properly visiting each island - all those short flights and deboarding every hour or two seems like a huge waste of time.

 

[smit0847]

Another data point. Just booked a gum trip from brisbane. 1 night in gum, 5 nights in bkk. The usual single zine charge for J. Agent certainly realised what was happening (going as far as saying 'we won't call that a stopover, just a long transit'). Much as I'd love to say it was my charm, the care factor was so obviously low so I'm wondering if they are thinking they are overboard when the amalgamation happens? So why bother?

Yeah I had a similar experience. My agent was competent enough to know that GUM was zones SWP without me even mentioning it yet let me get away with whatever itinerary I wanted. I got the distinct impression that she just didn't really care anymore.

Think about it - I believe the USDM call centre is in Charlotte. Staff will/have probably be given the opportunity to join the AA call centre at some stage (which Im guessing is in Dallas?) or look for another job - I assume they will centralise operations. Charlotte is a LONG way from Dallas!

Regardless, this is a fabulous time to be trying to book a ridiculous itinerary!