Star Alliance - Best First on Star Alliance from Ireland / UK to Sydney?

Folks

My first post as very new to all these miles promotions and joined the US Airways programme with their 100% offers to try and make it as comfortable & cheap as possible for my 70+ year old parents to come and visit me in Sydney, Australia..

Have been having a look around trying to understand all these acronyms and using Google to check the various airline codes that most people seem to use - getting there slowly! The thing is I am trying to do the following and just really wanted some advice from people who may have booked before using US Airmiles (Under *A banner):

- Parents coming to visit for about 1 month in middle of Jan2013
- Have 150,000 miles each which were bought - not earned (if that makes a difference or means there are restrictions)
- I am told that is sufficient for a return 1st class flight - I'm assuming this is the F I see referred to
- They live in Belfast so can travel from there or Dublin or London
- Some people mentioned there may be better flights from Frankfurt / Paris - so would all this be included in the ticket?
- They are flying into Sydney


I basically want the most stress free and luxurious option for them. I am sure they won't really mind which route they go, and i suppose i could even organise a stop-over but given all my current unknowns thought best not to complicate things further for now!!

Hopefully that spells out some of my issues and would appreciate if anyone could help me in putting this together.

Thanks
Donmonster

A few quick thoughts: The 150,000 miles will get you from anywhere in Europe to anywhere in the South Pacific, including travel to a gateway like Frankfurt or Paris. However, F availability is very difficult to find for Lufthansa and Swiss (except at the last minute), and is impossible to find for Singapore Airlines. Thai is likely the only viable option, so best bet is probably Dublin - Frankfurt/Munich/Zurich - Bangkok - Sydney.

A very, very quick search shows 2 F seats on TG FRA-BKK-SYD on January 14th with 2 C seats on DUB-FRA to connect to it.

Chris

I agree that SWISS, LUFTHANSA and SINGAPORE are impossible in F. I fly Thai in F often and it is a wonderful experience. If you go through FRA you will probably get either the new 747 or 380 F. The best thing about Thai for an elderly couple is that they will be met at their incoming flight with a golf type cart, taken to the F lounge, looked after, and then again taken by cart to their F departing flight, a great stress reliever for you knowing that they will be constantly taken care of, and probably the best care they have ever had in their life. GRAB THE THAI F SEATS.

Folks that is a great help - I really appreciate it - and I know they will love the 5* treatment!

Can I ask how you check the availability please? I checked via the *A website but it did not seem too straightforward. Is there somewhere else that people use to check - I know you say it is very hard to find, but wondering is this from experience or just actually checking some link which shows you?

I was hoping they would not need to do a trip from Dublin or London to mainland Europe to start with but it seems that may be the only way.

Once again though thanks for setting me on the right path!

You said you have USAirways miles so you must book through them. You can look at different sites to see availability, but that is for other airlines. Each airline has different seats offered them in Star Alliance. It may appear available on UNITED, but not USAirways. So, get some dates in mind with alternative dates and call USAirways. Tell them you want two seats in F, looking at flights from Belfast/Dublin to Sydney, and if possible see if Lufthansa flies from Belfast to Frankfurt connecting to Thai Airways through Bangkok to Sydney and back.

You give them the dates, class of service, number of seats and some idea of routing, but only the agent can see the actual inventory and do the booking. The one award would cover all flights from Ireland to Sydney. The USAirways website does not allow you to book an itinerary with other airlines.

Good luck. They will be well treated and cared for on Thai in First.

It will be difficult to find seats. If you are very flexible you still can find some - the longer before the flight in Jan the better. The other option is to book in short notice because a lot of seats open up around 2 weeks before the flight, but assuming that you parents want to stay longer than just a few days it would be difficult to find a return. US Airways award tickets cannot be changed after departure. Either use it or loose it.

The best way to search for space is the ANA tool (do a search here to find how it works - including what you need to do when you don't have miles in an ANA account. Alternatively you can use this website:
http://beta.awardtravelr.com/?refer=true

Since all these tools never find all possible connections this is what you should do (assuming you are mainly looking for seats on Thai and you don't find anything origin to destination):
Check sectors separately.
Check if you can find seats to SYD on any airport Thai flies to in Europe with F (LHR, FRA, MUC, ZRH, MXP, CDG, MAD, BCN, FCO if memory serves correctly).

Do the same for the return. In case you don't find a same day connection in BKK: you are allowed one stopover, in one directions your parents could stay in BKK for one or multiple nights (not sure if your parents want to do this). In that case search for Europe-BKK and BKK-SYD separately.

When you found seats then look for seats from the arrival point to the home airport. MUC, ZRH and FRA most likely require only one flight, the others most likely a connection.

As soon as you find something reasonable call and book. Availability changes constantly. There is also a long thread over in the US Airlines forum of how to book. It is not impossible, you can be lucky but more often you run in some type of a problem on the way. Also expect to make multiple calls to US airways. their agents are most likely the worst of any airline in terms of knowledge about the rules and geography in general. Good luck!

Did you say you BOUGHT the miles?? If you bought these from another member, it is a big NO NO and if the airline finds out (or even suspects) they can take the tkts away from you. Perhaps when you say you "bought" them you meant you earned them thru using your credit card. Don't tell people you BOUGHT miles ever from anyone other then the airline. Many a honest passenger who just didn't know the rules have been left sitting at the airport with no ticket
Please be careful. There are many threads you can read in this

Did you say you BOUGHT the miles?? If you bought these from another member, it is a big NO NO and if the airline finds out (or even suspects) they can take the tkts away from you. Perhaps when you say you "bought" them you meant you earned them thru using your credit card. Don't tell people you BOUGHT miles ever from anyone other then the airline. Many a honest passenger who just didn't know the rules have been left sitting at the airport with no ticket
Please be careful. There are many threads you can read in this

Relax. US Airways is selling miles all the time. The OP mentioned the 100% bonus promo, so I would assume he bought them directly from US. And this is completely legal.

Relax. US Airways is selling miles all the time. The OP mentioned the 100% bonus promo, so I would assume he bought them directly from US. And this is completely legal.

Thanks. I just would hate to see a honeymoon ruined

Yes indeed they were bought legitimately via US Airways promotions, so I can't see any issues there. As for a honeymoon being ruined we do it differently in Ireland - our folks get married before having kids ;-)

Thanks again for all the useful help - I will of course take this away and see what is on offer and update the thread when I have no doubt tried to book something.

Some great posts there and the help really is much appreciated.

Thanks

All thanks for all the tips - it has now come to booknig time and I can see why a bit of preparation is key! I am assuming it is probably best to try and look up sector by sector and once you get something take al relevant details?

I must say the woman on the phone for booking was very helpful but trying to find 2 F class seats back was almost impossible, will try tinkering myself and see what I come up with.

A few questions if you don't mind:
- If I use Awardtravlr to search is that enough by itself - as in are any of the other sites likely to find more? It is just ANA the work around does not seem to work so can't use that
- Flying out of Munich / FRA or CDG are the Thai 747's likely to be the new refurbished ones or should I not really worry as going F class anyway?
- I assume it is next to impossible to get any availability on an A380 is it? Just thought that would be nice for the folks.

Thanks again.

I agree that SWISS, LUFTHANSA and SINGAPORE are impossible in F. I fly Thai in F often and it is a wonderful experience. If you go through FRA you will probably get either the new 747 or 380 F. The best thing about Thai for an elderly couple is that they will be met at their incoming flight with a golf type cart, taken to the F lounge, looked after, and then again taken by cart to their F departing flight, a great stress reliever for you knowing that they will be constantly taken care of, and probably the best care they have ever had in their life. GRAB THE THAI F SEATS.

(1) SWISS stopped releasing F awards to partners a while back.
(2) Lufthansa First is not available with US Airways miles.
(3) Singapore First is only bookable with Singapore miles, and not on any product with an A380 with Suites.
(4) Take the Thai seats, or I believe the new Air China product gets good reviews and has some space.
(5) In the future the miles post immediately and you get a 3-day curtesy hold on US Air awards. So before you get stuck with a whole bunch of miles you may not be able to use, look up the space, call in, have them put it on hold, buy the miles and call back to issue the ticket.

Thanks for the tips Arcticbull - 5 is one I will use when doing this for myself. Going to spend some time researching the various routes available and i am sure they can be flexible with dates so hopefully something will come up.