stargold

Back in July, they were fine with me doing Seoul -> Singapore (Stopover) -> London, so I would have thought HKG - o/DPS - LHR should also be fine... But then, it's all very much a complete lottery as far as the agents are concerned - as with everything to do with DC!

Mr H

Are you going on one of the Schapelle Corby tours when you're in DPS? I've always fancied the feeding time tour.

gate4lounge

Just booked two one way awards for June/July 2009 for 4 pax;-

EDI-FRA (LH in Y) - IAD (LH in F) - MCO (UA in Y)

TPA-ORD (UA in Y) - FRA (LH in F) - EDI (LH in C)

Total cost - 360,000 miles (I've taken the advice to burn miles to heart) and just under £1,400 taxes etc.

A couple of points to note;-

1. I originally tried to go out GLA-LHR(C)-IAD(F)-MCO(Y) as ANA showed availability. All went well until the final IAD-MCO sector. Agents could see availability on this sector but couldn't book it. I've since learned that this is an UA married segments problem.

2. The first time I tried to book the outward journey, the agent could only see availability in Y from FRA-IAD, despite my telling her that ANA showed 4 F seats available. I adopted the trusty old tactic of hanging up and re-dialing. I then spoke to Mohsin, who dealt magnificently with the booking

I'm looking forward to playing with my rubber duck in the FCT

lovtofly3

CPT-JNB-SIN-BKK in C
SA SQ SQ for next March

Cash and miles 18750 + 127.50 and 171.60tax
299.10 nett

Took a few calls but was ticketed 23 hrs after booking was made.

YO MAN
PAX

stargold

Is there a particular reason why you're flying LH Y for EDI-FRA? Is it because there is no availability?

rupert_s

LHR-ZRH-NSI (Dec)
NSI-ZRH-LHR (Mar)

- NSI = Yaoundé Cameroon
- Cash + Miles (30,000 = £210 + tax £326
- Although not on the mileage matrix - it's in zone 5
- Taxes on the www.swiss.com site came in at £384 – not sure why the difference
- 30 minute call!

gate4lounge

Had there been a whiff of even 1 seat in C you can rest assured that Mrs Lounge would have sniffed it out and claimed it for herself.......assuming Miss Lounge did not beat her to it

bmi goldenboy

Needed to book cash and miles C class from GLA - HKG out on 24 Dec and back on 29 Dec. When I called this afternoon I had to book blind without checking ANA as I was off line, I lucked out and got through to an excellent male agent called Dharmesh who easily found availability outbound with BD and ANZ, the return however was only available HKG - ZRH - LHR - GLA on Swiss in C or HKG - IST - LHR - GLA on Turkish in C.

Decided on Swiss and he got me all booked up, calculated the total incl taxes and processed my payment all within 8 minutes!!!!!!!!! AMAZING...

Is that a record?

However by the time I got home I was concerned about such a long flight in the not so flat bed Swiss C cabin so checked ANA and found that ANZ was now showing availability in C. I called back and spoke to Julie who immediatedly found the flights I wanted and changed them and pointed out that as the original flight had not yet been ticketed or miles deducted that she would do this free of charge.

All on CMF and reconfirmation email was received within 20 minutes.

Absolutely superb! ^^

WelshGirl

As a lowly blue plus with approx 50k in miles, how likely is it that I would be able to book a long distance reward flight using the twice miles and cash choice? Or am I destined to get m and s vouchers instead? I live in hope. many thanks

RAPC

Blue, blue plus, silver and gold all have equal access to partner flights, so you should be absolutely fine to redeem subject to normal availabilities. The only real difference for me as a gold card holder is that I can ask bmi very nicely if they will make seats available on bmi flights for redemption.

If you need help getting something booked, then have a read through the FAQ and ask away if you need any help beyond that.

Good luck!

WelshGirl

Thank you so much. I'll let you know if I'm lucky.

Guy Betsy

I haven't called yet - but I thought I'd ask if you think its possible to get this route on miles + cash C class award:

HKG-NRT-VIE-CPH

or

HKG-SIN-MUC-CPH

Problem is that chances of getting on SQ is very slim whereas I can route vie NRT and get on OS which I prefer anyway

Otherwise I might have to do HKG-LHR-CPH on NZ/SK.

Guava

Provided that you make no more than one stopover in addition to your destination (CPH), your itineary looks perfectly legitimate to me. You should see some of the more crazy routings that have been passing around via PM and e-mails, "crazy" is trully an understatement in these cases.

Guava

Here is one I just booked for a friend:

OZ F JFK-ICN-HKG

Also using miles + cash, but here is the shocking part: Taxes = £12

The rep thought it was too low as well and went to check with the tax department, came back and tell me it is correct. I still can't believe this is right because according to my research, the U.S. government taxes alone cost more than that at about £14 or so. Plus, OZ has fuel surcharges, which I took the pain of diging it up prior to calling BD DC and you can see the info here:

http://www.airtransportnews.aero/cgi...e.pl?&id=13757

Based on this information, I figure out the total taxes and YQ should be around £144, not £12. Mind you, I deliberately chose OZ instead of SQ or NH because I know the OZ fuel surcharge is about half of the others and in this case, the flight schedule is far more convenient than the other *A big guns. And if Skytrax is to be believed, OZ is actually a 5 Stars Airline with a 5 Star First Class product.

I was puzzled by this until I see your post, something is definitely up with BD's calculation of taxes / surcharges. I wonder how beaubo would react if he reads this. In this day and age, how can a such ultra long-haul Int'l First class award has a total tax bill of £12? This is unheard of.

There is a way to verify for sure what's going on doing some simple tests but it's too bad this is happening at this time when I am ready to move on... When LH dismantles BD DC, none of this knowledge would serve any purpose anymore, so I wonder if it's worth the time. Boy, I am really going to miss BD DC... Anyway, just want to report that there is something going on with the BD DC taxes calculation and it's surprisingly, good news.

NewbieRunner

The seat will be the same whether C or Y. The only difference would be the blocked middle seat and the food. Much better to save yourselves for proper meals in FCT. UA Y could be a shock to the system after LH F .