pkfk13

I have a sailing trip planed in Greece for sept - October 2015

Booking j class tickets from yow to Ath was fairly easy - but the Ath-yow route seems to be completely blocked for reward j tickets.

I have looked on the air canada site, and it seems as if the j cabin is totally empty - but still no award tickets in j (for the TATL portion from FRA or LHR to YOW).

Why no reward tickets when the damm plane is empty ????

Looking for help to book this to return from Ath to yow on October 4 or 5 in business or first.

Any suggestions are appreciated !

Twickenham

I'd be checking what days there's availability between IST-YUL or YYZ, then piecing together the connector flights. You'll probably have to call to book, but the saved scamcharges will be worth it.

24left

Also, there was a recent discussion on another thread where a pax was looking for J to CAI and IIRC, results were similar with J, but Y avails were better.

pkfk13

Thanks - I wil look at IST to YUL or YYZ.

Y does not interest me for TATL rewards- they ar easy to book,and a big rip off.

Paul

pkfk13

What an ridiculous way to redeem points.

If I ask for Business tickets from LHR to YOW, it flys me to FRA in business, and then FRA to YOW in Economy.

If I ask for FRA to YOW in business, it flys me business to LHR, and then economy from LHR to YOW !!

The booking engine seems to try and stick on a useless extra flight in pseudo-business and then Y for the TATL......which could be booked in one hop in economy.

Why not just say there is no "J" available rather than adding a superfluous "J" flight on just to make it look like there are actually seats available.

rankourabu

The booking engine is useless.
Spend the $34 on the phone.

Come up with the route yourself by searching availability on another source, and call it in- fly TK - should be readily available to YUL, even maybe to YYZ. It will not only save you $500 in Air Canada scamcharges, but you will have a leaps and bounds better product than AC business on the longhaul.

SFO777

Excellent advice.

pkfk13

Thanks very much for the tips. I used the flisea.com tool mentioned elsewhere on this site and booked 2 J reward tickets from ATH via IST to YUL on October 6 for 105k points and a very small fee/taxes of $137 !!

Oh - and I booked it online without paying the $35 phone fee.

The only bad part was that I couldn't book all the way thru to YOW because the latest flight available on rewards was at 1825 - which was only 55 mins after the flight arrived from IST at 1730 and therefore not offend as a valid connection. The priority points option of course would let me book one of the later YUL-YOW flights as a valid connection - for a super great deal of an extra 105k miles !!! (Not).

So now my only choice will be to watch and see if a later YUL-YOW flight becomes available and drop 2x$90 for a change fee,or spring for 2x7500 point tickets plus scam charges to make it home. A bit annoying - but I wasn't about to pop another 105k points for a "priority reward" just to get that last connection.

Anyways thanks for the help and suggestions. If anyone has any better ideas about how to get the last connection added please chime in !

rankourabu

Excellent - glad it worked out - and we managed to keep $1000 out of AC's pocket.

As for the last leg - keep watching award space - you ll probably be best off paying the 2x$102 change fee.

jmolony

Why not book Via on Oct 6 - last train @ 19:48 - about 90 minutes - and available now for $41.00 each! J Class is $78.00
Sure beats 15,000 mile and $170.00 in scam charges.

Altaflyer

VIA is the solution but I'd wait to book in case there is a schedule change and something opens up to YOW that you can ask to be added on.

rankourabu

Great idea - I honestly had no idea it only takes 90 minutes
Why would anyone fly?

pkfk13

Thanks again for the excellent suggestions. Via rail stops in Barrhaven (west Ottawa) which is a much cheaper cab ride than from yow to my house - so I will seriously comsider that option.

In all fairness for comparing apples to apples - it looks like the TK flights have some old sort of 1990's 160 degree lay back seats - compared to the AC lie flat pods - so I dont think the TK flight will be anywhere as comfortable as the AC FRA-YOW option. My assessment for now is that that the TK TATL offering looks a lot like the old AC 767s used for the Hawaii run. Big seats but not really international business class pods.

Let me know if my info is wrong. But I susect that the reason TK has good availability is because the hard product is - um - a cut below.

Twickenham

Did IST-YYZ on TK in J last August. As pictured here, they had full lie-flat - same seats as my LOT flight coming over, but better service & food (and amenity kit). AFAIK, same product in the A330s that they fly on the IST-YUL route. And then there's the lounge at IST, which is pretty much legendary at this point.

Trust me - TK is by no means an inferior product. Indeed, there was a thread here a few weeks ago where pretty much everyone said they would pick TK over AC in J to IST.

rankourabu

Your info is wrong.
This is the plane: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Tur...s_A330-300.php
Flat beds, and you can actually sit with your companion, unlike the pods, and a much larger TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ags8ymk31UM <-check out the meals.

Other advantages:
*chance of real business class seats on ATH-IST, unlike euro-biz coach seating on much longer ATH-FRA
*the lounge in IST - hope your layover is long enough - will blow you away
*you saved $500x2 over flying AC = that alone should be consider a major win
*vastly superior catering to AC - TK wins worlds best catering for a reason year after year.


The only disadvantage is the train ride at the end - but it seems like that wont be a big deal for you.

There is simply no comparison between AC and TK on TATL flights. Not even close.
You ll just wish your flight was longer.