US Dividend Miles - Post Your SUCCESSFUL oneworld bookings here

[tm.smile]

I use Skype to call the US number which is toll free. It doesn't cost anything on Skype and you don't need to have credit to call.

 

[appaz]

When booking with USDM's is its local or international No.? and toll free?.

use skype and its free

 

[anat0l]

When booking with USDM's is its local or international No.? and toll free?.

Use Skype and call +1 800 428 4322. This should register the country being called as United States.

The call will be free of charge and does not require Skype credit. Although obvious, it is advisable to call only in an area where the continuity of internet connectivity can be relied upon.

Of course, you can always call from a regular landline or even your mobile phone if you have some credit to burn or you are on a plan cap, but it will most likely not be free of charge (likely will be charged at the prevailing rate for international calls), and you will likely be told of this fact before you actually get to the US DM voice menu.

There is no local US DM number for Australia. Some people try calling US DM in the UK to make reservations, but that's only some times previously when the USA based centres were swamped in with calls due to weather disruptions.

 

[Foreigner]

Use Skype and call +1 800 428 4322. This should register the country being called as United States.

The call will be free of charge and does not require Skype credit. Although obvious, it is advisable to call only in an area where the continuity of internet connectivity can be relied upon.

Of course, you can always call from a regular landline or even your mobile phone if you have some credit to burn or you are on a plan cap, but it will most likely not be free of charge (likely will be charged at the prevailing rate for international calls), and you will likely be told of this fact before you actually get to the US DM voice menu.

There is no local US DM number for Australia. Some people try calling US DM in the UK to make reservations, but that's only some times previously when the USA based centres were swamped in with calls due to weather disruptions.

Good advice here. I do know AA has a local no. which may be the no. to call when merger of US Airways and AA FF programs takes place.

 

[anat0l]

Good advice here. I do know AA has a local no. which may be the no. to call when merger of US Airways and AA FF programs takes place.

I don't know if things have changed, but even ticketing an AAward is better to call AAdvantage in the USA on their toll free number anyway.

The Australian AA number is useful if the original agent processing your award in the USA cannot process your Australian (basically non-US and non-Canadian) credit card (i.e. they will put your booking on hold, then you call the Australian AA office to get ticketed up, with slightly higher processing fee). I believe there are ways around this too, which I can't remember at the moment and not relevant right now...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I don't know if things have changed, but even ticketing an AAward is better to call AAdvantage in the USA on their toll free number anyway.

The Australian AA number is useful if the original agent processing your award in the USA cannot process your Australian (basically non-US and non-Canadian) credit card (i.e. they will put your booking on hold, then you call the Australian AA office to get ticketed up, with slightly higher processing fee). I believe there are ways around this too, which I can't remember at the moment and not relevant right now...

Additionally - the AA site may be unable to process a booking which i found out can be due to the 'zip' code field. Foreign billing addresses are not required to enter the zip code and if you do so, it won't process. I rang AA and the agent said 'what does the text say?' to which I replied 'only enter zip code for US billing addresses'.

She said 'uh huh', I said 'ohhh'.

 

[netgrom]

Successfully booked for November SWMBO parents on QF and QR 2 x BNE-SYD-PER-DOH-ROM open jaw FCO-DOH-MEL-BNE all in J 120,000 points, $210 USD taxes each had to be a bit flexible with times and dates, unfortunately the BNE-PER flights didn't line up for the QR connection so had to transit through Sydney and there is a overnight on the way back, else its a pretty clean booking. The booking process seemed to go very smoothly and I surprisingly got straight through.

 

[IronBird]

Booked a little while ago but picked up 4J PER-SYD on 24 Dec (Merry Christmas) and returning on 2 Jan.

3 Apr (Happy Easter) 4J PER-BNE (o'night with sister)
4 Apr 2J/2Y BNE-CNS
13 Apr 4J CNS-SYD (o'night with family)
14 Apr 4J SYD-PER

All were standard 30K points return each pax. Can't remember taxes but roughly $50 each. I found better flight times by searching individual sectors than searching for PER-CNS. Booking process was fine - tele-robot thought I wanted CDG-ORD!

 

[Swan]

Booked a little while ago but picked up 4J PER-SYD on 24 Dec (Merry Christmas) and returning on 2 Jan.

3 Apr (Happy Easter) 4J PER-BNE (o'night with sister)
4 Apr 2J/2Y BNE-CNS
13 Apr 4J CNS-SYD (o'night with family)
14 Apr 4J SYD-PER

All were standard 30K points return each pax. Can't remember taxes but roughly $50 each. I found better flight times by searching individual sectors than searching for PER-CNS. Booking process was fine - tele-robot thought I wanted CDG-ORD!

Well done, USDM is great for PER travelers intra zone, going to miss it.

 

[1022]

Three successful bookings for me since they changed to OW. All for flights to New York.

1: Booked early Jul 2014 for travel just before Xmas. (I was amazed that there was availability!) CX F HKG-JFK-HKG. 120k + only $35 in cash. I didn't question it Those flights were booked on my third attempt that day. Attempt 1 was SYD-NRT-JFK in J and back again via HKG and KUL. However only Premium Y was available on the JL flight SYD-NRT and they can't book into PY, so I had to abandon that itinerary. Second i found a somewhat circuitous route, just inside stopover rules via KUL and HKG both ways on MH and CX. Called back and was told by the agent "We can't process bookings on that airline. They're about to go bankrupt". I actually believed her and gave up on that option. Or perhaps it was all the convincing I needed to buy an extra 10k miles and book CX F HKG-JFK-HKG. I then just bough a QF Y fare up to HKG with upgrade request pending and then CX PY on the flight back to Sydney because it was only $200 more than Y. So all up not all that cheap at about $4k. But then the CX website is quoting AUD29,000 for HKG-JFK return over the holiday season. The only question that remains now is whether I can nab a Cabana for my time spent at the Wing.

2: Very straightforward booking made for a friend in August for travel next April/May. SYD-NRT-JFK-NRT-(stop)-SYD all in J. 110k + $167 tax + $50 booking fee. Agent was the best I've encountered so far in my dealings with US Air. Booked and ticketed in 10 minutes. Soon after booking, JL announced their 787s on JFK will be retrofitted with their skysuite J product. Happiness much! The old "Shell Neo" prioduct that they inexplicably put in brand new 787s seems fairly pedestrian.

3: Booked early September with the latest bonus promotion. SYD-NRT-(22hours)-BOS [openjaw] JFK-NRT-SYD for myself in May 2015. 110k plus about $215 in taxes and fees. A couple of weeks later I read about QF tweaking their north American schedules. Lo and behold the holy grail of a J seat had popped up on SYD-LAX a day earlier than my original departure date. I quickly called US Air to change to that with AA over to JFK. That phone call was a bit of a debacle being passed around a couple of agents and ticket desk having to recalculate fees. But after about 40 minutes my booking was amended and $11 difference in taxes taken off the $150 change fee.

I'm a happy camper!! However the falling exchange rate plus integration with AA (and the end of 2 for 1 mile purchases?) will cause a bit of pain with future bookings...wait and see I guess.

 

[Flippantflyer]

Recently booked for 2 pax:

Bne - Syd - Nrt (dest) - Syd - Mel - Hob

QF J and JL F. 120,000 points each plus about $300 us in taxes and fees.

Not my best value redemption but I've used up all my leave on other holidays this year so needed to find a trip I could do over the xmas-new year shutdown and that would enable a brisaie visit to see my folks for Xmas day

 

[Questor]

Just rung to put on hold for 2 pax:
MEL-SYD-NRT-HEL (dest)
HEL - NRT (Stopover)-SYD-MEL

June next year - all in J - 120k points plus $214 US taxes and fee - quite happy with that - would have happily gone any other routing on the way out, but availability was scarce - we get to experience the JAL Dreamliner between HEL and NRT too

 

[anat0l]

Just rung to put on hold for 2 pax:
MEL-SYD-NRT-HEL (dest)
HEL - NRT (Stopover)-SYD-MEL

June next year - all in J - 120k points plus $214 US taxes and fee - quite happy with that - would have happily gone any other routing on the way out, but availability was scarce - we get to experience the JAL Dreamliner between HEL and NRT too

Hopefully by June next year all of the 787s in the JAL fleet will be refitted with the superior Business seat. At the moment, most 787s only have the angle-flat Business seat; the refitted product is being prioritised on the American markets.

 

[Questor]

Hopefully by June next year all of the 787s in the JAL fleet will be refitted with the superior Business seat. At the moment, most 787s only have the angle-flat Business seat; the refitted product is being prioritised on the American markets.

Yes, that would be even better - I am actually really interested to see just how quiet the 787 is - the A380 seems much quieter than the 777 but every report I read says the 787 is quieter still

 

[Questor]

Ticketed tonight, added in MEL-SYD legs too for an extra $16 in taxes (!)

MEL-SYD QF J
SYD-NRT JL J
NRT-HEL AY J

HEL-NRT JL J (Stopover)
NRT-SYD JL J
SYD-MEL QF J

Total $230 US in fees per pax and 120k miles (x2)

 

[LordGarlic]

managed to ticket the following for 2 pax. All in J except the sin-nrt sector which is in Y.

sin-nrt(JL)
nrt-yvr (JL) stopover
yvr-lax(US)dest
lax-hkg(CX)
hkg-sin (CX

120k miles and aud$ 160 in taxes pp.

 

[jjaxie]

Plenty of JL F availability at Christmas so I booked:

SYD-NRT (stopover)
NRT-CGK (dest)
CGK-NRT
NRT-SYD

All in F and I don't have to decide between beach and snow. Not bad for 120k miles and $194 taxes.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Plenty of JL F availability at Christmas so I booked:

SYD-NRT (stopover)
NRT-CGK (dest)
CGK-NRT
NRT-SYD

All in F and I don't have to decide between beach and snow. Not bad for 120k miles and $194 taxes.

Wow - I don't know the max permitted mileage to CGK but I'd take a fair guess you are well and truly exceeding it!! The wonders of USDM never cease to amaze me... especailly after my MEL-East Coast USA was disallowed because it was over by 80 miles

 

[anat0l]

Plenty of JL F availability at Christmas so I booked:

SYD-NRT (stopover)
NRT-CGK (dest)
CGK-NRT
NRT-SYD

All in F and I don't have to decide between beach and snow. Not bad for 120k miles and $194 taxes.

Geez...that looks like quite a way around! Nice grab.

 

[jjaxie]

I was surprised it got through, given the same agent did not allow a domestic itinerary with a stopover (which I've done a quite a few times before with no questions) because that's against the rules. You can never tell with USDM.