Originally Posted by
Agosti
... In fact the main purpose of this waitlist reservation is to burn off my ANA miles that have turned out to be so painful to use and are almost inevitably going to rot.
This is the reason I am hesitant to transfer my Amex MR points to ANA BEFORE I can waitlist a ticket. If the waitlist doesn't clear, I will get stuck with the ANA miles with an expiration date on it.
On the other hand, although award seats in premium cabin is nearly impossible to get these days, economy class award seats are plenty. People on this forum don't seem to care for economy class award because it is not the most optimal way to redeem miles/points.
Originally Posted by
iceiceui2
If ANA opens new last-minute availabilities, does anyone know if it goes to the waitlist first or does it gets released to the general public first?
are you thinking you can grab the latest released seat without being on the waitlist and without having your ANA miles stuck in their system fir the waitlist? Well, you wish.
Originally Posted by
Agosti
I think the main challenge of the waitlist is that ANA releases more seats usually 2-3 weeks prior. When your outbound trip gets its chance to be cleared, your inbound trip may still be way out of this window. And then you are kicked out of the waitlist 14 days before the departure of the first segment.
From what I observed it seemed you could actually hold the available seats for return on your waitlist reservation. So I grabbed some random flights towards the end of the calendar for return while waitlisting my first outbound segment. This way my waitlist should be much easier to clear, and I can change my return flights later when close-in availability opens. I'll know in about a week if this actually works.
But I do already have a confirmed seat on JL booked via AS that is cheap to cancel (US$12.50). I'd be very anxious if I didn't have a back-up plan. In fact the main purpose of this waitlist reservation is to burn off my ANA miles that have turned out to be so painful to use and are almost inevitably going to rot.
Your theory only works if you have a backup plan. Supposed your return ticket in 300 days is confirmed, but you only want to travel for 4 weeks. Your outbound is waitlisted, at t-7 your outbound is confirmed. Do you go? Are you going to gamble on your return being cleared while you are already in Japan? you may be stuck in Japan.
This is exactly what I meant when I said award tickets in premium cabins are almost impossible to get these days. You need to be very lucky and extremly flexible. People have to come up with schemes for it. You spends hours on the ground searching, planning, checking, praying to get an award seat for the 10 hour of your life enjoyment in the air in a premium cabin seat. Some people study this subject for years, just so to be on top of the game, to get an award ticket in premium cabins.
You know, there is a simpler way of flying -- economy class, where most of us (and you) truly belong.