Swiss International Airlines - Positive surprise on getting first class awards

I am currently booking a trip to LAX via CMB, which will allow me to requalify for KLM Platinum through a KE F class fare from CMB, all along allowing me to pamper my Swiss account with some paid SQ first class segments.

Thus, I have to get to CMB. So I called LX M&M award desk to see what they come up with ...

180'000 miles instead of 200'000 in STC

Actually scored an SQ first class award seat from ZRH to SIN in July, continuing on to CMB in SQ F (12 hours in SIN) - and on the way back towards the end of the July from CMB to BKK in Thai C-class and on to FRA in Thai F with the last segment being LX in C to ZRH.

I was flexible plus/minus three days - and am quite happy with what's offered, even though I have 12 hours in SIN and 6 hours in BKK to spend.

Nice to hear and - by the way - great trip! On February I did a similiar "Mileage Run" ex BKK: BKK-SIN-ICN-SFO-ICN-SIN-BKK :D

But the CMB-tickets are still a little bit "nicer"... ;) May I ask how you booked your CMB-ticket as I'm currently considering something similiar... (please feel free to PM me...)

Swiss just called me back, 30 minutes after confirming the original booking:

They will not issue the ticket at 180'000 miles, the M&M watchdogs from LH that are supervising the LX M&M agents say this would cost 240'000 miles as Colombo is in India. Something about transiting in a third zon - it seems Colombo is actually in India not in Southeast Asia. However, there are no flights to Colombo through India, nor are there direct flight from Europe. It doesn't seem justified to charge the extra mileage fee if no direct routing is offered.

I have e-mailed several agents in CMB and will let you know which one I end up using. Worst case is I just fly there and buy it in Colombo at the airport. Care to join me for the trip, or part of it?

I might actually use an AA award instead of M&M if they stay at 240'000. Will try to negotiate that, but AA is 140'000 miles for first on LX and CX, but I can't get the dates perfect just yet. (Only have a over 24h connection on hold from LX to CX in Singapore, but no stopovers are allowed on AA partner awards).

Why does it always have to be so difficult?

f4free, please keep us posted on this - I am also looking into buying a ticket ex CMB or BKK, possibly travelling together with Frequent_Flyer1. For requalification reasons, travel would need to be in 2007 for me though. I take it you go this year?

Hello,

Great topic...

@f4free

I was thinking about the price you are going to pay for the all trip beside the free tket??

How many miles would you get by doing the mileage?? and would it be possible to do it in only a "few days" ??

How long will you be travelling for ??


Another way to get to Colombo is to to pay a C tket (arround 4000 CHF) from Zurich to Colombo via Vienna with Austrian Airlines and you would get the miles as well...


Thanks..

kooks :)

It looks like I will - with a sigh - cancel the above mentioned itinerary without ticketing. Even ZRH-FRA-MAA BKK-FRA-ZRH would be 240'000, since it is also three zones. Even though the second zone on the way out is a lot cheaper. Really a bummer. Byebye TG and SQ F ... I was too quick on seeing something positive in M&M. :td:

My alternative way to CMB is now a LH F award for 140'000 to MAA / Chennai (with a very short but still likely nice stay in the FCT in FRA). Great availibility in F to Chennai, and cheap flights with 9W (Jet Airways) or Sri Lankan to CMB. Price is roughly USD 200 R/T, slightly more in business.

I am thinking about flying back from Delhi, so I can spend two days there on sightseeing. Would cost me 300-400$ more for the ticket from Chennai to Delhi, but it seems worth it.

To answer your question about the CMB price and all: It is roughly 2900.- CHF plus taxes to do CMB-SIN-ICN-LAX and back in SQ F (within Asia) and KE F over the pacific. OZ should be available for this as well, which would make a nice first class SEN requalification run in 2007 interesting, like Oli and FF1 are suggesting. I would join you guys in 07 for that one!

Total cost for all of this stuff: Roughly 3500.- CHF for the ticket CMB-LAX, 800.- CHF for the tickets MAA-CMB-MAA-DEL, 370 CHF for the LH surcharges and taxes, and some hotel points for my stays all over.

I have not successfully ticketed this yet, but I am confident it will be no problem. (I have had contact with some other folks on this as well).

Possibly I could get all of our tickets issued for the 2007 requalification run on SQ/OZ while I am in Colombo ...

Kooks, thanks for the OS tip. I'd rather spend 140'000 miles plus 500 CHF on Jet Airways and LH F, rather than 4400 CHF on OS (Lauda!) C.

The CMB-LAX trip will earn roughly 53'000 status miles and 106'000 award miles in Flying Blue, plus another approximate 12'000 qualifying miles in M&M.

You could do it in a few days. Without seeing much except for during long layovers you could do:

Day 1 FRA-MAA Day 2 MAA-CMB DAY 3 CMB-SIN-ICN DAY 4 ICN-LAX DAY 5 LAX-ICN DAY 6 ICN-SIN-CMB DAY 7 CMB-MAA DAY 8 MAA-FRA.

I will be doing everything in two weeks.

Possibly I could get all of our tickets issued for the 2007 requalification run on SQ/OZ while I am in Colombo ...That would be smart... I would not mind issuing the ticket in 2006 (with this year's prices) for travel in early 2007. SQ and OZ First sound good, but I'd love to somehow get NH First in there as well.

It seems there is great interest in this topic... Sorry, can't join you for this trip. Have already booked an award flight to BKK/KUL for early August; TG F - thanks bmi diamond club ;)

Yes, it would be perfect if you could let us know which TA you finally dealt with. THX. As airoli already stated, we once talked about the idea to do such a requalification run together. Of course, feel free to join us! Early 2007 would be fine with me too.


Possibly I could get all of our tickets issued for the 2007 requalification run on SQ/OZ while I am in Colombo... Well, if this is possible it certainly would be great. ^

The cheapest fare of all Star Alliance airlines ex CMB is TG, they offer First Class for roughly 2100 USD (plus tax), OZ comes with a price tag of about 2400 USD (same as Korean Airlines f4free uses now).

Possibly routing with on TG ticket stock could be: CMB-(SQ)-SIN-(SQ)-NRT-(NH, as a TG codeshare flight)-SFO/LAX-(NH, as a TG codeshare flight)-NRT-(TG, new F)-BKK-(SQ)-SIN-(SQ)-CMB ; as mentioned, the transpacific flights are TG codeshare, but on NH metal... , especially for airoli :cool:

And by the way: sorry for the trouble concerning the award ticket. The thee three-region-rule is a reall bummer. Even if you want to visit BKK and SIN with one ticket (departing from Europe), this would apply as both cities are in differten regions (according to the M&M forum...).

Possibly routing with on TG ticket stock could be: CMB-(SQ)-SIN-(SQ)-NRT-(NH, as a TG codeshare flight)-SFO/LAX-(NH, as a TG codeshare flight)-NRT-(TG, new F)-BKK-(SQ)-SIN-(SQ)-CMBLet's go! :D

Yippeeh, "let's go" is right! Early 07 would be perfect for me - or July 07.

Now, let me get my ticket bought through the travel agent I talked with today. (Sounded good, let's see what the final price is when I get her e-mail). And I will let you know. Expect more information later this week.

Out of protest I am deciding both against LH F and SQ/TG F for this trip. What a stupid three region rule. Live, learn and die of STC-deprivation. I will be using AF in F instead, with 9W from DEL to CMB via MAA. (Partially also because I still value M&M miles higher than AF/KL miles, due to the minimally (?) better availibility, superior service quality on LH and partners, and more non-stops from ZRH.) So, if anybody needs a TG F or SQ F seat ZRH-SIN or BKK-ZRH, let me know before I cancel and somebody else gets it.

Quote:Originally Posted by Frequent_Flyer1
Possibly routing with on TG ticket stock could be: CMB-(SQ)-SIN-(SQ)-NRT-(NH, as a TG codeshare flight)-SFO/LAX-(NH, as a TG codeshare flight)-NRT-(TG, new F)-BKK-(SQ)-SIN-(SQ)-CMB

Let's go! :D


I am OK too.... lets go...

Just wanted to get the number of days we should spend... since I have a lot of work and have to plan very carefully my holidays.......

Also HOW MANY miles (status) for the all trip??

kooks.

Verve and verve+1 are tempted as well :-) can we manage to book the whole F cabin?

CMB-SIN-NRT-LAX-NRT-SIN-BKK-CMB and back would be, for SENs and FTLs, 69'557 miles - all counting towards status. In theory this routing should work - but this remains to be seen.

BTW, an information for all of you folks considering the use of M&M miles to CMB, and those interested in my troubles in booking the award mentioned in the first post: Since the 1st of May 9W (Jet Airways - one of the best carriers in India) is a partner of M&M. If they can get me ticketed for ZRH-FRA-MAA-CMB in LH C/F and 9W C, that's the way to go. Layover in MAA outbound is roughly 12 hours, just enough for a hotel night and morning relaxation. On the way back the layover is annoying 8 or so hours from approx. 5pm to 1am. Best to have dinner in Chennai. Will advise if M&M can ticket this, maybe even with a stopover in MAA on the way back.

SQ 469 0 CMB 01/02/07 01:00AM SIN 01/02/07 07:25AM 772 M F4
SQ 12 0 SIN 01/02/07 09:40AM NRT 01/02/07 05:05PM 744 M F4 (X or O ???)
NH 6 0 NRT 01/03/07 05:05PM LAX 01/03/07 09:45AM 777 M F4 (ticketed as TG)

NH 5 0 LAX 01/05/07 11:35AM NRT 01/06/07 04:25PM 777 M F4 (ticketed as TG)
UA 881 0 NRT 01/06/07 06:30PM BKK 01/06/07 11:30PM 744 D F9
SQ 67 0 BKK 01/07/07 04:10PM SIN 01/07/07 07:35PM 744 M F4
SQ 468 0 SIN 01/07/07 10:45PM CMB 01/07/07 11:55PM 772 M F4

(TG 677 0 NRT 01/07/07 04:55PM BKK 01/07/07 09:25PM 747 M F4 - won't work as 30 min connection is not legal and 24h 30min will trigger HIP rule. Only idea would be to "run" for the earlier flight on TG or to "miss" the UA flight.)

Sorry to say SFO don't work either with NH F - the 777 is only 2-class. Everything else is UA on that route.

This routing actually yields (with Exec bonus) 75'530 miles ...


Edited to add the MPM on the TG fare is 11'660 miles, so if maxed out one could get (as a SEN) 87'450 .... Anybody else have creative F-only routings? This one seems like it is not too time-consuming.

If I look at the fare rules for F ex CMB I believe integrating LAX-SFO-LAX (on UA though) should be possible. They even call their lousy service up front "first class"...but at least you get triple miles and exec bonus.
Can you recommend any tool to price out this itin? So far I found the fare, but travelocity, expedia et al. come up with prices around 10k CHF....

SQ 469 0 CMB 01/02/07 01:00AM SIN 01/02/07 07:25AM 772 M F4
SQ 12 0 SIN 01/02/07 09:40AM NRT 01/02/07 05:05PM 744 M F4 (X or O ???)
NH 6 0 NRT 01/03/07 05:05PM LAX 01/03/07 09:45AM 777 M F4 (ticketed as TG)

NH 5 0 LAX 01/05/07 11:35AM NRT 01/06/07 04:25PM 777 M F4 (ticketed as TG)
UA 881 0 NRT 01/06/07 06:30PM BKK 01/06/07 11:30PM 744 D F9
SQ 67 0 BKK 01/07/07 04:10PM SIN 01/07/07 07:35PM 744 M F4
SQ 468 0 SIN 01/07/07 10:45PM CMB 01/07/07 11:55PM 772 M F4

(TG 677 0 NRT 01/07/07 04:55PM BKK 01/07/07 09:25PM 747 M F4 - won't work as 30 min connection is not legal and 24h 30min will trigger HIP rule. Only idea would be to "run" for the earlier flight on TG or to "miss" the UA flight.)

Sorry to say SFO don't work either with NH F - the 777 is only 2-class. Everything else is UA on that route.

This routing actually yields (with Exec bonus) 75'530 miles ...


Edited to add the MPM on the TG fare is 11'660 miles, so if maxed out one could get (as a SEN) 87'450 .... Anybody else have creative F-only routings? This one seems like it is not too time-consuming.


That is a very good route...

And the price would be 2200 US$??

kooks.

Great thread and very interesting discussion. Can't wait to see how this will go.

Just for those who haven't seen, there are countless (& sometimes endless) discussions about the CMB fares on the SQ forum.

Probably the most relevant thing seems to be improved capacity controll. While fares ex CMB are obviousely cheap, carriers are aware of that, so some started using the famous "married segment" availability. This means that you might have a very hard time finding F seats for a "CMB-Fare" for example on CMB-SIN-LAX while both segments can be wide open in F.

Not sure which carriers are sucessfull in doing this and how well travel agents can still play their own game...

I played around on the SQ website and while some pleasant F fares show up, availability would often only show Y. But this is apparently the "amateur" way of doing it.

Since all of this ends up costing quite a bit, I'd only buy such a ticket with written confirmation (from the airline) that all segments are confirmed in F and I'd be >99% sure I can travel on those dates.

...and finally - that pacific is really really large, so I would plan some time to rest. On about a dozen times SFO/LAX - SIN, I was usually glad to get out in HKG for a day or so - and that was all in SQ F.

Good luck to all on this adventure!

...While fares ex CMB are obviousely cheap, carriers are aware of that, so some started using the famous "married segment" availability... Yes, you are right. But only SQ so far has put "married segments" into action; so this will only apply if you buy a ticket ex CMB on SQ stock (so therefore want to fly SQ transpacific).

TG (and others) doesn't do this; You can easily buy an ex CMB ticket on TG stock over the internet (one user in the TG-forum once provided me with a link to a german booking engine); it's easy to get "normal" routings, but for complex ones like we are looking at, it's best to use a TA...

If I look at the fare rules for F ex CMB I believe integrating LAX-SFO-LAX (on UA though) should be possible. good point! ^

so if maxed out one could get (as a SEN) 87'450


sorry, but exec-bonus on M&M is given ONLY on M&M-integrated airlines and additionally on AC, US and UA. not on SQ, TG, NH.
but still a lot of miles for that amout of money :-)

CHris

p.s. moreover exec-bonus is calculated on the flown miles and not based on the service class you are flying. therefore exec-bonus is the same flying Y, C and F ...

btw, condor offers direct flights fra-cmb (not in F). but upgrades from Y to C (condor comfort class) only cost 35000 m&m miles one way (even for cheapo tix)...

CHris

Condor ... Thanks for that! I did see LTU but Condor would have never crossed my mine. Will check it out ASAP.

I am still new to this whole M&M thing. Did the exec bonus recently become more restrictive in certain ways?

If I look at the fare rules for F ex CMB I believe integrating LAX-SFO-LAX (on UA though) should be possible.If that is possible, does this mean that other UA domestic routes could be integrated as well? I have these visions of our "gang" going CMB-SIN-NRT-LAX-LAS and back... ;)

LAX-LAS and back... ;)

On TED? That's a deal breaker. Then again, HP metal would be tolerable. Should be possible by then.

Condor ... Thanks for that! I did see LTU but Condor would have never crossed my mine. Will check it out ASAP.

I am still new to this whole M&M thing. Did the exec bonus recently become more restrictive in certain ways?


Yes but price is quite high... arround 1000 euros.
And also we have to fly or ?? to FRA.. so lot of money and not so many miles... and no STATUS miles for it...

kooks.

Yes but price is quite high... arround 1000 euros.
And also we have to fly or ?? to FRA.. so lot of money and not so many miles... and no STATUS miles for it...
kooks.
but wasn't the original intention to go to cmb on award tix and fly paid cheapo F from there ??? with DE you could bypass the three-region-award-rule as it is a direct connection from europe to cmb ... roundtrip 90000 miles in C (even including a feeder flight from ZRH)
i have never flown DE comfort class but i heard good things about their product.

CHris

Condor have had in the past several 99,00 EUR one way fares to CMB ex Germany. Sri Lankan sometimes offer some special deals, too.

Btw, I have done a mileage run ex BKK on OZ ticket stock in May myself in C (trip report is in the pipeline). The old OZ C / F is not the best (e.g. not length adjustabel foodrest, no power outlet) while the new one seems to be okay (on some planes on the route to Los Angeles).

The Executive Bonus is one point one should take care of, especially as 25% could be transpacific mean a lot of miles which count for status.

Yes, you are right. But only SQ so far has put "married segments" into action; so this will only apply if you buy a ticket ex CMB on SQ stock (so therefore want to fly SQ transpacific).

TG (and others) doesn't do this; You can easily buy an ex CMB ticket on TG stock over the internet (one user in the TG-forum once provided me with a link to a german booking engine); it's easy to get "normal" routings, but for complex ones like we are looking at, it's best to use a TA...

Just found this in the TG FR fare rules, i've never seen such a note before:

CAPACITY LIMITATIONS
THE CARRIER SHALL LIMIT THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS CARRIED
ON ANY ONE FLIGHT AT FARES GOVERNED BY THIS RULE AND SUCH
FARES WILL NOT NECESSARILY BE AVAILABLE ON ALL FLIGHTS.
THE NUMBER OF SEATS WHICH THE CARRIER SHALL MAKE
AVAILABLE ON A GIVEN FLIGHT WILL BE DETERMINED BY THE
CARRIERS BEST JUDGMENT

So, here comes the long awaited update:

1) I found and have successfully purchased through a very helpful travel agent in Canada, with a partner agent in Colombo, a KE F ticket starting 7/17 in CMB. I will be picking up the ticket in a city travel agency in CMB, as KE has very strict restrictions requiring pick-up in person. Price: Approx. 2100€ including tax. While the travel agent sometimes takes time to get things done, I am confident everything has been well-worked out. He takes credit cards at a hefty surcharge, or advance wire transfer.

2) Within a few days I should have an exact quote including taxes on said itinerary.

3) !!! Somebody evidently has blocked 6 seats on the exact same itinerary in F !!! It would be too great of a coincidence for this not to be one the Flyertalkes on this board ... TO THE BLOCKER OF THESE SEATS: Please PM me so we can discuss how to proceed.

4) I could either pick-up the tickets in CMB on the 30th, or we could have them fedexed to us in due time.

5) Who's in?

Thanks for the update. ^ Definitely still interested for travel in 2007. How do you get to CMB in the first place?

Thanks for the update. ^ Definitely still interested for travel in 2007. How do you get to CMB in the first place?By plane? :confused: Care to be more specific? From where are you travelling? When are you travelling? What is your budget? I can think of numerous different modes of transportation that can bring you from point A to point B.

By plane? Care to be more specific? From where are you travelling? When are you travelling? What is your budget? I can think of numerous different modes of transportation that can bring you from point A to point B. Huh???? :rolleyes:

Thanks for the update f4free and I'm glad to hear that everything has worked out well. ^

Yes, like airoli I'm still interested in such a trip. However, as I'm already planning my next years requalification, I've also looked at other possibilities.

You both got a PM.

And have a great journey, f4free! :)

Sorry, we waited too long. TG fares ex CMB pulled. Other options still available, but we should act quickly.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6194557&postcount=262