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How long will ANA hold an award res before ticketing?

How long will ANA hold an award res before ticketing?

Old Jun 2, 2010, 11:42 am
  #1  
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Kansas City, MO
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How long will ANA hold an award res before ticketing?

I plan to transfer MR and SPG points into the ANA program to get two award seats in business for a vacation to China next year. I will be trying for the seats at the time they are released, 330 days out. I will have to do my reservation over the phone as it will be a multi city itinerary with stopovers using *A partners flights.

If I find the seats outbound at 330 days, and plan to be in China 2 1/2 weeks, will ANA hold the reservation until the return seats can be booked? How long will ANA hold an award reservation before you have to lock it in and ticket?

Also, after an award is ticketed, what is the policy on costs to make changes? I cannot seem to find this information on their web site.

Thanks for your help. I'm new to award travel with ANA and want to fully understand how they do things before I start trying to plan this vacation.
susiesan is offline  
Old Jun 2, 2010, 12:30 pm
  #2  
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I'm pretty sure they will not hold reservations at all. That's how it was 4 years ago when I made a booking through NH.
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Old Jun 2, 2010, 1:14 pm
  #3  
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Originally Posted by sbm12
I'm pretty sure they will not hold reservations at all. That's how it was 4 years ago when I made a booking through NH.
How difficult was it to get your award seats? Did you do it over the phone? Was there a lot of award availability? I know how to work with Oneworld and Skyteam, but have never redeemed/flown with *Alliance before.
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Old Jun 4, 2010, 12:00 pm
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
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I recently booked through ANA a *A partner award. I found all the availability online through their search tool. I called to book over the phone because I wanted to confirm taxes and fees that werent showing up online.

They dont allow you to put a booking on hold unless the points are in the account, once the points are there they gave me 48 hours to hold until ticketing. I think I ended up getting 72 hours by asking nicely.

Another trick is that while it was on hold I called to make a change to the itinerary and they extended the hold, so that might be a strategy if necessary to make a minor change (i.e. add a small leg at the end of the itin) to extend if necessary.
If you keep the same route and same airline and class, you can make date changes without any fees (double check this to be sure). You cannot make any changes to airline, class or route- so if that is necessary they will need to cancel the reservation and book a new itinerary but they will deduct 3,000 miles "redeposit fee" for each ticket that gets canceled.
Mikeoracle is offline  
Old Jun 5, 2010, 8:08 am
  #5  
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Join Date: Mar 2005
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Originally Posted by Mikeoracle
I recently booked through ANA a *A partner award. I found all the availability online through their search tool. I called to book over the phone because I wanted to confirm taxes and fees that werent showing up online.

They dont allow you to put a booking on hold unless the points are in the account, once the points are there they gave me 48 hours to hold until ticketing. I think I ended up getting 72 hours by asking nicely.

Another trick is that while it was on hold I called to make a change to the itinerary and they extended the hold, so that might be a strategy if necessary to make a minor change (i.e. add a small leg at the end of the itin) to extend if necessary.
If you keep the same route and same airline and class, you can make date changes without any fees (double check this to be sure). You cannot make any changes to airline, class or route- so if that is necessary they will need to cancel the reservation and book a new itinerary but they will deduct 3,000 miles "redeposit fee" for each ticket that gets canceled.
Thanks, Mike, for those tips. I've been redeeming and traveling on AA awards for the last few years and AA also will allow you to change dates but not the carriers or routing. I'm worried that if I have to wait for 330 days out on the return seats that the outbound seats will already be taken. I plan on being in China for 2 1/2 weeks. Of course it may turn out that China flights aren't all that popular for award travel and that there will be plenty of availability.

Do you recall if ANA would allow you to add segments? For example, if I book an flight into PEK and out of PVG initially, can I add domestic China flights after? Or do I have to have my complete itinerary already worked out when I call ANA to redeem? At this point, I know I want to go to China; I haven't figured out yet what I'll do and where I'll go once I get there. It's a big country with so much to see.
susiesan is offline  

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