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
Oct 18, 2014, 1:18 am
#1081
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: CDG
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 1,611
Oct 18, 2014, 2:56 pm
#1083
Join Date: Oct 2009
Programs: LH FTL,Hyatt Platinum,BMI Silver
Posts: 50
I am very upset with the recent changes of the program.So I have sent a letter of complaint to the LifeMiles and Avianca headquarters, saying that I do not agree with the big devaluation of my LifeMiles and I am planing to avoid the purchase of further LifeMiles in the near future. For an airline the sale of frequent flyer miles at reasonable prices can be a profitable extra business. Please feel free to do the same if you want.
Oct 18, 2014, 7:04 pm
#1084
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 668
I bought some miles last year thinking I would use them with GUM... I waited too long.
I thought I would use them with SAW since I'm going there anyway next summer and I would have gone to Canada from there, but it disappeared not long ago.
I know of another trick (didn't check if is still available, though), but because of the need to get a visa I thought it would be too much trouble.
I just learned that CJJ would have been an option (I'm in Korea!) but I didn't know about that one until it was gone.
Now, there are some tickets I want that don't involve any tricks or misspelled anything. However, when I read the Wiki, I am puzzled:
Why LAX to SJU (via PTY) would be cabotage? LAX is in the USA, SJU in Puerto Rico, and PTY in Panama, so doesn't it respect the rule above (in bold)? I'm a bit worried because the tickets I want would make a very big detour and I certainly wouldn't like to be an example of a stranded passenger! 
I thought I would use them with SAW since I'm going there anyway next summer and I would have gone to Canada from there, but it disappeared not long ago.
I know of another trick (didn't check if is still available, though), but because of the need to get a visa I thought it would be too much trouble.
I just learned that CJJ would have been an option (I'm in Korea!) but I didn't know about that one until it was gone.
Now, there are some tickets I want that don't involve any tricks or misspelled anything. However, when I read the Wiki, I am puzzled:
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.
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.
Oct 18, 2014, 7:09 pm
#1085
Moderator: Budget Travel forum & Credit Card Programs, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYJ/YVR and back on Van Isle ....... for now
Programs: UA lifetime MM / *A Gold
Posts: 14,427
Oct 19, 2014, 5:22 am
#1088
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Valencia, Spain
Programs: Pascal and Python, no C++
Posts: 738
Oct 19, 2014, 9:42 pm
#1090
Join Date: Mar 2008
Programs: AP, UA, AA
Posts: 709
There are still some good deals for travel in the Lifemiles program. Think outside the box..
All it takes for lifemiles to close loopholes is to catch someone traveling on an unusual ticket .. ..Then audit their lifemiles account to see where else they have redeeming miles for travel to and BINGO a bunch of other loophole cities are closed.
All it takes for lifemiles to close loopholes is to catch someone traveling on an unusual ticket .. ..Then audit their lifemiles account to see where else they have redeeming miles for travel to and BINGO a bunch of other loophole cities are closed.
Oct 20, 2014, 6:49 am
#1091
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: BTS
Posts: 611
There are still some good deals for travel in the Lifemiles program. Think outside the box..
All it takes for lifemiles to close loopholes is to catch someone traveling on an unusual ticket .. ..Then audit their lifemiles account to see where else they have redeeming miles for travel to and BINGO a bunch of other loophole cities are closed.
All it takes for lifemiles to close loopholes is to catch someone traveling on an unusual ticket .. ..Then audit their lifemiles account to see where else they have redeeming miles for travel to and BINGO a bunch of other loophole cities are closed.
Oct 21, 2014, 6:18 am
#1092
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607
To be honest, I think it is much more likely that they got a new airport list dump from the IATA (instead of the FAA) and a side effect of that was a fix for miscoded/misplaced airports. I'd be a bit surprised if this was an intentional fix. If LM really wanted to fix any tricks, all they'd have to do was to introduce an MPM rule.
There are still some good deals for travel in the Lifemiles program. Think outside the box..
All it takes for lifemiles to close loopholes is to catch someone traveling on an unusual ticket .. ..Then audit their lifemiles account to see where else they have redeeming miles for travel to and BINGO a bunch of other loophole cities are closed.
All it takes for lifemiles to close loopholes is to catch someone traveling on an unusual ticket .. ..Then audit their lifemiles account to see where else they have redeeming miles for travel to and BINGO a bunch of other loophole cities are closed.
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Oct 21, 2014 at 6:36 am
Oct 21, 2014, 7:11 am
#1094
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Toronto (YYZ)
Posts: 6,279
I haven't posted much since GUM 'gate" because there was too much "noise" here on this thread... I will say this, my UA contact mentioned that some of the pax they denied boarding reported that they purchased tickets on ebay & craigslist. So someone or some people were "selling" award tickets which means loss of revenue for UA.
Oct 21, 2014, 7:21 am
#1095
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: CDG
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 1,611
And depending on the airline even denied boarding. Ever since the GUM "gate" UA was actively looking out for LM issued tickets going as far as alerting airport stations. AC took it one step further by blocking award space to NRT.
I haven't posted much since GUM 'gate" because there was too much "noise" here on this thread... I will say this, my UA contact mentioned that some of the pax they denied boarding reported that they purchased tickets on ebay & craigslist. So someone or some people were "selling" award tickets which means loss of revenue for UA.
I haven't posted much since GUM 'gate" because there was too much "noise" here on this thread... I will say this, my UA contact mentioned that some of the pax they denied boarding reported that they purchased tickets on ebay & craigslist. So someone or some people were "selling" award tickets which means loss of revenue for UA.
Also I don't see how someone who booked chainsaw could be denied boarding since the ticket doesn't involved cabotage?