MeinMel

If I bought the points today with extra bonus points how many points would I need for business class tickets from singapore or bangkok? I need to travel from Perth to Paris first week of November though I would not know the dates till about 16-22 oct. and return from either Vienna or Paris on 28 December back to Perth.
I would not mind if I could get business for the longer leg.

Any ideas? Is it worth it?

bcworld

The award chart is still available on the website:

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/Resou...wardtravel.pdf

Do you also have an already opened LifeMiles account? They have 2x1 promo running also til the end of this month. You would probably be able to find Singapore Airlines business class between SIN and Europe using them.

MeinMel

Thanks, I do have both accounts opened and info on promo miles for both, so should I just buy Life Miles, would 100k be enough for business?
SQ would be preferred. Do u need to buy the miles and then just call LIfeMiles and book the flight using miles, is that right?

bcworld

If you want to ticket PER-CDG there are a couple of days showing with availability. All these flights are with Thai and the BKK-CDG flight is on the A380 so has full flat beds in business.



With LifeMiles you can pay in all miles or you can buy less miles now and pay more cash later...buying all miles now allows you to hedge against the falling AUD but buying less means you have less upfront commitment.

PER-BKK is 87500 miles ONEWAY:



...or for example you could use 41500 miles + 690USD...the total cost is actually exactly the same:



Alternatively if you are going to use your ID90s to go to SIN from there you could buy a ticket for 65000 miles or 31000 miles + 510USD.



Plenty of options and on some days you will see SQ flights - LifeMiles is special, these are not accessible to other Star Alliance programs.



Its possible the connecting SQ flights from PER are also available but for some reason the website will just not show them. Speaking of the website, book your flights there, don't even think about calling! Calling LifeMiles is not fun and besides they will not offer you options that don't appear on the website anyway.

MeinMel

Thanks for that. SQ did not seem to be available on my days so I ended up getting the miles and got mine all Business all the way from Perth- Paris return on TG. I chose to use half of the miles and paid the rest so 75000 miles plus cash all in all about $2800. Quite happy with that. Thanks again. Hopefully my future dates will be available when booking my next flight.
Btw would I be able to use a lounge at Paris airport as will have 10 hours before my next connection...

bcworld

I'm not sure I understand...have you booked a return and plan to change the return dates later?

Where are you connecting to after CDG? Generally in Star Alliance there isn't a principal of arrivals lounge access so probably not.

spouse of scouse

Was fiddling around with availability for next year, and noticed that Emirates has award business seats Perth - Dubai - Perth, could have knocked me over with a feather! Mind you, it seems impossible to get an onward flight to Europe from Dubai with points so I think I'll be sticking with Thai

OzTennis

FWIW post questions about anything Emirates or Skywards for the experts in this forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emirates-skywards-490/

spouse of scouse

Cheers Oz

MeinMel

[QUOTE=bcworld;10873038]I'm not sure I understand...have you booked a return and plan to change the return dates later?

Ok, I bought max points I could buy this time and just used half so I can book my next ticket using LifeMiles in January.

treefingers

Hi..my miles have expired & I got sent an email saying to reactivate them I need to pay a fee ($400) or 'Earn miles with our Dividend Miles partners like purchases through StoreFront or car rentals'. With the 2nd option it takes me to a link that has buy more airmiles amongst others.

So does that mean I can just buy more & save myself the $400?

bcworld

I think so...any activity prolongs their life by 18 months...have they actually expired or this is a warning that they will expire soon?

treefingers

They have expired I have until the end of this month to pay the $400, I have sent them an email asking if buying more will reactivate the account.

jamesflorraine

Has anybody used US airmiles or Life miles to travel from Australia, USA for example we are looking to go maybe Sydney/Melbourne to either Miami, or Hawaii, we do not mind having a stop over somewhere in the USA and advice welcome

bcworld

I think I've mentioned before that with US I booked MEL-SFO with open jaw then JFK-MEL. Others have certainly booked to the US and Canada.

Aus - USA is difficult with LifeMiles because availability on the non stop United flights from MEL and SYD is now very poor. About the only option that LM might offer would be SYD-ICN (Seoul)-LAX on Asiana. They also offer SYD-ICN-HNL for Honolulu.

With US miles you could hand craft a routing a but more. Out of BNE you now have the option of Eva Air which could give some interesting options...LifeMiles might offer BNE-TPE-USA actually depending on how short the connections are.

Otherwise US will find a way for you to almost anywhere in the US. Hawaii on its own isn't a particularly good value US redemption but continental US is.