May 26, 2014, 8:47 am
Last edit by: SingaporeDon
Every forum on Flyertalk has a personality. A forum gains a personality through user input over time, and Lifemiles is a very definitive example of how users have developed a unique community.
While Flyertalk boards actively encourage sharing of info, the Lifemiles community has developed and thrived via obscuring of certain data elements. It may not be easy for new participants to break through the codes and gain knowledge of the program's quirks, but the overall board community has adopted this unique approach. And frankly, that is not going to change overnight.
If a FT member wants to participate on this board, then they will need to respect other users. Hence, posts that run counter to this community's standards, will be removed.
While Flyertalk boards actively encourage sharing of info, the Lifemiles community has developed and thrived via obscuring of certain data elements. It may not be easy for new participants to break through the codes and gain knowledge of the program's quirks, but the overall board community has adopted this unique approach. And frankly, that is not going to change overnight.
If a FT member wants to participate on this board, then they will need to respect other users. Hence, posts that run counter to this community's standards, will be removed.
C1 North America
C1.5 Caribbean, Bermuda
C2 Europe
C2.5 Middle East
C3 Asia
C4 South America
C5 Africa
C6 Oceania
2X, 3X: in the context of this LifeMiles thread, 2X and 3X refer to any 2nd and 3rd legs of a one-way award ticket.
LifeMiles' Star Alliance Award Chart
LifeMiles' old Star Alliance Award Chart (before Oct 15 2014) // Table of changes
Cash & Miles redemptions: the price per mile purchased during award booking varies significantly depending on how many miles are purchased. The "sweet spots" are between 38% and 58% of the total mileage required, where miles are purchased for 1.5 cents. See here for some examples.
Beware of Cabotage: LifeMiles has been known to issue tickets that constitute Cabotage, and at least one instance of denied boarding has been reported, stranding the passenger. An easily-seen example is travel on Copa from LAX to SJU (via PTY).
Understand Cabotage: Departing country 1, transiting country 2, returning to country 1 (no stopping) *is* cabotage (example: depart JFK, connect in YYZ to return to ORD, or depart Miami, connect in Bogota, return to San Francisco). On the other hand, departing country 1, going to completely unrelated country 2, and ending up in country 3, is not cabotage. So if you fly JFK-JNB-ZRH, for instance, this is completely not cabotage.
Availability: Seeing availability for *A award seats elsewhere is no guarantee they are accessible on Lifemiles. For instance award space shown on ANA often is not accessible on Lifemiles. Similarly, finding award space on single legs doesn't mean you'll get award space on the combined itinerary. And no, there is no way to overcome that.
Screenshot Method
Send email to [email protected] with attached screenshots on Lifemiles website of each individual leg showing availability. Also, screenshot showing no availability as one booking. Include passenger names, gender and DOB and copy of passenger passport. They will either call you for payment or email the itinerary and give you 3 days to call up and make payment by CC.
NOTE: This previous thread has been closed; it can be read here LM F and J routes (and the occasional trick-it)
LM F and J routes (and the occasional trick-it) Rebooted v2.0
Dec 13, 2014, 1:01 pm
#1501
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Valencia, Spain
Programs: Pascal and Python, no C++
Posts: 738
Here is exactly my post:-
"Dear LM, for the past week many valid routes with connections are no longer found by your search engine. e.g. SYD-BKK-FRA or ZRH. Also SQ flights in J are not available any more - is this LM or SQ?
Thanks for looking into this."
Unlike others it did not disappear from LM's FB page. I did not provide much detail as I am not trying to make a specific booking at the moment - I just like to keep an eye on things on LM as you never know when something good or bad (in this case) may pop up.
"Dear LM, for the past week many valid routes with connections are no longer found by your search engine. e.g. SYD-BKK-FRA or ZRH. Also SQ flights in J are not available any more - is this LM or SQ?
Thanks for looking into this."
Unlike others it did not disappear from LM's FB page. I did not provide much detail as I am not trying to make a specific booking at the moment - I just like to keep an eye on things on LM as you never know when something good or bad (in this case) may pop up.
It's as if they've been forwarned that a lot of criticism might come.
They delete a lot. Haven't seen that before.
The road to hell is slippery, though.
Dec 13, 2014, 6:45 pm
#1502
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 668
Dec 13, 2014, 9:57 pm
#1503
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 5
I've seen Erik and Pschaferd posts. How hard would it be for LM to come out and say something like "our bad we done messed up we are working on a fix"
Or whatever the issue is.
Edit..deleted again!
I also had a google translated spanish question deleted twice.burying their head in the sand will make it all go away...surely..right?
Or whatever the issue is.
Edit..deleted again!
I also had a google translated spanish question deleted twice.burying their head in the sand will make it all go away...surely..right?
Last edited by DunhillGrey; Dec 14, 2014 at 12:21 am
Dec 14, 2014, 3:27 am
#1504
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 668
I've seen Erik and Pschaferd posts. How hard would it be for LM to come out and say something like "our bad we done messed up we are working on a fix"
Or whatever the issue is.
Edit..deleted again!
I also had a google translated spanish question deleted twice.burying their head in the sand will make it all go away...surely..right?
Or whatever the issue is.
Edit..deleted again!
I also had a google translated spanish question deleted twice.burying their head in the sand will make it all go away...surely..right?
Dec 15, 2014, 2:32 am
#1505
Join Date: May 2013
Location: west coast best coast
Programs: TINDER GOLD, STARBUCKS GOLD, COSTCO EXECUTIVE!!
Posts: 3,989
Can someone rehash to me the availability of SQ suites in October now that it's gone? What was the routing, any tricks involved? I completely missed that one
Dec 16, 2014, 2:04 am
#1508
Join Date: Jun 2013
Programs: SPG Plat 100, A3*G
Posts: 678
Don't know if you guys remember that a few months ago I wrote about going back and forth with LM about not being able to book LH F, OS, ...
Everytime I wrote back, they "escalated" the problem and didn't yet get a response back
A couple of weeks ago, decided to write again, something like: "hi... it's been 4 months and still didn't get a proper response. How's the escalation going?"
Finally got a response a few days ago:
- LH F is being blocked by LH (I think we established this anyway)
- You can't book OS but you can book by sending them an email with all the details
- you can't book LH CityLine/Regional because they don't have an agreement with those airlines
- you can't mix classes (E.g. J+F) because "that's what is written in the "T&C"
I wrote back that "I know that mixing cabins is againts the T&C" and that my question was "WHY?".
They replied that I need to call the call center to get an answer to this question
Everytime I wrote back, they "escalated" the problem and didn't yet get a response back
A couple of weeks ago, decided to write again, something like: "hi... it's been 4 months and still didn't get a proper response. How's the escalation going?"
Finally got a response a few days ago:
- LH F is being blocked by LH (I think we established this anyway)
- You can't book OS but you can book by sending them an email with all the details
- you can't book LH CityLine/Regional because they don't have an agreement with those airlines
- you can't mix classes (E.g. J+F) because "that's what is written in the "T&C"
I wrote back that "I know that mixing cabins is againts the T&C" and that my question was "WHY?".
They replied that I need to call the call center to get an answer to this question
Dec 16, 2014, 3:19 am
#1509
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Valencia, Spain
Programs: Pascal and Python, no C++
Posts: 738
Don't know if you guys remember that a few months ago I wrote about going back and forth with LM about not being able to book LH F, OS, ...
Everytime I wrote back, they "escalated" the problem and didn't yet get a response back
A couple of weeks ago, decided to write again, something like: "hi... it's been 4 months and still didn't get a proper response. How's the escalation going?"
Finally got a response a few days ago:
- LH F is being blocked by LH (I think we established this anyway)
- You can't book OS but you can book by sending them an email with all the details
- you can't book LH CityLine/Regional because they don't have an agreement with those airlines
- you can't mix classes (E.g. J+F) because "that's what is written in the "T&C"
I wrote back that "I know that mixing cabins is againts the T&C" and that my question was "WHY?".
They replied that I need to call the call center to get an answer to this question
Everytime I wrote back, they "escalated" the problem and didn't yet get a response back
A couple of weeks ago, decided to write again, something like: "hi... it's been 4 months and still didn't get a proper response. How's the escalation going?"
Finally got a response a few days ago:
- LH F is being blocked by LH (I think we established this anyway)
- You can't book OS but you can book by sending them an email with all the details
- you can't book LH CityLine/Regional because they don't have an agreement with those airlines
- you can't mix classes (E.g. J+F) because "that's what is written in the "T&C"
I wrote back that "I know that mixing cabins is againts the T&C" and that my question was "WHY?".
They replied that I need to call the call center to get an answer to this question
Unfortunately reality has overtaken that process in the meantime. ...
Dec 16, 2014, 6:58 am
#1510
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: CDG
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 1,611
So a reality check:
- all boomies now gone (probably due to a MPM implementation)
- Going to fruit from anywhere but IST is no longer possible
- SQ J which used to be wide open on select C2-C3 routes is now all gone
- Price of miles gone up, cost of miles gone up.
- anyone wanna buy 41k miles from me? :-D
- all boomies now gone (probably due to a MPM implementation)
- Going to fruit from anywhere but IST is no longer possible
- SQ J which used to be wide open on select C2-C3 routes is now all gone
- Price of miles gone up, cost of miles gone up.
- anyone wanna buy 41k miles from me? :-D
Dec 16, 2014, 7:24 am
#1511
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Valencia, Spain
Programs: Pascal and Python, no C++
Posts: 738
So a reality check:
- all boomies now gone (probably due to a MPM implementation)
- Going to fruit from anywhere but IST is no longer possible
- SQ J which used to be wide open on select C2-C3 routes is now all gone
- Price of miles gone up, cost of miles gone up.
- anyone wanna buy 41k miles from me? :-D
- all boomies now gone (probably due to a MPM implementation)
- Going to fruit from anywhere but IST is no longer possible
- SQ J which used to be wide open on select C2-C3 routes is now all gone
- Price of miles gone up, cost of miles gone up.
- anyone wanna buy 41k miles from me? :-D
Dec 16, 2014, 4:48 pm
#1512
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: ZRH/SFO
Programs: A3*G - AZ CFP- HH DIA
Posts: 3,666
No, wouldn't either help you as not bookable anymore...
Dec 17, 2014, 11:09 am
#1513
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,391
So a reality check:
- all boomies now gone (probably due to a MPM implementation)
- Going to fruit from anywhere but IST is no longer possible
- SQ J which used to be wide open on select C2-C3 routes is now all gone
- Price of miles gone up, cost of miles gone up.
- anyone wanna buy 41k miles from me? :-D
- all boomies now gone (probably due to a MPM implementation)
- Going to fruit from anywhere but IST is no longer possible
- SQ J which used to be wide open on select C2-C3 routes is now all gone
- Price of miles gone up, cost of miles gone up.
- anyone wanna buy 41k miles from me? :-D
Dec 17, 2014, 9:41 pm
#1514
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: TLV
Posts: 522
And I think you don't have the flexibility to cancel a normal ticket like you do with LM for $75? But on the other hand you're not so limited in availability.
It's not what it used to be, for sure, unless they do this 3x1 promo that I keep hearing about but have never seen myself.