bcworld

With share you have some miles in your account and you pay to share them with someone else.

So say you bought 50k at $0.0275 per mile = $1375.

Then if there is a bonus on share you can give them to someone else and they get 100% extra. Share costs $0.01 per mile.

Give 50k to the second person (costs $500) - they receive 100k. So the 100k miles costs US$1875.

There is perhaps another scenario.

You buy 25k. ($687)
You share them. ($250) > 50k
Person B shares them back ($500) > 100k

Total = $1437 (which is very close to the cost now). Problem is you almost certainly have to pay full price for the last 20k.

All hypothetical til until they start the promo.

A combination of the 2 promos can be very lucrative!

k974

thats great bcworld thanks for that, i actually have 20k miles with Singapore air, wonder if i can use them to make up the 120k? i tried to look on the usairway site for bookin but didnt work, is it best to try all the airlines and see who has the best or does it all go thru usairways

thanks

Centurion

Sadly not, you'll have to use only US Air miles to make a redemption with them. No mix and match with points from different carriers.

aussiedreamer

I've done it.

Booked my flight, flying on 29th August from brissie to Bangkok, bit wary as will be on my own and stopover over night. Flying back on the 13th Sept arriving back in Oz on the 15th Sept.

Am i right in thinking as need to buy miles. I buy 50,000 get 50000 free, Hubbie buys 10000 gets 10000 free and gifts them to me.

Total cost with Taxes works out at $2,277.23.

Jane

bcworld

Basically yes. He selects the 'Gift' option straight off though...not buy then gift if you see what I mean. Good time to do it...close to us$0.90.

aussiedreamer

Thanks BC for the quick reply

louie

That cost sounds a bit high, assuming your figure above is US$ not A$.

Points should be (60,000 x 0.0275 each x 1.075 (tax)) = 1,773.75.

Tax hasn't been nearly as high as (2,277.23 - 1,773.75 =) 503.48 for anyone else. Maybe get them to break it down in case there is a mistake?

mvagusta

This all interesting stuff and I wish that I had picked up on it earlier. I've missed out on this at the moment as I won't have the full 12 day qualifying period before the current promo ends.

Still I can always wait for the next one.

Can anyone please give me instructions on how I can tell on the Ana site what the availability is like. An idiots guide would be helpful.
I can't seem to work this one out.

louie

This is from an email I sent to a friend about this - hope it helps:

"You need to sign up for their frequent flyer scheme, Mileage Club - https://cam.ana.co.jp/amcmember/amce...CEntryFacadeEn . They have in the last few weeks realised that a lot of people have signed up purely to check flight availability and have made it harder to search if you do not have any of their frequent flyer miles. So either find some miles, for example when you hire a car from one of the big hire car companies or, at least until they block the workaround below….

1. Log in to ANA Mileage Club
2. Click on ANA International Flight Awards
3. Put (for example) BKK in the "From" APO code box.
4. Put (for example) NRT in the "To" APO code box (any two airports served by ANA will do).
5. Click on the Next box.
6. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
7. Click on Use Star Alliance Member Airlines

It’s now best to “build” your itinerary by checking each leg one at a time as it seems rather hit and miss whether you will be given all options if you just put in your starting point and destination. So if you want to go to Sydney from Heathrow using Thai Airlines, start by checking the longest/most popular leg first (LHR – BKK) then BKK – SYD and similarly for the return journey. For guidance on alternative routes, check the Star Alliance website http://www.staralliance.com/en/. For example, from London to Sydney you go could via Bangkok, New Zealand/USA, Korea, Hong Kong and no doubt several others. Also if you can’t find availability direct into, for example, Heathrow, you could go via Europe – maybe Zurich, Frankfurt or Paris. Sometimes a bit of lateral thinking is required! You can generally book up to 330 days in advance, but sometimes there is a delay in putting up a particular airline’s schedules when they change from summer to winter and vice versa."

louie

In case any of you were thinking of having a stopover in each direction, US Airways have recently changed the rules so you can only now have one stopover :-(

bcworld

Not sure about recent - that was certainly a rule when I booked last year.

aussiedreamer

Hi Louie

The $2277 was aussie dollars taxes were $297.98.

Jane

mvagusta

I finally managed to get the ANA site working and I'm now kicking myself for not joining sooner as the flights to Perth are available but I don't qualify due to the 12 day joining rule.

I guess I'll just have to wait until Us airways run the promo again or pay the extorcionate price in December.

I have a query re the ANA availability. When the outbound flight isn't available, but the inbound flight for the selected dates has the select button shaded out with (ok) does this mean that the inbound is available but it won't allow you to pick it due to the outbound being unavailable. I hope this makes sense.

Also if I want to travel business class, but there is only First available on 1 part of the leg what mileage would be charged first or business

louie

Well this offer was valid for June and July and announced on 1 June, so maybe wait until August and see if anything is announced then.

I think so, yes. Try changing the dates as if you were doing a journey starting on your return date and route, with a dummy "return", and see if it is available then.

First.

I hope this offer is repeated and you can find something to suit

mvagusta

Cheers Louie, It looks like the next time they run the promo will probably be November but you never know.
It takes a bit of work to make sure all the connections and dates are correct, but if I had the miles available just now I could get from Gla-Lhr-Bkk-Per (return) with very little down time.

I'll wait for the next Us airways promo and buy the miles I need for travel in the future.