If we want to book 2 first class award flights as a couple, and the maximum bonus miles that can be bought or gifted is 50,000 per member for the 100% extra miles offer- does that mean we need to buy 50,000 in advance to have those in the account ready to go for the next 100% offer?(As we could only get 100,000 each with the buy and gift). I am a bit worried about paying out for 50,000 miles x 2 sitting in our accounts and then having to wait and see if we can get flights next time the offer comes up. Or am I being over cautious? Just I have never done anything like this before. If our son has the miles in his account is it worthwhile to pay for transferring points to us? Thank you for any advice!

I changed our flights, now going via Sydney so 1st class all the way.
Flights from Sunshine Coast to Sydney and back with 30kg luggage cost just under $500
on the reservation it says Airbus 380 BKK to LHR but I dont know how accurate that is
Cant wait until December now :-)

buy 50,000 with bonus 50,000 and then gift 29,500 with bonus 21,000 to each other. But search for flights first to make sure you'll be able to use what you buy. I know around christmas flights are scarce but last night I found flights ex Sydney on 16th Dec coming back 11th Jan.
Use ANA to search for flights (see previous posts)

Thank you for the prompt reply- what I am concerned about is this condition of the offer: 'Bonus miles will be awarded upon completion of the transaction. The maximum number of Buy and Gift Bonus miles that can be received by one member for this offer is 50,000 bonus miles. All miles purchased beyond this limit will not be eligible for a bonus.'
I read that to mean that if we buy 50,000 and receive the 50,000 bonus, we will not then be eligible for the additional 21,000 bonus gifted to each other? Does that make sense.
Has anyone done this and got the 71,000 bonus miles?
I have seen there are flights are available when we want to fly Jan/FEb 2014. SYD to LHR Thai first class
Apologies if I am being a bit slow

Yes, that makes sense...and your interpretation is probably correct...however US is not good at enforcing these rules and I'm pretty sure Kevin has recently reported that it worked for him. No one can guarantee though that the same thing would work for you.

This is good news. Seems it's scheduled to operate one of the LHR flights from 01 Dec...although I wouldn't be surprised to see the date pushed back a bit.

Hi has anybody used dividend miles to fly anywhere else other than the UK or Europe, for example the USA thanks in advance

Of course. I currently have an open jaw ticketed as MEL-SFO + JFK-MEL. Routes to west coast USA are limited but east coast to Australia is permitted via Europe.

I used this a couple of years ago to get my mum biz flights to come & visit me in Ireland she's now planning her trip for 2014 so i'm looking at it again. This time, my aunty is also coming. Am i better off signing her up for her own account or just buying extra miles on my mum's account and the booking two tickets? What would be the pros /cons? They're not coming over till probably Sept 2014 so plenty of time to buy & accure the miles.

Not really. US will probably/possibly complete its merger with AA and leave Star Alliance around the last 3 months of this year. At this stage I'm hopeful there will be decent options for availability when the combined airline joins Oneworld but there are plenty of unknowns at this stage (miles required etc).

Arghh, i didn't know that, thanks!

If they are coming in Sept 2014, we can't book tickets till around Oct 2013 (330 days out) - sounds like we might be leaving it a bit tight with the merger?

Aside from that - are we better with ine accunt or two? I guess i was worried if they are booked on two seperate account/ tickets and something happened such as a flight delayed that resulted in needing to be rebooked then they may not end up flying together (depending on availabilty)

I have always booked tickets on Thai from two separate DM accounts (mine and my wife's): US Air make two separate bookings but once the Thai references are received there is no problem phoning Thai and getting them linked.

Seats 1E and 1F reserved today between Bangkok and London and back again on the 380. Thai also using the new 9 seat 1st class cabins on the Sydney - Bangkok route in December so booked 1A and 2A on that flight.

Really looking forward to all flights but especially the 380.
I used Expertflyer to check seat availability which is free and accurate as they have a live feed from the airline, rang Thai in Australia to sort seats out and they were very helpful

Enjoy the experience - we did and we were on 747s! I particularly liked the "Shall I make your bed up for you sir?" bit!

Don't bother to pre-order meals - it's not worth it. By the time you fly you've forgotten what you ordered and the regular meals are great anyway.

Just a few weeks ago I did it, setup an account for me and an account for the missus. Bought 50,000 each (and got 50,000 bonus) and gifted the other amount to each other. I didnt bother looking at the T&C's as I could see plenty of other people had done it.
I think the offer finishes today anyway (for now) so it may be too late.
As they say 'you have to be in it to win it'