US Dividend Miles - Post Your SUCCESSFUL oneworld bookings here

[MEL_Traveller]

Well given US advertises the share with a friend promo, allows someone else to have authority on your account and allows you to add up to 8 additional passengers (on the booking preferences page) I don't agree with the view that its against the rules to book for others. But I accept it's a flag that may raise questions but in my view probably only in conjunction with other behaviours.

These might include multiple accounts, extensive patterms of buying/sharing with others (rather than just a few times). While it's not totally clear what people get up to the indications are some behaviours are pretty extreme.

the program is flexible. And you can certainly book for family members, or maybe a domestic partner etc etc without any problems at all. I would suspect if everyone is flying on the same itinerary not much of a flag.

But if you start booking for friends who aren't flying with you.... it can raise the flag as you say. You may then have to show that booking a $2500 ticket for your friend was done without any financial compensation.

Which would be pretty generous

 

[burmans]

Which would be pretty generous

It certainly would be but given US have the "share with family/friends" promo which is equally generous, they cant really claim that in and or itself its a breach of rules given they are thereby encouraging people to buy miles for someone else(and presumable expecting that the promo will have at least some takers).

As noted by others of course closely related people can also have different surnames (even husbands and wife in my case) and it would be difficult for US to know if any relationship exists. I'm really not sure why US don't capture relationship on buy/share/gift transactions and the 8 additional passengers page, and if they really want to restrict to a set group of relationships they can. Seems to me they are trying to have their cake (on the purchase side) and eat it too(on the redemption side), which I have a bit of a problem with.

 

[hedge]

Booked JFK-NRT-HKG-PER, PER-HKG-JFK all on J (CX/JL). Booked 11 days out or so. Took me a bit of time to sort out availability as I used BA. Had problems seeing CX availability with the agent like some others have mentioned, but worked it out.

Tip: If you can't reach USDM on their US line, call their UK line. The phone was answered within 2 seconds and they were more than helpful.

 

[burmans]

Tip: If you can't reach USDM on their US line, call their UK line. The phone was answered within 2 seconds and they were more than helpful.

Were they any easier to understand, some of the accents can be tough on the US line?

 

[Robsieb]

Have always skipped the voice agent straight off!

How do you skip the mechanical voice? It is so frustrating?

 

[burmans]

How do you skip the mechanical voice? It is so frustrating?

You keep on saying AGENT, you will eventually get one.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

How do you skip the mechanical voice? It is so frustrating?

at the appropriate points:

how can i help you today? 'award travel'

let's get statrted, where do you want to fly from? 'agent'

ok, is this for travel within the USA? 'no' (or 'yes' if your answer is... 'yes' )

 

[smit0847]

Booked JFK-NRT-HKG-PER, PER-HKG-JFK all on J (CX/JL). Booked 11 days out or so. Took me a bit of time to sort out availability as I used BA. Had problems seeing CX availability with the agent like some others have mentioned, but worked it out.

Tip: If you can't reach USDM on their US line, call their UK line. The phone was answered within 2 seconds and they were more than helpful.

When you say more than helpful do you mean they were very competent?

We all want agents who are competent enough to find the flights but not so competent that they knock back non-direct routing etc!

 

[curtainbounce]

I would babysit your reservation very carefully.

There are many reports on FT of IB segments just cancelling 'themselves' after a few days. People rebook them, they auto cancel again.

@bcworld - yep, my Iberia legs are now gone. Not really sure what to do about it as it seems from FT it will keep happening every few days even if rebooked...
I guess my 2 options are see if they'll book me from somewhere else (adding an open jaw but it's possible I guess) - say Barcelona or London (both have AA space currently) or I could try the Finnair Paris > Helsinki > JFK route I'd previously tried to book.

Anyone else have any ideas? It's for 2 pax in J on the 5th April next year.

 

[bcworld]

@bcworld - yep, my Iberia legs are now gone. Not really sure what to do about it as it seems from FT it will keep happening every few days even if rebooked...
I guess my 2 options are see if they'll book me from somewhere else (adding an open jaw but it's possible I guess) - say Barcelona or London (both have AA space currently) or I could try the Finnair Paris > Helsinki > JFK route I'd previously tried to book.

Anyone else have any ideas? It's for 2 pax in J on the 5th April next year.

Sorry to hear that!

It seems there is one seat in J on AA that day CDG-JFK. In the brave new US/AA world I wonder if you could get AA to open up a second? You'd need to involve a supervisor of course but it's their duty to fix your ticket. Have seen reports on FT of people being passed between US and AA call centre reps.

 

[d.diddy_13]

My first booking done for April 2015 for 3 people business on MH (90K $159.50 in taxes each)

MEL - KUL - BKI
BKI - KUL
KUL - MEL

I nearly gave up, what a difference a good agent makes

 

[curtainbounce]

Sorry to hear that!

It seems there is one seat in J on AA that day CDG-JFK. In the brave new US/AA world I wonder if you could get AA to open up a second? You'd need to involve a supervisor of course but it's their duty to fix your ticket. Have seen reports on FT of people being passed between US and AA call centre reps.

Interesting... will definitely give that a go. I'm going to call them tonight.
I would actually be happy with the forced open jaw if they'd do it - just an excuse to visit another city! We'll be spending most of our time in London so we can go to wherever.

 

[bcworld]

Interesting... will definitely give that a go. I'm going to call them tonight.
I would actually be happy with the forced open jaw if they'd do it - just an excuse to visit another city! We'll be spending most of our time in London so we can go to wherever.

They don't tend to be too amenable to breaking the rules just to get people out of a schedule change type situation. In the past they've certainly said no to people who've proposed a double openjaw or openjaw + stopover as a solution to an issue.

However perhaps in this case the IB problem is US's fault?

Ask for a supervisor if you feel you aren't getting anywhere.

 

[curtainbounce]

They don't tend to be too amenable to breaking the rules just to get people out of a schedule change type situation. In the past they've certainly said no to people who've proposed a double openjaw or openjaw + stopover as a solution to an issue.

However perhaps in this case the IB problem is US's fault?

Ask for a supervisor if you feel you aren't getting anywhere.

Thanks bcworld, your advice is much appreciated as this is my first time at the rodeo!

 

[hedge]

Were they any easier to understand, some of the accents can be tough on the US line?

They were spanish, but not hard to understand. I do have to admit that I sometimes have trouble understanding American accents.

When you say more than helpful do you mean they were very competent?

We all want agents who are competent enough to find the flights but not so competent that they knock back non-direct routing etc!

TBH, I haven't really done much indirect routing. I booked a USA trip via Europe with a stop over in Turkey that was allowed. But until I cross the line and am told that I have, I won't know where the line is

I did try stop over and open jaw in one booking, however the agent said he would check with his supervisor and it was all denied so I changed the booking.

 

[burmans]

When you say more than helpful do you mean they were very competent?

We all want agents who are competent enough to find the flights but not so competent that they knock back non-direct routing etc!

Has to laugh at that one, I agree that if they were too competent we might not be able to make some of the bookings we do, nor get any benefits of geographic ignorance.

 

[hedge]

When you say more than helpful do you mean they were very competent?

We all want agents who are competent enough to find the flights but not so competent that they knock back non-direct routing etc!

Has to laugh at that one, I agree that if they were too competent we might not be able to make some of the bookings we do, nor get any benefits of geographic ignorance.

Sometimes geography helps. I said I wanted my ticket to have PER as a destination and when he was reading the ticket back, he said Bejing!

 

[sietes]

So after a couple of weeks of research (thanks to all who have posted previously and responded to questions) I have decided to book despite higher than hoped fess etc from BA.

So it is MEL-DXB-LHR (stop)-JFK(dest)-LHR-DXB-MEL all in F

Initially priced at 150k plus $530 which i was very happy with, but then when they tried to ticket came back and advised it would be $1030 due to BA's fuel surcharges. Put it back on hold and thought about it for a couple of days and decided why not? It's still relatively a steal compared to buying the tickets.

 

[sietes]

By the way i spent about 5 hours on the phone (skype), mostly on hold, over 5 separate calls.

 

[netgrom]

Nice to see a successful F, what other airlines and how far out?