mnscout

New to the program. Was dummy-booking an award seat for 1 adult and after logging in got this message.

Now, I'm trying to search for 1 ticket, so children, infants and youth are set at zero.

I have whopping 500 miles in my acct., can it be that? Is it possible to do the SU searches with insufficient miles?

woody125

Not sure if this answers your question or not but you can't search for an award flight you don't have enough miles for. If you want to search for a 20,000 mile award you must have at least 20,000 miles in your account. Hope that helps you.

"Youth" is a fare class as I'm sure you know so make sure you were looking not for an award ticket but a paid ticket at that level.

mnscout

Thanks Woody, I did suspect something like that, but they have a funny way to tell you. I just searched for 1 adult seat, no "youth", kids or infants.

One more thing, since you seem to be the guy who knows a thing or 2 about SU. I noticed that every time I was "calculating" the award beyond Moscow, it would charge me for each segment. In other words, if I want to fly between JFK and LED, I'd be required to pay for JFK-SVO, then SVO-LED. Is that the case or am I misunderstanding? Thanks again for your response.

woody125

That's a good question. I only redeem R/T awards it seems for SVO to MSQ, SVO to OVB, and SVO to HTA. I never have two segment/one direction awards so I cannot speak from experience.

They do have a pretty decent award calculator tool which when I put JFK to LED in it the following comes up (hope the formatting renders this readable):

Direction
New York (NYC, JFK), United States - Saint Petersburg (LED, LED), Russia

Zone
North and Central America (NA) - Russia 1 (R1)

Award Type/Direction/Miles
Economy OW 52500
Comfort OW 67500
Business OW 82500
Economy RT 70000
Comfort RT 90000
Business RT 110000

Upgrade
Economy→Comfort RT 35000
Upgrade
Economy→Business RT 70000
Upgrade
Comfort→Business RT 35000

I also ran it JFK to SVO and the same exact amounts came back as above to LED. So, best I can tell, it's not going to charge you any extra miles to go from JFK to LED than it does to JFK to SVO. You might get some segment fees in the form of cash payment added on but that's to be expected I think. Unfortunately, I have a whopping 5500 miles in my Bonus account so I'm unable to run the dummy res through to see what those charges are.

You might try emailing [email protected] and ask them. This is one of the friendliest and most helpful SU desks in the world. They have had their wings clippped a bit the last few years so are not able to be as helpful as they used to be as the mother ship has moved more redemption options to online and in Russia offices. Try asking your question there though and see what kind of response you get. I assume it will be helpful.

Hope it works out well for you...

mnscout

Thanks again Woody.

So just played with the mileage calculator and discovered that:

1. Awards from the US to any zone in Russia are combined in one award (although zones 2-4 are more expensive than zone 1).

2. Awards beyond Russia are not combined and added in segments (at least in a dozen of variations I've tried). From JFK to WAW it would price in two segments:

New York (NYC, JFK), United States - Moscow (MOW, MOW), Russia North and Central America (NA) - Russia 1 (R1)

Economy RT 70000
Business RT 110000

Moscow (MOW, MOW), Russia - Warsaw (WAW, WAW), Poland Russia 1 (R1) - Europe 1 (E1)

Economy RT 20000
Business RT 30000

Wow, weird puppy

Thanks again!

meFIRST

[email protected] (as in Germany?)

woody125

Yes indeed. Years ago, in a pinch, I sent an email to all the SU offices outside of Russia asking for help on something. .de wrote back and it began a wonderful 6 year relationship. Far from a personal concierge but definitely an insider to the SU system. Helped with upgrades using miles, ticket changes, an emergency situation when my wife was diagnosed with cancer while I was on a trip and had to get back asap (she beat it btw and is survivor now), and just a general friendly voice on the inside.

Things changed a few years ago as the Frankfurt Bonus office was reeled back in a bit but while it lasted it was a really nice thing to have. They might still be able to answer questions about the Bonus program though so I suggested it.

Isoveli

Yes You Can!

You just have to use a mobile version and click on "Award search":

https://m.aeroflot.ru/b/pda/search

woody125

Nice to know. Never used the mobile version of anything from SU. Things keep getting better with their technology for sure. Nice find!