EdnaAverage

Hello!

Can't believe how great this deal is and am currently in my 12 days countdown to buying miles after setting up accounts for me and the OH. It took me a while but I've got my head round it, I think but still have a couple of burning questions which haven't been answered yet on the thread.

I'm after 2 business class or first to London so will need a total of 300,000 for the two of us. We can get 200,000 by buying the current max of 50k each and getting the 50k bonus but will still need another 100k. I then plan to set up a third account to buy and gift the rest of the miles.

My questions are:

1. Can I use the same credit card for all three accounts so that I get QF FFP on the purchase?
2. Are there any restrictions on the third account other than it being in a different name? Eg can I simply sign up another family member at my address?
3. What's the minimum number of miles that I need to buy in the third account, assuming I gift all of them, split equally between the first two accounts?
4. Which is better to find award availability - KVS, expert flyer or the ANA website with the workaround?
5. Am I barking mad to even look for two flights to London in early January, albeit by a probably quite quirky routing?

Cheers,

Edna x

bcworld

Hi Edna,

1. Yes you can. There have been anecdotal reports of some problems with these transactions after the same credit card has been used 5 times, but not 3. I also got the QFF points for my transactions...a nice bonus on the side!

2/3. My understanding is that this time around you can only benefit to the tune of 50k bonus miles max (this is what I have read elsewhere) - so a third person cannot gift you 25, with you getting 50k, after you have already bought 50k+50k bonus. That was allowed in previous promotions but not this one. So your best bet would be to each buy the 20k extra miles you need for business. The ex rate has burst through US$0.98 today so this deal gets better all the time.

4. KVS I'm not sure about, EF will require a paid subscription, ANA is free, if cumbersome.

5. No, just be a little flexible with dates. Early Jan after the first week should be easy.

B

Centurion

I have a paid subscription to KVS. It still requires you to have an ANA FF number though to search *A awards and a QF number to search One world. It does however make searching for awards considerably easier as you don't have to do it sector by sector. You can still only search a single date though and not across a range. But very fast it is.

It also shows you seat maps for business and first in real time so you can see which are available as well as fare bucket availability in all cabins.

I prefer it to expert flyer but I use it for flights year round. If it were only one trip you were using it for the membership might be a waste. Using ANA or Aeroplan is free if a little more time consuming and would win my vote for planning a single trip.

SpeedyJon

Apologies if this has already been answered in the previous 22 pages.

I'll be looking to take my one way migration trip from the UK to Oz next May. Would this offer be of any benefit for this?

bcworld

A one-way costs the same as a return. Also the £/$ rate is not nearly so advantageous.

At present exchange rates it would probably cost you about £1400. Probably cheaper than buying a business fare in most cases, but not such a no brainer as it is from this end.

louie

If you are determined to go first class, the cheapest way of getting the last 50,000 miles each would be for a third party to buy themselves (or you buy for them) 50,000 miles, doubled up to 100,000, and for the third party to then share 50,000 to you and the remainder to your OH. Sharing would cost a total of US$1,135, whilst buying the additional 50,000 miles you would otherwise need would cost US$1,478.13.

Centurion

Probably worth noting that Thai do not operate a first class cabin from MEL to BKK, whilst onward to London they do. You would still be charged first class points for the entire journey despite the business sector though.

They do operate from SYD a First cabin though should you care to connect there first. I'm flying an award at the beginning of Dec to stock up on a decent Fortnum's Stilton for Christmas and do some shopping and am flying to SYD first for that reason.

But then, I enjoy flying way to much to be sane and any excuse to pick up some status on Qantas is a good one.

EdnaAverage

Thanks guys, I'm already mentally composing potential routes in my head while I get closer to being able to buy the miles. Thanks for the heads up on the lack of TG F from BKK to MEL, I'd forgotten about that despite being on a TG J less than 6 mths ago!

Other than SG, is there anyone else who requires immediate ticketing? The plan is to try to find something 3 days before I can buy and hold until the 12 days is up.

I'm considering some of the SYD departures but it's such a PITA to go domestic to international there that I'd prefer not too. Still, if it's F, I'm sure I can be a little more flexible than usual and the fun can commence in the Qantas club at MEL!

Edna

Centurion

Sadly, if you fly First or Business on a star alliance carrier you end up in the Air New Zealand lounge in SYD which only has a single business class lounge, which isn't too grim but it's certainly not up to the QF F lounge. Singapore have their own lounge but not used that at SYD and most SQ fliers tend to migrate to the Air NZ lounge as it's bigger and nicer apparently.

It's only Singapore which needs immediate ticketing. If you want me to look up anything on KVS for you I'd be happy to.

mtillo67

Well since KVS is just screen scraping of ANA, but for a price, that's out. I have been using AwardNexus.com. It's free, and does the same screen scraping of ANA with the added benefits of not requiring an ANA account and allowing multi-day searches. Also searches QF/Oneworld and many others as well.

EdnaAverage

Getting excited now!

9 days since joining tomorrow so will be spending the day trying various routings between MEL and LHR from late Dec to mid Jan. Given the time of year, I'm fully prepared to have to book something a bit out there rather than the typical MEL - Asia - LHR!

Also joined Award Nexus and it looks pretty good so far

I'm managed to track down the US airways phone number as being 800-622-1015 but has anybody any idea what times they are open between (US and Australian please!) as I can't find it anywhere on their website, on FT or even via google?

Cheers,

Edna

Kingseat

From memory their call centre is in Phoenix which i think is about 8 hours behind the UK so when I was calling it was 15-16 hours behind Perth.

The number to call them through Skype is 18006221015. Ths is the number i used.

Centurion

Dividend Miles service center hours
Monday - Friday: 7 AM to 12 AM (ET)
Saturday: 8 AM to 9 PM (ET)
Sunday: Closed

ET = Eastern Time USA which is 13 hours behind Perth.

Contact Numbers : http://www.usairways.com/en-US/contact/dmilesacct.html

jedly1

just done the same shift.. have done the award using first points and living with the business cabin BKK to MEL... but then realized because of the shorter layover in Frankfurt i actually can do a shorter overall travel time if i go all the way to SYD and then go internal.

I have found that Thai first is about on par with emirates/singapore new business product on the A380 but the business class feels a bit more like premium economy... especially those annoying nearly flat beds.....

paddyo

Well, just starting this process, signed myself and my wife up to the program and will monitor and see how it all goes.
Have also signed up to Flyertalk.com as a pre cursor to signing up to Awardnexus.com to be able to check seat availability.