US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Help with Qantas Options

I'm investigating options for travel to Melbourne. I need to spend one week there, including Sept. 4 and 5, but those are the only schedule requirements.

My ticket will be purchased from Qantas by my employer. I would like to use US miles for my girlfriend's ticket from New York. I have enough US miles for any class on Qantas.

Questions:

1) Are there any particularly preferable routings (ie days of the week, times of day, layovers, etc.). I'd like to maximize comfort and FF benefits.

2) Can I use US miles to upgrade a Qantas economy seat to Business? Can I purchase an upgrade from Qantas?

3) Will my girlfriend's JFK-LAX award ticket be on US, or on AA like my purchased ticket?

4) The fare JFK-LAX-MEL is $2000, but LAX-MEL is only $1000. Obviously, I can buy a JFK-LAX ticket for less than $1000. Is there something I'm missing?

5) Will I get US miles for my Qantas flight?

Thanks as always for the great replies I know I'll get. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by ManyMiles (edited 04-18-2002).]

I am sure someone will have a more comprehensive reply, but US doesn't fly JFK-LAX at all.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by catwood:
I am sure someone will have a more comprehensive reply, but US doesn't fly JFK-LAX at all. </font>

Okay, fair enough. US says you have to leave for Melbourne from "New York," and Qantas flies from EWR and JFK, so I guess we're talking about EWR now.

1) I don't think so, whatever works best for your award ticket.

2) I don't think so on either count, esepecially the first one but probably the second one also.

3) EWR/LGA-LAX will be on US

4) No, nothing your missing, airline pricing at work ...

5) Yes, you can, but I think you'd be better taking AA miles since they should count towards status then. You only get flight miles on US and they don't count towards status.

What class are you planning on flying in? Would your employer be willing to pay you the cost of a coach ticket and you can just redeem an award in Biz or First?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
What class are you planning on flying in? Would your employer be willing to pay you the cost of a coach ticket and you can just redeem an award in Biz or First?</font>

My purchased ticket will have to be economy, I'm sure. I could probably get the cash for economy if I use miles, but I only have enough miles for my girlfriend's ticket, not for both.

So my current plan would be to have my employer buy EWR-LAX on US and LAX-MEL on Qantas (should be less than $1400), and use US miles for my girlfriend's ticket EWR-LAX-MEL on the same flights. Should that work? Does the US award include getting from somewhere else on the east coast to EWR?

Also, as far as whether to take US or AA miles for the paid flight, I would get status miles on US since I would have purchased a US ticket and flown on US metal.

[This message has been edited by ManyMiles (edited 04-18-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ManyMiles:
...Does the US award include getting from somewhere else on the east coast to EWR?</font>I don't understand. You would be routed from your origin to LAX (e.g. EWR-PHL/PIT/CLT-LAX) on US then LAX-MEL on QF. There's no need "to get to EWR". Your QF flight will be from LAX. I don't know why they say a legal gateway is JFK.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ManyMiles:
Also, as far as whether to take US or AA miles for the paid flight, I would get status miles on US since I would have purchased a US ticket and flown on US metal.</font>Beckles was saying that you can get AA status mile on your QF segment due to the 1World Alliance.

JFK is a legal gateway because Qantas flies JFK-LAX-SYD on one bird (QF #108). They don't fly from EWR. And US Dividend Miles agents WILL book it if there's availability.

Your girlfriend will love you more if you book her an F ticket, but good luck getting one. A few of us have had some sorted experiences playing that game. Coach and biz tickets are more readily available.

Since I heard so much about the Qantas web award availbility checker, I took a look on the dates 8/20 through 9/7:
There are NO F seats on that JFK-SYD flight on any of those dates. I think I saw just one Biz award option, and lots of Economy availability.

Checking just LAX-MEL, a lot of Econo/Biz options, and a First class flight on 8/26!

I didn't check return flights, but expect the same scenario.

Advice: book her biz LAX-MEL. US will then fly her EWR-PIT-LAX in F. Kind of a long way to do it, but that JFK flight is just not available. Then keep checking every so often for that flight to open up some F seats and pony up some more miles for it. At least she'll be confirmed in Biz with the *CHANCE* of getting an F seat.

Any way she cuts it, it's about 22-23 hours of travel from NY to OZ.

[This message has been edited by PHL (edited 04-18-2002).]

Be aware of a couple of facts that I only recently learned regarding changes to previously ticketed itineries on QF:

1. If better seats become available and you change class of service upward (C to J or J to F), you need to rebook the entire itinerary including both outbound and return flights using a new award.

2. If you do #1, then you can not use previously booked flights as part of your new itinerary.

Example: You have award tickets booked in J for a roundtrip between LAX and SYD. A F award seat becomes available on the outbound LAX-SYD and you want to spend the extra 30K miles to travel at least one way in F. You have to create an entirely new itinerary using a new award to do this. You can not 'upgrade' your previous award using the 30k miles and you can not use your previously booked J seat on the return for the new itinerary. The return award seat must be available at the time you book the new itinerary.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by BillMorrow:
Be aware of a couple of facts that I only recently learned regarding changes to previously ticketed itineries on QF:

1. If better seats become available and you change class of service upward (C to J or J to F), you need to rebook the entire itinerary including both outbound and return flights using a new award.

2. If you do #1, then you can not use previously booked flights as part of your new itinerary.

Example: You have award tickets booked in J for a roundtrip between LAX and SYD. A F award seat becomes available on the outbound LAX-SYD and you want to spend the extra 30K miles to travel at least one way in F. You have to create an entirely new itinerary using a new award to do this. You can not 'upgrade' your previous award using the 30k miles and you can not use your previously booked J seat on the return for the new itinerary. The return award seat must be available at the time you book the new itinerary.</font>

You would also have to pay the $50 redeposit fee on your original award in this case also I think ... not that it wouldn't be worth it if you are upgrading your class of service.

The redeposit fee for US2/US3 is now 35.00 per tkt !

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by BWI2MCO97:
The redeposit fee for US2/US3 is now 35.00 per tkt !</font>

Are you sure that's true on International partner tickets too? I only know the $50 from the agent I talked to at the beginning of the week, but it wouldn't surprise me that she might not have been totally on top of that rule since she works international ...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
You would also have to pay the $50 redeposit fee on your original award in this case also I think ... not that it wouldn't be worth it if you are upgrading your class of service.</font>Quick question... how quickly are miles redeposited to your DM account?

In a likely scenario, would it be possible to cancel an award trip, redeposit the miles, pay the fee, and book a new rez (with miles from the original ticket) in one phone call?

Also, what would happen to the taxes and fees that you paid upfront on the original ticket (that you are now canceling)? Does it get refunded or applied to the new ticket?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
Quick question... how quickly are miles redeposited to your DM account?

In a likely scenario, would it be possible to cancel an award trip, redeposit the miles, pay the fee, and book a new rez (with miles from the original ticket) in one phone call?

Also, what would happen to the taxes and fees that you paid upfront on the original ticket (that you are now canceling)? Does it get refunded or applied to the new ticket?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?</font>

Chex, the big problem is that they are paper tickets, so I don't think you can do a redeposit in full over the phone, you need to mail your tickets back in I think (I don't think they can do it at an ATO or even CTO, anyone know that?).

How much did you pay in taxes? Mine were only like $21, so personally that would be a minor consideration from me, I'm sure they're refunded, it's just a matter of how, but if I had to pay them again and get the refund later, that would be a minor consideration ...

I think the process would go something like this:

1) Call US book new tickets. You can hold for 7 days.

2) Overnight old paper tickets to DM service center. In my somewhat limited experience they work pretty fast there, so I would expect your miles would be redeposited within 7 days if you overnight the paper tickets back.

3) Convert your held awards to real awards with those miles you just redeposited.

I think that's how it will go ... with the $50 (or maybe only $35 now according to BWI2MCO97 ...) redeposit fee.

NOTE: I believe this is all moot if you only want to change your dates and not class of service or origination/destination because I believe you can do that for free, though you will still need to get your paper tickets reissued somehow ...

.

[This message has been edited by chexfan (edited 04-23-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:
I think the process would go something like this:

1) Call US book new tickets. You can hold for 7 days.</font>Beckles... thanks for the insight. Yea, the taxes were only $16 and change for each ticket and you're right, not a major consideration at all in the grand scheme of things.

My problem lays herein: Say I only have 100k DM in my account. Without having the original miles immediately dropped in the account, it would be a huge risk in going through that process. In order to get the F seats. Don't I need the 125k per F ticket at time of booking?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
My problem lays herein: Say I only have 100k DM in my account. Without having the original miles immediately dropped in the account, it would be a huge risk in going through that process. In order to get the F seats. Don't I need the 125k per F ticket at time of booking?</font>

I'm in the same boat, I don't have that many miles either. But, you actually need the 125,000 miles at the time of ticketing, not booking. You can book the tickets, then have them held for 7 days before you have to ticket them (and have the full mileage required). So like I said, you could book the tickets, then overnight original paper tickets back to the DM service center for redeposit, and I would feel pretty comfortable in trusting US to get that done in 6 days based on my previous experience with the DM service center. What I'm not sure of though, is maybe there is a way to do it in person at an ATO and/or CTO ...

BTW, for the two seats you're looking for I'd keep a look out for that DFW-AKL flight that's supposed to start sometime late this year ... hopefully US will have access to seats on that flight ...

I thought USAirways limits the gateways offered, and hence I don't think you could go through DFW on a USAirways award on Qantas.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pitflyer:
I thought USAirways limits the gateways offered, and hence I don't think you could go through DFW on a USAirways award on Qantas.</font>

They do, but DFW isn't a gateway for US now because it's not even a gateway for QF now, but once they start offering that flight I wouldn't be surprised if it's available on US too. Like I said though, hopefully US will have access to seats on that flight ... I'd prefer more time on QF over US. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif